Russell Kane reveals why comedians never really get cancelled: "Do the maths"
“It annoys me so much when people say, ‘He’s cancelled. He’s going in the bin.’”
Russell Kane has opened up about why he thinks comedians can’t ever be properly ‘cancelled’.
The longtime stand-up and host of BBC Sounds podcast Evil Genius pointed to the success of controversial comedians like Ricky Gervais and David Chappelle, both of whom have had critics objecting to their stand-up shows continuing to be aired on platforms like Netflix.
Kane told Radio Times: “Name me one cancelled comedian (unless he’s actually in court for sexual assault). You can’t.
“Do you know how much Ricky Gervais and David Chappelle earn a night? Do the maths. 16,000-seaters at probably £50 a ticket.” He laughs and jokes about the success of such controversy: “Gee, I hope I’m not cancelled.”
Kane said he doesn’t worry himself about being cancelled because, as he puts it: “I’m a comedian. I can just say, it was a joke.”
The subject of cancellation is one close to Kane’s heart. As the host of Radio 4 podcast Evil Genius, he presides over a deceptively light discussion of famous cultural figures, debating whether their recognised talents and/or good deeds should outweigh their personal defects, foibles or worse. Previous subjects have included Gandhi, Mary Whitehouse, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon and John F Kennedy.
He told Radio Times: “We live in a world where nothing has definition anymore and we pretend we’re enjoying debate. But, by the way, if you say the wrong thing on TV, you’ll be cancelled and never work again.
“Evil Genius looks at all that. The binary, reductive nature of today’s intellectual atmosphere is ripe for mocking. It annoys me so much when people say, ‘He’s cancelled. He’s going in the bin.’
“So I thought I’d create a show that does that on purpose, that ironically has a reductive vote at the end – to show the idiocy of deciding whether someone’s bad or good, and also to force through nuanced debate.”
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Kane was hosting a live episode of the show from the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield, where his subject of the day was Peter Stringfellow.
Kane said of the late nightclub entrepreneur, who made millions from his string of entertainment venues peopled by scantily clad young women: “I’d like to get into the reeds to ask at what point does owning your own body in the name of feminism become exploitation?
“Stringfellow exists in that world. That was his argument – that people are empowered to do anything they want with their body, women fought for that freedom, so why do people then have a problem when they go and do that?”
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Evil Genius with Russell Kane is available on BBC Sounds.
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