He turns events in his daily life into comedy
Comedian Russ Lee outside his new pub, the Cricketers Arms in Kirkby- in-Ashfield (Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
Heard the one about a car dealer who suffered a life-threatening brain haemorrhage and is now a stand-up comedian and pub landlord?
It’s no joke. Russ Lee, 47, used his gift of the gab to sell motors but after the medical emergency on Christmas Day 2024, which initially left him struggling with speech and movement, he decided to quit his job and go into comedy.
“My missus was like ‘wow, you have banged your head’ but after coming out of hospital I said ‘I’m doing the stuff I want to do now’.”
After two months of physio and speech therapy, he entered a competition for new comedians and won even though he’d never been on stage before.
With his quick-fire crowd work, sharp tongue and fearless roast-style comedy, he’s a natural.
Russ, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield caught the bug and since May 2025 has done more than 300 shows up and down the country from working men’s clubs to some of the biggest clubs in the country — The Comedy Store in London, Edinburgh Fringe and the Hot Water Comedy Club in Liverpool. He’s even performed in Bangkok.
As well as doing his own sets — he recently appeared at the Canalhouse in Nottingham — Russ has taken over the Cricketers Arms in Kirkby recently, which is also home to the Comedy Barn, an outbuilding at the back of the pub in Nuncargate Road.
Over the last year, he’s appeared in several sell-out shows there and when he discovered publicans were leaving, he took a leap of faith.
He said: “I’ve done a few shows and they’ve always sold out for the last year for the landlord and landlady. The pub was coming up and I thought ‘let’s have a go’. I’ve never had a pub. I’m now learning how to clean lines.”
Russ is taking on the role of MC at the Comedy Barn, playing host to visiting stand-ups. So far he’s put on two sell-out shows and a third is coming up soon.
“I’ve got comedians queuing up waiting to perform, you don’t need a city centre venue anymore. Hot Water Comedy Club in Liverpool. — which in my eyes, is one of the best in the country — is on an industrial estate. People will travel for comedy.
“I speak to people before my shows and there was someone from Milton Keynes, someone from Castle Donington and a lady from Northampton. I want to keep the pub for the locals but the comedy attracts people from all over.”
His humour stems from the day-to-day occurrences in his own life. “My style of comedy is I talk about my brain haemorrhage, I talk about my three grown-up children that won’t leave home and I talk about my wife of 29 years. You can see people in the audience going ‘yeah that happened to me’.
“I don’t go on there and do one liners, I talk about my life. I spoke to a couple of big comedians in London and they basically said everything in comedy had been written about apart from your life, stick to your life and then you’ll fly because you’re bubbly, you’ve got a good personality and you’re likeable.
“The first few shows I just got on stage telling random jokes and making up stories just to get the nerves out of the way but now I don’t really get nerves anymore. I get excited before I go on stage.”
He puts the brain haemorrhage down to stress, being overweight and too much partying. But how do you turn such a terrifying life-changing event into comedy?
Russ said: “It’s happening either way, so you either get all upset or roll with it. My sense of humour has got me through every dark point in my life.
“I was diagnosed with skin cancer at the beginning of May. I had the operation four weeks ago to have some lymph nodes removed. When I spoke to my cancer nurse I asked if I was going to loose my hair. I’ve been bald for 15 years. You’ve got to make light of it.
“I’ve had phone calls from other people who’ve survived brain haemorrhages but aren’t living their best life and they said I was inspiring them to come out of the house a little bit.”
The Comedy Barn is a 60-seater standalone venue, and next year Russ will be seeking to replace a 150-seater marquee in the grounds with a bigger barn in his bid to create a renowned comedy club for the region.
“There’s a lot of pop-up comedy places in Nottingham and Just the Tonic but you’ve got to be at that elite level before you’re allowed on there so I wanted to create a comedy club that covers grassroots comedy, the elite level and everywhere in-between.
“The barn is separate so it’s a captive audience. I’ve learnt from all the proper places I’ve played up and down the country how to run a good comedy night.”
Russ is using comedy to support two charities. One is the mental health charity Summits Up, the second is cancer support charity Maggie’s, which has a centre in the grounds of Nottingham City Hospital.
“I’m in a position now that I can give a little bit back from the places that have looked after me. We did a cancer comedy roast, for Maggie’s where seven comedians came and roasted me at the Comedy Barn.
“There was an Asian guy from Hyson Green in the audience and he said ‘in our community we don’t really talk about cancer’. He’d had it and said this had made him feel better about himself, knowing he could have a bit of a laugh about it. That was nice.
“Ruth, my missus, thinks I’m mad. She doesn’t know why I’m taking the pub on as well. She says surely you want to start taking it a bit more easy now you’re doing the comedy. I said it can all be taken away from you tomorrow. I don’t want to waste a single hour. I want to do as much as I can.
“It’s a nice local pub and some of the material I’m getting behind this bar is gold as well. The rubbish people talk when they’re drunk is unreal.”
Shows at the Comedy Barn will be staged every two weeks. The next is on October 15. Tickets £7 are available from the pub or online at jokepit.com.
Russ will also be appearing at the Nottingham Comedy Festival on November 6 to 8 at K-Two bar, Lower Parliament Street, Nottingham. Tickets £5 can be purchased here.
