Russell Brand - what happened?

[AllisonSays]

Norm McDonald's interview with him is very funny because Norm sort of exaggerates his own sexual or romantic incompetence to draw out Brand's lothario love guru thing.

[The Mollusk]

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

Off-Brand surely

[Bad Ambassador]

Off-Brand surely

Almost every single person in that film is loathsome for some reason or other. I'm hoping it'll be a bloodbath.

[Gurke and Hare]

I cannot believe he hasn't been metoo'd by this point.

There was that story that may or may not have been true about him refusing to perform on a film set until some woman in the crew flashed him, and Billy Connolly telling him to stop being a twat. I choose to believe it because I think Brand's a cunt and Billy Connolly is great.

[Magnum Valentino]

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.

Ah! Can you (or anyone else) remember the name of the person who was a doctor or a scientist and that MAY have appeared in puppet form and sounded something like 'Magumba'? It was in the first series (I've not seen the second) and I've wanted to see it again for years but can't be bothered watching whole episodes on Youtube. I seem to remember his repeated use of the word/name was very funny.

I always thought Russell had one truly great special in him. I think the one where he talked about the Andrew Sachs situation was close, but it closed with a very awkwardly tacked-on bit about oral sex and how much he wanted to shag Helen Mirren. I've also always thought Shia LaBeouf just needed one great project to mine the best in him but sadly HE'S turned out to be a wanker as well.

But the two of them I always saw great potential in that never seemed to manifest in something you could recommend without a caveat.

[DigForVictory]

It's a real shame he seems to have gone down the anti vaxx right wing route.

I absolutely loved his radio shows and podcasts with Matt Morgan, it was such a great dynamic. You'd see a story in the week of Brand on the red carpet of some award show or having dinner with these celebrities and then on the show you'd hear the behind the scenes re-telling of the events and no matter how glitzy or prestigious it was supposed to be they always managed to make it sound naff or crappy and with Matt taking the piss, it was hilarious.

Matt Morgan was always there to remind Russell and the listeners that despite all the fame and money and women and drugs , Russell was still basically this little weirdo kid at heart. The story of them at some trendy New Year party being too shy and afraid to talk to anyone else so they just ended up in the corner by themselves playing GTA all night on the computer, it was really identifiable stuff.

[lauraxsynthesis]

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?

He still does comedy podcasts here and there with Matt and they are still good. Since he got married to a British woman into yoga and started having children he's chilled loads which has been nice to see because his Messiah complex tendencies were getting pretty alarming until that happened. I didn't think he'd be able to stick at family life with his sex addiction problems but so far he seems alright. I imagine it takes lots of work as with any addiction.

I rarely watch his videos but when I do the analysis is usually pretty good as far as it goes but it's not aimed at me but I think probably kids who are new to the various concepts. I definitely give the new age stuff a pass.

What is definitely unacceptable is that he keeps interviewing these alt right types like Jordan Peterson. Those interviews aren't enough for me to cancel him completely though.

On balance, I think Brand overall is a good thing and his comedy is still great. 

[Captain Z]

Ah! Can you (or anyone else) remember the name of the person who was a doctor or a scientist and that MAY have appeared in puppet form and sounded something like 'Magumba'? It was in the first series (I've not seen the second) and I've wanted to see it again for years but can't be bothered watching whole episodes on Youtube. I seem to remember his repeated use of the word/name was very funny.

I didn't remember, but suspected it might have been in the 'Science' episode. Here it is, at around 10:30: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22eh2l

[mattyc]

He's a pound shop David Icke and we gotta watch him.

[Magnum Valentino]

Thank you! I really enjoyed that, I remember watching it with a whole load of ones once and a friend of mine couldn't control himself every time Brand said Majumba which in turn set me off. He was absolutely crippled by the use of that one word. No one else seemed particularly bothered.

Watching that clip is really interesting. Brand has talked before about being inspired to cultivate his look because he'd heard all the best characters were recognizable in silhouette (I think he cited Matt Groening as saying it), but he's just TOO MUCH there. The hair is especially awful, and it distracts from what is clearly a very confident and capable comedian. The flourish he does for the ad break with the spin and the coy gesture is completely at odds with the quality of the material he's just presented. He's very good at the indignant outrage about insignificant things that seems to be the stock in trade of so many panel show comics nowadays. He didn't need all the extra gubbins and quite rightly dropped it when he tried to break America a few years later.

