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March 28, 2024, 04:02:56 PM

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Russell Brand - what happened?

Started by YouCantWriteTearsJimmy, January 28, 2022, 10:46:16 AM

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YouCantWriteTearsJimmy

Title :) but what happened to him? I mean, he is/used to be a comedian? I remember him with Noel Fielding on that quiz show with Carr. I always knew he was a bit of a political thinker, but listening to him now on youtube, i don't hear a lot of comedy.

What happened?

Mobius

Weird, I quite literally just finished a video which showed up in my recommendations documenting Brand's life and where he is now

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZ56Eb-3i4

It reminded me I used to like him. The stuff he does now is not my cup of tea. Still like his old radio shows though

YouCantWriteTearsJimmy

Quote from: Mobius on January 28, 2022, 10:59:37 AMWeird, I quite literally just finished a video which showed up in my recommendations documenting Brand's life and where he is now

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZ56Eb-3i4

It reminded me I used to like him. The stuff he does now is not my cup of tea. Still like his old radio shows though

Same. The last thing i heard (politically) was his Miliband talk, and i thought "oh well, that's nice". And now he's talking about a second American civil war with Tim Pool. I guess the same with Graham Linehan, when your comedians start talking disproportionally about the US, it's done, they're gone a hole.

BritishHobo

He's in the upcoming Death on the Nile film, sporting a very un-Brand look.

I've not followed him much in the last few years (I think I lost track after the last round of podcasts he did with Matty Morgan) but it seems like he's happier now that he's out of the spotlight a bit, which is good. The role he used to hold in America of the go-to comedy Brit (alongside Gervais) is now filled by James Corden and Jack Whitehall.

I think he did a live date near me last year, which I sort-of regret not going to. I'll always have a soft spot for him.

Hat FM

used to love him but not really interested in his current schtick. i think he realised he needed to change his brand (not sure if pun intended) before we was phased out due to being irrelevant and/or was cancelled. He's only been on Matt Morgan's pod once so it's clear he's trying to distance himself from who he was.

Short version, he ballsed things up massively with Sachsgate and his career as a media megastar never really recovered (neither did the BBC as a whole, tbh). I remember him being politically active on the Labour side during the 2015 election but then he seemed to go quiet and drop off the radar, so the fact he's now apparently one of the biggest political commentators on youtube is a bit of a surprise, to say the least!

He's a COVID denier as well now? Well, can't say I'm massively surprised, he seems like the type to fall into that kind of conspiracy black hole and never come out of it.

TommyTurnips

I unsubscribed from his youtube channel a few months back when I finally had enough of the very madly worded clickbait titles to almost all of his videos. I used to like him, I even thought the trews was pretty good, but what ever it is he is doing now just isn't good or funny.

imitationleather

Quote from: Ron Maels Moustache on January 28, 2022, 11:27:33 AMI remember him being politically active on the Labour side during the 2015 election

He told people not to vote until he did an interview with Ed Miliband on the eve of the election, way after voter registration closed.

Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: YouCantWriteTearsJimmy on January 28, 2022, 11:08:56 AMSame. The last thing i heard (politically) was his Miliband talk, and i thought "oh well, that's nice". And now he's talking about a second American civil war with Tim Pool. I guess the same with Graham Linehan, when your comedians start talking disproportionally about the US, it's done, they're gone a hole.

Well he was talking to an American, he used to be married to an American, he lived and worked in the US for several years, and the US is quite an important and fascinating place, but in principle I agree that British comedians should stick to talking about British things.

Quotewhat happened to him? I mean, he is/used to be a comedian?

A surprisingly quick google reveals he's on a proper old-school stand-up tour of the UK for the next four months, playing venues like Poole Arts Centre and Scunthorpe Baths.

Quote from: Ron Maels Moustache on January 28, 2022, 11:27:33 AMHe's a COVID denier as well now?

Is he definitely a 'Covid denier'? Is that the best description?

