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Comedian Russell Kane talks ahead of Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall show

Are you 16-years-old, yet feel 21? Are you 40, but tragically faking 25? Or maybe you're full-on 80 years, with the heart of three oxen and the sex drive of a bonobo chimp.

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Don't worry: this is normal. No one is ever the 'right' age – it's the beauty and the curse of being a real person.

That's the theory behind Russell Kane's blisteringly-funny, award-winning stand-up performance about growing up and growing down.

Right Man, Wrong Age has played to packed houses around the UK and will feature at Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall on Thursday.

"It's all about feeling older than you are. And it doesn't matter whether you're 16 or 60, that's something that happens to us all."

Kane wrote it after the birth of his daughter, which made him feel more grown up.

"My daughter's just been born, so I built the show around that.

"I've realised how much blokes don't talk about about how they are feeling when their missus is about to give birth.

"We're not doing anything important because we're not growing the baby. It doesn't change the facts there's loads of hilarious thoughts. I've woven around it all my observations."

Kane has a particularly way of crafting a new show.

"I write bullet points for the first previews. I do these runs in really tiny rooms for a £5 with 40 people. I go on with notes. I don't write jokes. I will just tell a story exactly as it happened. If it works well it gets a green tick and I'll use it again."

Kane has thrilled audiences across the UK with his present tour and is looking forward to playing Wolverhampton. He came to comedy later than most, getting into stand-up almost by accident.

"Live performance gives me the best moments of my life. I come from a council estate in north London and as a kid I had no contact with comedy. I started becoming aware of comedy just before Live At The Apollo was on TV.

"But there was none in my childhood. Dad had Jim Davidson tapes, which was good comedy but weren't talking to me about my life.

"I was the first person in my family to do university – and I went to the only university in the country that didn't have a comedy scene. I'd always been the show-off and class clown but I just thought I'd end up being a journalist or copy writer. I got into a middle class advertising agency and started to make people laugh. My colleagues started talking about stand-up and people told me I should go along."

Kane remembers his first open mic night. "The guy told me I needed to try it. I approached it like a bungee jump. I wanted something to tell the grandkids so I thought I'd give it a go. I Googled stand-up comedy clubs and found the comedy café. I got on for five minutes and I had two weeks to prepare. It was completely different to how I thought It was going to be. I told my funniest, down-the-pub story and that was it. It was addictive."

It wasn't easy for Kane to forge a career. He died a thousand deaths as he tried to work out what people liked and what didn't work.

"In the beginning I died and was booed off and sworn at. But I kept at it. Stand-up is different to music. I could have a voice like Adele but that wouldn't guarantee a recording contract. But I don't know many hilarious comics languishing in anonymity. If someone can smash an audience every time you don't see them performing to four people. Comedy is quite democratic. It's all about laughter: the audience laughs or they don't. I won the Laughing Horse competition, got signed by Avalon and won the Perrier Award."

Kane is best known as the host of three series of BBC3's Live At The Electric, regular appearances on BBC1's Live At Apollo, BBC3's Unzipped, ITV2's Celebrity Juice and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Now!

Most recently, Russell travelled the world with YouTube stars filming the new survival programme, Stupid Man, Smart Phone, which is available on BBC iPlayer.

When he's not on TV, he's on the road – unless he's at home with his daughter.

"I like being on the road and it's good to see different towns," he added.

By Andy Richardson

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