Russell Brand

Russell Brand, the swine!

Russell Edward Brand (born June 5, 1975 in Grays, Essex) is an English comedian best known for hosting the E4 discussion show Big Brother's EFourum, now known as Big Brother's Big Mouth. Brand is friends with Karl Pilkington, having presented some radio shows together while both belong to the same talent agency John Noel Management. Russell is a confirmed fan of West Ham United FC, and is also a big fan of The Smiths and their ex-frontman Morrissey, and has a cat of the same name. He has stated on his BBC 6 Music radio show that he would like the song Asleep played at his funeral.

Style

Brand is a flamboyant performer, he describes himself as a "S&M Willy Wonka"[1]. Brand is also well known for his catchphrases such as " 'citin!"(exciting) and "The swine(s)!" as well as anecdotes involving him ending up in a sexual situation, or exposing his "dinkle!" and calling for the "lads" to come and see it. For Brand being a TV presenter has been a double-edged sword. While it has a given him a mainstream audience, his seemingly sudden success and excitible behaviour has caused some to dismiss him as mindless and arrogant. However Brand's best work is as a stand-up where his libertine lifestyle of sex and drugs has given him true stories which he tells with self-awareness, pathos and insight. This is evidence through Brand's critical success. In 2006 he was named best Stand Up by Time Out Magazine in the Time Out Live awards, [2], and the eight-night run of his stand-up show Shame at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival was the first show to sell out for that year. [3]

BBC 6Music

In December 2005, Brand co-presented three one-off radio shows for BBC 6Music with Karl Pilkington. Later in April 2006, Russell Brand was given a regular Sunday afternoon slot on the station. Karl Pilkington was advertised as being his co-host and even appeared with him on the first few show. However, Karl mysteriously disappeared from the show leaving some to speculate about a falling out between Pilkington and Brand. The actual reason for Karl's departure, as confirmed by Brand's co-presenter Trevor Lock, is that 6Music's desire to release a downloadable podcast of the show conflicted with Karl's commitment to The Ricky Gervais Podcast. Karl has since appeared (via the phone) on the Russell Brand Show, talking about his holiday visit to a historic resort in Lyme Regis, Dorset and his recent viewing of Brokeback Mountain. Brand's 6Music radio show has placed as high as number two in the iTunes most-subscribed podcast chart.

Re:Brand

In 2002, Brand made a TV show called Re:Brand for digital channel BBC Choice (now known as BBC 3). The show was a documentary where every episode saw Brand extreme behaviour to test probe both social and personal boundaries. In his search for truth and self-discovery Brand arranged a boxing match with his own father, let a tramp sleep in his bed and tested his sexuality by giving an hand-job to a stranger in a public toilet. The show isn't available on DVD, has yet to be repeated, UKNova currently has a rip availible for download.

Drug Addict

Brand is a former heroin addict and has had numerous run-ins with the law, having been arrested eleven times [4], and was expelled from Italia Conti theatre school when he was younger. During the time of his addiction he was known for his debauchery, notable examples being his ejection from The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh for abusive behaviour [5] and his sacking from MTV on the 12th of September 2001 for arriving at work dressed as Osama bin Laden. [6]

However, he has been free from heroin addiction since 2003, and is now a patron of the addiction charity Focus 12 [7]. He hosted a forum show about drugs for Channel 4 in 2006, which had a similar format to that of Big Brother's Big Mouth, and his stage show Better Now drew extensively on his experiences with addiction. [8]

NME Awards 2006

Bob Geldof reacts to Brand's retort at the NME Awards

On the 23 February 2006, Brand hosted the 2006 NME Awards show. Upon reaching the stage to receive his award, Bob Geldof began his speech with "Russell Brand... what a cunt" which later prompted Brand to strike back with, "I actually think Geldof's the best person to speak about famine, seeing as he's been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for thirty years...". Talking about this event in his stand-up show, Brand refers to his ambivalence about snapping back. He claimed he always liked Geldof, stating that "it was a bit like Father Christmas calling me a cunt". In a later interview he claimed: "I think it was an abominable thing to say ... I was mentally ill. I was a drug addict. I nearly died. I don't see how that's befitting of that word." This was despite having been free of drugs for three years before the incident.

Ladies' Man

A self-confessed "woman adorer", he is rumoured to have had affairs with supermodel Kate Moss, and Big Brother UK contestants Kate Lawler, Big Brother Becki Seddiki and Makosi Musambasi. [9] He describes himself as having a "kind of roaring heterosexuality" [10] and has also admitted to frequenting Soho brothels to have sex with prostitutes (while still battling with his drug addictions). [11] Recently, the Daily Star published an article claiming that Bob Geldof has disallowed his daughter Peaches Geldof from going to Ibiza, in case Russell were to follow her.

Russell Brand's Got Issues

Now that Big Brother 7 has finished, Brand is presenting a debate show called Russell Brand's Got Issues, that will be starting in September on E4.

External links

• Russell Brand's website
• The Russell Brand Fansite
• Russell Brand's BBC 6 Music show homepage