The
bad and the mad times for Russell Brand have given birth to a new stand-up
show. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images
Nathanael Cooper, The Courier-Mail, reports
What’s most surprising when speaking with Russell Brand is how deeply he thinks.
For someone who has made a living from being crass, dishevelled and wickedly funny it is a bit peculiar when this Brit offers you pearls of wisdom.
"We are all just people here for a temporary hiatus,' he muses.
"In this abyss, momentarily, there is life. So it increasingly occurs to me that if you aren't beautiful to people you are wasting your own time and everyone else's.
"Having said that, I can still be a right twit."
A reformed addict of sex, drugs and alcohol Brand leapt to notoriety as the dishevelled vagabond who we laughed with, and at, for the most outrageous reasons.
But with all that behind him divorce, drug-free and a new focus on meditation, can he still be funny?
"I have really changed. I am trying my best. I have my moments still, but mostly I try to be careful of how my behaviour can affect others," he says.
"I can be funny. I can muck about and have a laugh with my mates, but in the proper context."
Being funny has worked well for Brand. Like most of those who earn their living from comedy, Brand began his career in stand-up.
A stint at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art might have instilled enough in his young mind to also give him some serious acting chops.
Yet gigs on television and movies soon followed, mostly in comic roles, with his natural talent to bring oddball characters to life ensuring a string of successful movie roles came his way. It was what he always dreamed of.
"When I was a kid, I sort of thought I wanted to do performing," he says.
"I wasn't sure how it would be, specifically, but making films and showing off that was what I wanted to do."
But Brand's well-documented battle with heroin almost stymied those ambitions before they began.
"I really didn't think it would be possible for me," he says. "I was growing up in Essex and I was a drug addict for ages, so I was fortunate it turned out this way, really."
By dragging himself out from under this adversity by kicking a series of bad habits, Brand today manages to do exactly what he likes, when he likes.
He has the luxury of being able to split his time between film gigs (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Rock of Ages) and returning to his first love stand-up.
"I do like making films you get to collaborate on and learn. It is a really nice experience," he says. "(But) I like more to stand in a room showing off, because anything can happen in those gigs. I know one night something extraordinary will happen, like a revolution will start or an orgy."
Even with the exhilaration of knowing anything can happen when performing live and with more than a decade of experience under his belt Brand admits he can still get nervous. Particularly when there is a crowd of tens of thousands watching and millions more on the television. Like, say, the recent London Olympics.
"When you are doing something like them Olympics, then you get nervous," he says. "Driving out into a stadium of 80,000 people and you have the potential of ruining the Olympics by saying something crazy that stuff makes you nervous."
While next month's shows in Australia might be before smaller audiences, Brand promises they won't be any less entertaining than what he delivered at the Olympics.
"I talk about my experience in the Olympics, actually, and how many things went wrong in that short period of time," he says.
"I talk about celebrity and the people you meet and the situations you get yourself in and how often you nearly put your foot in it and nearly cause mayhem. And there is loads of sex stuff in it."
There is even a video of Brand with the Dalai Lama.
The mixed bag of gags and experiences that pepper Brand's stand-up is much like holding a mirror up to his life eyeballing his personal ups and downs, highs and lows, good bits and bad bits.
It's something he has a lot of time to reflect on these days.
"I read a lot. I meditate for 40 minutes a day. I do a lot of yoga. I suppose I am a deep thinker these days," he says.
"Maybe not compared to Confucius, but I guess I am."
SEE IT
RUSSELL BRAND
SYDNEY
Saturday 8 December
8:00pm
Entertainment Centre
Book at Ticketmaster 136 100 www.ticketmaster.com.au
ADELAIDE
Friday 30 November
8:00pm
Entertainment Centre
PERTH
Sunday 2 December
8:00pm
Perth Arena
BRISBANE
Tuesday 4 December + Monday 10th Dec
8:00pm
Convention Centre
MELBOURNE
Friday 7 December
8:00pm
Rod Laver Arena
MORE INFO: russellbrand.tv
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