Russell Brand: I am the news
Russell Brand, Guildhall, Portsmouth.
A word of warning: if you’ve bought tickets to Russell Brand’s Bournemouth show in the hope of finding something to be offended about, you’re going to get exactly what you wanted.
Gone is the Brand of previous tours, who made jokes about newspapers and explained how he was (mainly) a good boy nowadays.
In his place is a capering, joyful schoolboy who’s determined to prove that Sachsgate is only the tip of his naughtiness iceberg. And crikey, does he.
From the second he started singing the words “I am the news” to the theme to News at Ten you could tell this wasn’t going to be an apologetic show.
Everyone gets lampooned, from the lookalike who’s life’s been ruined because he can’t get bookings, to the readers who suggested he and Wossy be sent Afghanistan, to the media who put him at the centre of the world for a week and even himself, for overdressing to ‘go on the news.’
Which is not to say that he doesn’t wish he hadn’t upset Andrew Sachs and got loads of his friends in trouble. But, as he swiftly pointed out, he’s been much more offensive than that on a daily basis. So we got a rundown of his hastily-abandoned script for the VMAs – abandoned because his George Bush joke didn’t get quite the laugh he expected – which included a joke about Michael Jackson that would probably have seen him kicked to death on the spot.
We got an extensive description of exactly what he’d like Dame Helen Mirren to do to him that will probably still be making me shudder next week.
There was even a little demonstration of exactly what it would be like to go to bed with Russell Brand (and he’s looking good, ladies, if you like that kind of thing) plus quite a lot of jokes I can’t even describe in a roundabout way without losing my job. (I have tried… “I’d like to sign my name on your balloon with my crayon…” nope, not even going there.)
Not forgetting, of course, a little reprise of that Andrew Sach’s answerphone song. And you know what? It’s all pretty damn funny. Especially the song. (Please note this is not endorsement of any kind of Sachs-related bullying. But that particular part of the show is indeed funny.
Especially Jonathon Ross singing bass line bom bom boms underneath.) It’s not a tightly structured show. It’s not even, really, got much of a theme.
Some of it’s just an open invitation to have sex with him. It’s like he’s decided to go out and be as offensive as he wants to be, just to prove there ARE people out there who like him no matter what he does. Well guess what? They do.
And Russell? He seems happy. And pretty well served, I’d say. A quick PS: If you’ve bought tickets hoping you’ll be able to record him saying something outrageous and stick it on You Tube, don’t bother. The security team were out in force last night. You haven’t got a chance.
What did you reckon? let us know here or see this review at it’s orginal home on www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/blogs
I’m seeing him in Nottingham in a couple of weeks. The man is brilliant, he is clearly toying with the Daily Mail.
I went to see him at the Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday night. I thought it was really funny, I had a grea time! And if you think about it, all he was making fun of was himself, like the way he looked like a bearded hostage in his resignation speech, and how he looked like he was on his way to Vegas in that clip of him coming out of his house with wet hair xD. And the stupid comments people had left on newspaper websites. I don’t think he offended Andrew Sachs in any way.
xx