Watched that six-part Monty Python documentary series on Netflix over Christmas and he's on there as an interviewee as well, still doing the flowery language but in a space that doesn't require him to perform which is odd. I have to say as someone who appreciates a love of language in comedy and writing in general, I always found Russell Brand to be especially unconvincing - he knows the words and how to use them, but he's the clever dick at school who's trying to use it as social currency only now, with fame and money and adulation, there's no bullies to twat some sense into him round the back of Clarkey Small's science mobile.

[paddy72]

Pin pin!

[up_the_hampipe]

I actually miss the big hair, open shirt, tight jeans sex pest Russell Brand over this new anti-vax, "free-thinking" guy who's just trying to get a slice of Joe Rogan's viewership.

[iamcoop]

Pin pin!

Skin Daddyyyyyy

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I refuse to believe the sex addict thing because there's a picture of him doing some sort of naked protest at Trafalgar Square or something and he's got a very small knob. A wanking addict, maybe.

[thenoise]

I think most of his "womanising" was prostitutes and other sex workers. At least until he got famous.

[Buttered Ghost]

It's a real shame he seems to have gone down the anti vaxx right wing route.

He's a pound shop David Icke and we gotta watch him.

I actually miss the big hair, open shirt, tight jeans sex pest Russell Brand over this new anti-vax, "free-thinking" guy who's just trying to get a slice of Joe Rogan's viewership.

Hmm let's see:

• Smooth, charismatic demeanour.
• Interest in New Age / Hippie Spiritualism.
• Persecutory "They're coming to get you!!" narrative.

The guy has 'potential future cult leader' written all over him.

[MrMrs]

Anti Vax?

[imitationleather]

You better believe it!

[Snrub]

I used to think the radio shows were the funniest things ever at one point - and they are still pretty good on a listen back. However I realised it was the whole Matt and him dynamic I liked and not him at all.

I was a firm believer that if Matt was around nothing close to Sachsgate ever would have happened, because he never egged Russell on in the way Jonathan Ross did. It's no coincidence that the radio show ended about a month after Matt left (Matt's said on his solo podcast over the past couple of years he basically just got treated like shit by Russell which is why they fell out and he left)

They've made up since, although Russell still has crappy tendencies - he just announced one day he wasn't going back to their recent-ish Radio X gig which was news to Matt as he was relying on that for income and they had a contract.

If you're a fan of the radio shows, there is a good podcast on Matt's feed (Patreon only unfortunately) with show poet Mr Gee that goes over loads of behind the scene stuff including as said Russell choosing competition winners cos he wanted to have sex with them. Seems Russell and Matt have grown apart - but not fallen out - again. Russell was really fighting the comedy persona last time he was on and Matt is a bit more secretive about his relationship with Russell at the moment.

Oddly despite saying he was done with comedy, Russell is back into "comedy" podcasting with something called Football is Nice. Not heard it but apparently it's ok.

[kalowski]

He's a pound shop David Icke and we gotta watch him.

Yes! Very good.

[Ray Travez]

I was a firm believer that if Matt was around nothing close to Sachsgate ever would have happened, because he never egged Russell on in the way Jonathan Ross did. It's no coincidence that the radio show ended about a month after Matt left

Yes, you're absolutely right. Morgan used to reign in Brand's more anarchic tendencies, whereas Ross joined in with them. Brand then was a bit of an iconoclast, and I don't know what Ross is, but he's an old punk isn't he?

I got a bit obsessed with Sachsgate; I learned everything I could about it. There are still two questions I don't know the answer to. Not really bothered now though. I was very much not on Sach's side- the phrase 'milking it' springs to mind. A relative of his- a burlesque dancer no less- liked to fuck. So what? ... was my opinion.

[pigamus]

They've made up since, although Russell still has crappy tendencies - he just announced one day he wasn't going back to their recent-ish Radio X gig which was news to Matt as he was relying on that for income and they had a contract.

Well fuck him then. What an absolute cunt.