Ray Travez

I think he realised that fame and it's trappings wasn't going to satisfy him. he'd built a caricature of himself to achieve fame, someone who was sex-mad, witty and rakish; a cartoon of an edgy dandy; and when he realised that the whole charade was hollow, he set about dismantling it and looking towards spirituality for answers.

BritishHobo

Quote from: Ron Maels Moustache on January 28, 2022, 11:27:33 AMHe's a COVID denier as well now? Well, can't say I'm massively surprised, he seems like the type to fall into that kind of conspiracy black hole and never come out of it.

Oh fucking hell I missed this. Done a bit of googling and I might scrub that remark about my soft spot for him and wishing I'd seen him live.

Fuck's sake Russ. This pandemic really has brought out the bad shit in a lot of people's worldviews, hasn't it?

Ray Travez

I like him most when he's chatting with someone else who is funny- Matt Morgan, Simon Amstell, Noel Gallagher et cetera. I think that brings out the best in him. He's very sharp.

j_u_d_a_s

#12
Never trust a hippy.

He's always been a spiritual new age type and the past few years have seen a lot of wellness gurus go down the QAnon rabbit hole, Brand is no different. Back when he was going through his "I can heal addicts" phase, he had a whole hour on BBC 3 pushing an abstinence program for addicts which goes against all medical advice. There was a note in the program admitting that all patients relapsed soon after.

Brand is a snake oil merchant hungry for fame and attention. His youtube views were slowly going down the pan until he hit that rich COVID denialism stream which he's continued to mine. Yes, he had a gift for banter on the radio but everytime he took up a cause, he sucked all the oxygen in the room pushing other activists out of the way to make sure he was front and center with his new book. And when his interest in that subject diminished, he'd move on to the next cause that'll get him on newsnight.

The man is a narcissist and a danger and I can't believe anyone ever took him seriously.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on January 28, 2022, 11:56:56 AMNever trust a hippy.

He's always been a spiritual new age type and the past few years have seen a lot of wellness gurus go down the QAnon rabbit hole, Brand is no different. Back when he was going through his "I can heal addicts" phase, he had a whole hour on BBC 3 pushing an abstinence program for addicts which goes against all medical advice. There was a note in the program admitting that all patients relapsed soon after.

BTW, do click to around 24:30 in that video where he talks to an expert in drug treatment. Watch how he talks over her expertise with his pretend-intellectual nonsense and contradicts himself several times all the while looking at the camera for approval.

BritishHobo

You've all ruined Death on the Nile for me now, thanks a lot.

TommyTurnips

I loved it when Matt Morgan called him out pretty early on for talking over his guests. "Hello, and welcome to under the skin with Russell Brand. This week I will be talking over Doctor...."

ajsmith2

#16
Don't agree Sachsgate did him in, if anything it was the highly visible public event that marked the start of his imperial phase circa the turn of the late 00s/early 10s. As I recall he seemed to reach inescapable saturation point as a left wing pop political figure circa 2012-15, before doing an overnight disappearing act after his odd belated Milliband endorsement and Labours 2015 election flop. Have to admit (and apologies for circling this back to the CAB talking point No.1 but it's the darn truth) that at the time I was bemused and in retrospect I am highly suspicious of the timing of his disappearance as a popular public lightning rod for left wing change just before the emergence of Corbyn, who would seem to offer something more along the lines of the genuine change Brand appeared to espouse in his publicly political pomp than Ed MB.

I'll say one thing for him: I recently skimmed though his book from that era, Revloveution or whatever it was called, expecting it to be a laughably dated pile of old toss, but within he predicted that the perfect populist leader of the right wing in the US would be 'A Christian Donald Trump' so I got to admit that was fairly prescient for something written in 2014.

Captain Z

Loved Ponderland and the radio shows, but I have never thought much of his stand-up. I rewatched Messiah Complex a few years ago and found it quite a slog.

AllisonSays

He's a very silly man; very sharp and with a real way with words, but fundamentally silly. The dynamic between him and Morgan was perfect because he needs someone who can puncture the silliness, without that he's just a sort of pseudo-guru. His autobiography is pretty good, I think.

iamcoop

I had a look at his Newcastle date as I haven't seen any of his stand up for years and was intrigued.

