On Forgetting Sarah Marshall

From his 2010 DVD The World According To Russell Brand

More Russell Brand videos

Brand was born in Grays, Essex, to Barbara and Ron – who separated when Russell was just six months old. He was brought up by his mother, to who he has always been close, but had a difficult relationship with his father.

He made his theatrical debut aged 15 in a school production of Bugsy Malone, before going to the Italia Conti stage school, appearing in an episode of The Bill in 1994, and further study at the Drama Centre in Camden where, at night, he began performing stand-up on the London circuit.

He reached the final of the Hackney Empire New Act Of The Year competition in 2000, and that same year made his Edinburgh debut as one third of the stand-up show Pablo Diablo's Cryptic Triptych alongside ventriloquist Mark Felgate and Anglo-Iranian comic Shappi Khorsandi.

Following that show, MTV gave him his own series, Dance Floor Chart, in which he toured the nightclubs of Britain and Ibiza, and the teatime request show Select. However he became addicted to heroin, which understandably affected his work. He was fired after coming to work dressed as Osama Bin Laden immediately after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

In 2002, he landed his own show Re:Brand, on the now defunct satellite channel UK Play. The show took a candid view of cultural taboos and his own hang-ups. But while it was daring and provocative, it was also unfocussed, given Brand's addictions at the time. In one show about sexuality he masturbated a gay man, in another he challenged his own father to a boxing match to settle old schools.

In 2002, he appeared in the Channel Four’s adaptation of the Zadie Frost novel White Teeth and the Steve Coogan vehicle Cruise of the Gods – though he was thrown off the set for bad behaviour. It was clear by this point that his drug-addled lifestyle was ruining his career and his agent, John Noel, forced him into rehab for his addiction to heroin and sex.

In summer 2004, Russell was given a second chance, hosting E4’s live Big Brother discussion series Efourum and Kings of Comedy for E4. The gamble paid of for Channel 4, and Brand was on the road to becoming a star. Two more series of the Big Brother show, retitled Big Brother’s Big Mouth, followed.

In 2004, he also took his first one-man show, the confessional Better Now, to the Edinburgh Festival, giving an honest account of his heroin addiction. He returned the following year with Eroticsed Humour, and in 2006 with Shame.

In 2006, he as welcomed back to MTV with his own chat show, 1 Leicester Square. This led to an E4 show Russell Brand’s Got Issues, which later transferring over to Channel 4, despite disappointing ratings. He was nonetheless given his own Channel 4 chat show, but again it registered disappointing viewing figures over its five-week run. In 2007 he was given another chance by Channel 4, with the video clip/stand-up show Russell Brand's Ponderland. Again ratings were poor, but it was recommissioned in 2008, and returned with a more solid audiences.

Other notable TV appearances include a BBC Four documentary retracing Jack Kerouac's On the Road and his role as recovering crack addict in the 2007 broadcast pilot of ITV1 comedy The Abbey.

Brand simultaneously developed his radio career, starting with in 2002 on London alterative music station Xfm – another job he was sacked from. After cleaning himself up, he landed a Sunday morning show on BBC 6 Music, and was quickly promoted to Radio 2, upsetting some of the show’s traditional listeners. The decision backfired in October 2008 when, with guest co-host Jonathan Ross, Brand left filthy messages on the answerphone of Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs, boasting about bedding his granddaughter. He resigned in the ensuing media furore, which raised questions about the very purpose of the licence-funded BBC.

Controversy seems to surround Brand. In July 2008, he was roundly criticised for making a hoax call to police during his stage in Northampton, claiming he had spotted a man responsible for a series of sexual assaults. In 2006, he began a feud with Bob Geldof at the NME awards; and his political comments about President George Bush at the 2008 MTV awards also divided opinion.

On film, his first major role was as Flash Harry in the 2007 remake of St Trinian's, and the following year made waves in Hollywood playing outrageous rock star Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He will reprise the character for the 2009 comedy Get Him To The Greek, in which a straight-laced chaperon tries to get him safely to a gig.

Brand has written a football column in The Guardian since 2006, and the articles have been published as two anthologies. His autobiography, My Booky Wook, was a 2007 Christmas bestseller.

Russell Brand Booky Wook 2 tour
Live Review
Hackney Empire

But while much of the media hasn’t escaped the fallout from the phone call he made to Andrew Sachs, egged on by Jonathan Ross, the comic himself hasn’t suffered too may ill consequences. It’s not much of a setback for a comic known for his morally questionable behaviour to be at the centre of controversy.

