RUSSELL Kane raced on to the stage at York Barbican on Thursday evening and immediately burst into a four-letter word rant about North Yorkshire and Brexit. He summarised York’s populace with typical raw honesty: "There’s no in-between people in York: lots of people enjoying culture, and scum."

Kane deconstructed our obsession with self on social-media, and told stories of his family, with brilliant impressions of his Mancunian wife Lindsey Cole (a woman with guts, by all accounts); his late father David Kane ("the most verbal man on the planet") and his mum, who is 65 and has a boyfriend.

This produced one of the show’s best lines, as Kane revelled in the horror of knowing his parent is sexually active, and impersonated her talking to her lover: "The Worther's Originals are on the duvet, Danny, if you’d like to come through".

Kane didn’t smile much, and there was more than a hint of anger in his delivery as he railed against gender differences and family struggles. He mentioned he was working on himself, and a deeper exploration of masculinity – not just the trite section about men hating greetings cards – would take him down a powerful path. It would be good to see a comedic version of artist Grayson Perry’s recent work on the male psyche.

Kane’s mesmerising ability with language, and his understanding of other people’s foibles, could see him taking on screenplay writing. I can see hIm coming up with Gavin And Stacey meets Fleabag or a novel with multiple voices. Whichever direction he takes, it will be interesting. You get the feeling there’s far more to the man than stand-up. A blazing talent – and a potential cultural leader, to boot – which is not an accolade to apply to many of his peers.

Miles Salter