Russell Kane is more than just a stand-up. He’s like a comedy David Attenborough who instead of the animal kingdom, focuses his attention on the way blokes from the south-east behave. Raised in Essex, he was a bookish wallflower in a world of geezers. “I was a weedy boy at school and my dad was a rugby player” he says.

Now the star of TV shows like Stupid Man, Smart Phone and Live At The Electric dissects blokeish behaviour onstage, with always hilarious results. “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.

Despite being a bit of an oddity growing up, there is a part of Kane’s psyche 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?’” It’s all part of the Russell Kane contradiction. “I love curries, I love pints with the lads, I like BMWs – I’m a weird mess.”

Essex is as much a part of Kane’s comedy as Glasgow is for Kevin Bridges or Wales is for Rhod Gilbert. So it’s funny to hear that he’s now a fish out of water, living up north in leafy Cheshire. But rather than isolating him from his old stamping ground, it’s made him think about it all the more. “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.”

Russell Kane will be performing at the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe on Friday, May 17, as well as Aylesbury Waterside Theatre on Friday, May 31. For tickets go to www.wycombeswan.co.uk or www.atgtickets.com.