But still his first public appearance with Ross creates something of a buzz, with the notorious furore never far from the surface. In his stand-up section that precedes the interview, Brand teases the audience – and the press within it – with pointed asides about people ‘deliberately misunderstanding’ his motives and teasing the audience to link the Daily Mail with the Nazis. He would never say that, of course, perish the thought.

But he has even more fun at his own expense. ‘I not very good at judging time,’ he announces when wondering whether it’s time to wrap up for the interval. Or judging right from wrong.’

He issues the requisite apology for being an idiot, but his lack of concern for the consequences of his actions is what’s made him such a fine stand-up, if perhaps not always such a fine human being. There was a time when every day produced an anecdote, ripe for the sharing. He mines indiscretions from his life for our vicarious thrills, in lively, eloquently verbose routines, powered by his mischievous energy.

The stand-up sections here reiterate what a fine comedian he is. Whatever his Hollywood career – and he has the usual moans about the tedium of the filming process – when he’s onstage, unfiltered and connecting with an audience, he is a thrilling performer.

These routines have to compete for space tonight with the readings to plug his Booky Wook 2, and, as expected, the extracts that deal with his rampant libido and hedonistic lifestyle make for the most entertaining moments. When a section starts with ‘breast milk is wasted on babies’, you know you’re in for a typical dose of shameless honesty. But it’s never over-the-top; Brand plays his life out like a bawdy Seventies British sex comedy, more than an X-rated internet clip.

He also reads a chapter of e-mail that he exchanged with his hero Morrissey, and rarely will you hear such effete camp. Morrissey’s in the audience tonight, as is David Baddiel and Girls Aloud’s Kimberley Walsh. There’s a risk of name-dropping: David Walliams features heavily in another anecdote while Ross asks the most showbiz question ever: ‘Want to hear what Tom Cruise said about you?’

The much-vaunted interview was a little patchy, perhaps because Brand and Ross have become so close in the wake of the media tsunami that anything too revelatory is off the menu. Though whenever things droop, a sex tale will perk it up again, and here he tells of a threesome in the Hollywood Hills where he ‘lived like Charles Manson… but better behaved.’

There’s some question of whether setting down with Katy Perry will tame him; and some self-indulgent guff about his spiritualism. Whatever gets you through the day, I say, but sharing this is as tedious as a Bible reading. He’s wary of appearing to take himself too seriously, but not so wary he doesn’t go on about it a bit too long for comfort.

There was, of course, discussion of Sachsgate… though nothing you won’t have heard before in this saga that has been played out very much in the public arena. Brand’s surely beyond that, even though Ross’s subsequent career has yet to be definitively settled. Here, he indulged Brand a little too much, but also showed off his smart-as-a-button skills for the perfect quip that won him the mega-money contract in the first place.

Ross won’t be around for the rest of the tour, which should serve as a welcome, but ultimately too-brief to be satisfying, reminder of how great a stand-up Brand can be. Lets hope a movie career, sobriety and a married life don’t change that.

Click here to order Brand's book from Amazon for £9, rather than the £20 rrp.

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Now, as Brand graces the Oscars, stars in movies and remakes 'Arthur' his overall career plan is made clear and the "Brand the Standup" character Matt Morgan created is starkly placed in context.

Roberto, April 2011

Easy to criticise someone so successful... but all I know is, as an act he has inspired me more than any other and he is the best comic I've seen live by a country mile.

Sooz, November 2010

Clever, sexy and cool. But not particularly funny.

Michael Monkhouse, November 2010

He's self-obsessed and a one trick comedian...

Neil, February 2010

I personally don't think Russell Brand is particularly funny. I find his delivery highly self conscious and awkward. I know he is very popular at the moment but I think that is mostly because women find him sexually attractive. I think he does have some natural charisma and I remember enjoying his presentation of the dance floor charts in 2001. I did not know he was a comedian at that time. I think Russell lacks timing and has only one tone and is focuses more on his appearance than anything else. Like most addicts of drugs and affection I think he fears the ravages of time and this fear is the source of all that he is and all that he will be.

Glen, February 2010

I want to have his kids!

Mandy Allan, January 2010

Between the words Matt Morgan plugged in his gob and the dusted-down, UK-ized Bill Hicks jokes, there's just a load of sub-Baddiel sex and drugs jokes.

Mandy Allan, January 2010

Clearly a clever man, but as long as he's entwined in this celebrity culture it's difficult to associate between his material and what's daubed across the papers, because they end up being the same thing. That's why his radio show was so good, because he reigned himself in and filtered out all the unnecessary vulgarities and so what was broadcast was very clever, very funny ramblings for two hours.

Billy, February 2009

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12