[Menu]

There was that story that may or may not have been true about him refusing to perform on a film set until some woman in the crew flashed him, and Billy Connolly telling him to stop being a twat. I choose to believe it because I think Brand's a cunt and Billy Connolly is great.

Yes. That was no way to treat Dame Judi Dench.

[Menu]

.

[sutin]

I think most of his "womanising" was prostitutes and other sex workers. At least until he got famous.

I know of at least two friends of friends who shagged him in the '00s.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed that last sentence somehow. It's late.

[Menu]

Yes, you're absolutely right. Morgan used to reign in Brand's more anarchic tendencies, whereas Ross joined in with them. Brand then was a bit of an iconoclast, and I don't know what Ross is, but he's an old punk isn't he?

I got a bit obsessed with Sachsgate; I learned everything I could about it. There are still two questions I don't know the answer to. Not really bothered now though. I was very much not on Sach's side- the phrase 'milking it' springs to mind. A relative of his- a burlesque dancer no less- liked to fuck. So what? ... was my opinion.

What were the two questions?

[BritishHobo]

Yes, you're absolutely right. Morgan used to reign in Brand's more anarchic tendencies, whereas Ross joined in with them. Brand then was a bit of an iconoclast, and I don't know what Ross is, but he's an old punk isn't he?

I got a bit obsessed with Sachsgate; I learned everything I could about it. There are still two questions I don't know the answer to. Not really bothered now though. I was very much not on Sach's side- the phrase 'milking it' springs to mind. A relative of his- a burlesque dancer no less- liked to fuck. So what? ... was my opinion.

I may have this wrong in my mind, but I remember feeling at the time that the tabloid media caused a lot of the situation by making sure that he was constantly confronted by the issue, again and again, for what felt like months afterwards. After his initial statements on the matter, when he presumably wanted to just put it to bed and not think about it anymore, they seemed to continue to rock up on his doorstep every day, and plaster the story, and his face, across each day's newspapers.

I had a bit of a diverging opinion at the time, because a lot of people did stick up for Brand as a comedian, but I did think even as a fan of him and the radio show that it was an especially nasty and classless thing to do, and that Jonathan Ross was entirely too old to be involved in something so pathetic (and he was definitely the ringleader). But the media also played a ridiculous part in exploding the whole thing.

The thing I still find maddest about it is the way it seemingly ended the media career of Lesley Douglas, who had spent years working her way up in radio, but had essentially no impact on the careers of Brand or Ross. Imagine building a career in radio and earning a great position as Controller of Radio 2, and then your entire production career is tanked by two idiots dicking about.

[Snrub]

One question I have over Sachsgate - and I was similarly obsessed - was how on earth it actually got on air when the whole show that week was a pre-record. A few months earlier there had been a previous answerphone message section (with Matt) cut out where they left a questionable message on the answerphone of a Daily Mail journalist, so they had edited the content in the past

 The part I have an issue with is early on when Jonathan Ross shouts down the phone "he fucked your granddaughter" - it's not really funny and hardly classy.

From a practical point of view, the show gets so out of hand from that sentence - so I guess perhaps the only option would be to scrap the show.

Matt's view on Sachsgate is interesting, and his opinion is that at that point Russell wouldn't take no for an answer from any producers at Radio 2, (or anyone really hence him being out of favour) and had gone through so many that eventually the show was run by Russell's production company, so everyone in the room that day was a yes man.

[DigForVictory]

Didn't it go out to basically no outrage other than a Daily Mail article about it which didn't really gain any traction?

And then the following week Brand did a mock sarcastic apology and that's when it all kicked off?

I might have to join his patreon, I'd love to hear Matt talking behind the scenes stuff about the radio show, towards the end of his time on it you could hear in his voice how exasperated he was getting with Russell. It's like you were listening to a friendship ending bit by bit each week.

[Thosworth]

I remember Ross later saying that after the show record was over he spoke to the young producer (who had replaced Matt) and said "You're not going to put that bit out are you?" and being shocked when they said they would.

Of course this could be an attempt to evade responsibility but it sounds plausible, especially as after years of his own Radio 2 show he presumably was very aware of how close you can sail to the wind.