WITH insights into love, family and getting on in a world of ‘geezers’, Russell Kane observes English life in the same way David Attenborough looks at penguins and dung beetles.

The restless, exhaustingly hyperactive comic picks apart the quirks of life in Britain with the keen eye of a self-confessed weedy kid forced to grow up in a blokey world of men’s men.

“I find it easy to pick apart a certain kind of masculinity,” he says. “The way they talk, the way they behave in public, the ways they compete with each other and the ways they try to interact with women.

It makes for hilarious watching, as his audience will discover when he brings his new show The Fast And The Curious to the New Theatre Oxford on Wednesday.

Despite being a bit of an oddity growing up on the eastern-most reaches of London, there is a part of him that is classic Essex. “Books are my thing,” he says, “but the second I saw Ibiza Rocks are having a comedian in residence this summer, I was like, ‘I’d love to get out there and have it in Ibiza.’ And my wife’s like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

He adds: “I love curries, I love pints with the lads, I like BMWs – I’m a weird mess.”

Russell’s fascination with class makes him a brilliant chronicler of how British people from different backgrounds look at each other. And he’s amazed by how little class is talked about. “People just don’t want to analyse the prejudice that’s out there,” he says. “And the weird thing is it’s the number one predictor.

“It doesn’t matter what gender you are or how able-bodied you are, the socio-economic background of your parents is the number one predictor of where you’ll end up in life.”

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He admits people find it hard to reconcile his eloquence with his own estuary accent. “If a comedian with my type of accent dares to use a long word, it’s seen as display rather than intrinsic knowledge coming to the surface,” he says.

He admits to working hard to make sure he’s not being erudite for the sake of erudition, though. “Thoughts deep, syntax clear, that’s the way I like to go. There are other comedians who tend to go syntax complex, thoughts shallow. And if you don’t speak posh or middle class, people will just go for you.”

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Part of the new show looks at the differences in living in Essex and his new home in Cheshire. He analysis the mismatch with an anthropologist’s curiosity.

Oxford Mail:

“It’s really brought into focus how weird, fast paced, angry and culturally unique the south east of England is,” he explains.

“Now that I’m up in Cheshire, I realise how fast paced and chaotic and anonymous we can be down south. I’ve been performing a bit about the difference between ordering a coffee in London or Essex, or ordering a coffee up north. In the north there’s someone asking about ‘Barbara’ and, ‘How are the grandkids?’, and down south you’re saying ‘Just throw an espresso in my face, now when’s my train? Move! Move! Move!’.”

He adds: “I called the show ‘The Fast And The Curious’ because that is how I have to live every single day of my life. Nothing slows down. I bounce out of bed at 100mph before I even have a coffee.

“I analyse everything; it is exhausting being me some days. And it’s like that onstage; the tiniest crease in the curtain sends me off on some kind of journey.

“It’s the opposite of ADHD,” he laughs, “I’ve got ‘Overly Focused Attention Disorder’.”

Russell Kane is at the New Theatre Oxford on Wednesday. Tickets from amgtickets.com