It appears to start at 5pm and tickets are £38.50 without booking fee so it'll be a no from me.

As I've said numerous times on here before some of his radio work with Matt Morgan made me laugh almost more than anything else. He could be frighteningly sharp on his day.

They took a noticeable nose dive when he went to LA and started broadcasting the shows from over there. His obsession with fame became tiresome.

He's definitely at his best when he has someone alongside him that can puncture his ego and take the piss out of him. He was always very good at laughing at himself and seemed quite a good sport whenever Matt started laying into him.

I also maintain that despite the atrocious title, my bookywook or whatever it's called is a great read.

He's had quite a remarkable life. No surprise he's such a narcissist to be honest.

I cannot believe he hasn't been metoo'd by this point. Even in the early 6music shows there'd be sly comments from Matt about him shagging the competition winners that had come to the studio in the toilets and stuff and anecdotes about him literally begging women for sex.

I think a lot of the messiah-like pseudo-religious thing he peddles now is perhaps an attempt to atone for all of that in some bizarre way.

JaDanketies

Embarrassingly, Reloveution was an important book to me. I remember reading it and it truly instilling in me the idea that the world doesn't have to be this way and that every generation gets the chance to make a change. While it was still fresh in my head, I smoked a load of Dutch weed, dropped acid and went to a black metal festival in Tilburg and had a profound experience that led to a mental shift in the way I viewed the corporate world, bosses and business relationships I'd built, and my previous experiences (being exploited to make money for psychopaths) as a worker.

Thosworth

Lest we forget he's also responsible for two great cultural artifacts of recent decades:
  • Jeans on men tight enough to be considered leggings.
  • The now clichéd punchline of 'admin'/'too much admin' as a comedy concept applied to activities outside of an office environment (eg: drug use)

With Matt around, you could see the pre-fame person who was embarrassed by, and willing to mock, his on-stage pomposity. On his own the egomaniac takes over.

iamcoop

Also, despite his insistence on calling all women "darlin'" (which always made me wince) I remember him being very sensitive and sweet to a lot of callers that would phone in for advice on stuff like coming to terms with their sexuality or lack of confidence etc.

It was always quite refreshing to hear someone that ostensibly worked in the area of "shock-jockery" being vocal about gay rights/trans rights etc which made his other comments about shagging "birds" all the more jarring really.

oggyraiding

I watched his Netflix stand up special from a few years ago, seem to remember he was very self deprecating and mocked his past self for being a bit of a tool with the whole "don't vote" thing. I'm not necessarily a fan of his style of comedy, but he's very likeable and comes across as pretty bright.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: iamcoop on January 28, 2022, 12:55:18 PMI cannot believe he hasn't been metoo'd by this point. Even in the early 6music shows there'd be sly comments from Matt about him shagging the competition winners that had come to the studio in the toilets and stuff and anecdotes about him literally begging women for sex.


By all accounts he's an open secret on the comedy circuit and has a very good legal team.

SweetPomPom

Saw him 4-5 yrs ago on tour - it was a meandering fairly gentle affair, wasn't heavy on gags though.
At the interval, he didn't leave the stage, just sat down on the edge chatted up the girls in the front row and took pictures with them. Hasn't changed that much.

Thosworth

I remember the mask slipping on air once when a male guest was talking off mic to two girls who'd accompanied him to the studio with "Oi, get away from them, they're mine"

iamcoop

Incidentally I've noticed Trevor Lock retweeting lots of dubious covid-denial stuff recently which disappointed me.

He's reached a nadir today though by retweeting an Andrew Lawrence video about covid. Maaaaaaaate.

chveik

i'm not familiar with his comedy output but what i've seen of him on youtube made me think he was a very dumb person.

pigamus

Quote from: Thosworth on January 28, 2022, 02:01:10 PMI remember the mask slipping on air once when a male guest was talking off mic to two girls who'd accompanied him to the studio with "Oi, get away from them, they're mine"

Was the mask ever on? I thought that was the most famous thing about him? And women did seem rather keen to shag him on the whole tbf