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This text for various scholars marks the end of Brand's Hollywood career as his performance was critically slammed and the film itself preformed poorly at the box office producing 48 million USD which was under half of Get Him to the Greek (2010). Brand's persona within the text mirrors much of his career as he utilises preconceived notions about his persona to create a relatable character within the text. However his performance itself was deemed low skilled and surface level by critics.

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I thought this film was simply brilliant. The acting in it was great, the comedic timing perfect, the script well written, and the setting well shown. Yes, once again it is a movie set in New York, but there's a reason why they can't having them there. It's an amazing city. And this movie showcases that very well. I appreciated the range of humor they had in there as well. Some of it was raunchy, and then at other times it was mild and a relief from some of the over the top jokes. The climax was well done, humorous yet tasteful at the same time, and the conclusion was very appropriate.

I heard some people complaining about how this movie was showcasing how rich people have it made and it wouldn't be received well today because of the economic climate. That was ridiculous. If anything, it shows how money really can't buy happiness, and that the most important thing in this world is that we have each other. Overall, very enjoyable film that one should go into with an open mind and just have a good time.

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I thought this film was simply brilliant. The acting in it was great, the comedic timing perfect, the script well written, and the setting well shown. Yes, once again it is a movie set in New York, but there's a reason why they can't having them there. It's an amazing city.

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Brookes, Nolan (2015) Hybrid Persona/Image

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Brookes, Nolan (2015) Hybrid Persona/Image

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This source directly relates to the contextual understanding of Brand's comedic and political image and how the is utilised for commercial and social success.

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Hjarvard (2012) Representation of Brand's Diverging Image Within the Context of Differing Forms of Media

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Hjarvard (2012) Representation of Brand's Diverging Image Within the Context of Differing Forms of Media

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This source can be applied to Brand's adaption to differing media contexts and mediums and supports an overall view of his career.

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Chadwick (2013) Hybrid Identity of Brand

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Chadwick (2013) Hybrid Identity of Brand

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This source depicts how Brand utilised his star image within a hybrid context utilising his comedic persona within the context of topics of serious matter (i.e social/economic politics)

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This source applies to the contextual understanding of Brand's YouTube channel within relation to 21st century media.

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This source shows that Brand is still a rebel through actions such as this showing his political involvement with challenging the status quo and actions of those in power. This is done whilst also representing Brand's persona 'as one of the people' as he joins in with everyday people protesting for environmental change.

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Watch: Russell Brand meets with protestors to talk about the importance of the River Thames. Play Brightcove video
Russell Brand joined protestors in Henley-on-Thames today (Saturday 5 November), where he called for water companies to clean up their act.

Mr Brand was a special guest at the 'Speak up for our river' event, organised by wild swimming group, Henley Mermaids.

The event called on water companies to reduce the amount of sewage they discharge into Britain's waterways, with a particular focus on Thames Water.

The Mermaids say the Reading based water company dumped more than 400 hours worth of sewage into the Thames in 2021, which puts waterway users at risk.

Thames Water HQ Credit: ITV News Meridian

However, Thames Water refutes that claim - saying it only discharged 9 times from Henley sewage treatment works in 2021, for a total of 143 hours and all took place before June that year.

In his speech Russell highlighted the importance of the River Thames, saying that without the Thames there is no Henley.

"We know what Henley customarily representers. Without the river, without the regatta, without this river there is no Henley.

"The entire identity is built around this river and the fact that it is used as a dumping ground...

"If I said the word that is most commonly used to describe it you'd be appalled. And yet, in reality, they pump into the river where people swim and live.

"It is an example of detachment and we need to recognise that reality."

Thames Water agreed that it is unacceptable for untreated sewage to enter rivers and a spokesperson told ITV Meridian: "We believe it is unacceptable for untreated sewage to enter rivers, even when legally permitted and we take this matter very seriously.

"We set out our position at the Environmental Audit Committee and are committed to being transparent, and we've published an action plan to protect and improve the environment and to provide customers with the service they expect and deserve.

"Our shareholders have recently approved a business plan that sees us spending an additional £2 billion beyond what our customers are funding so we can improve outcomes for customers, leakage and river health and we've also committed to a 50% reduction in the total annual duration of spills across London and the Thames Valley by 2030, and within that an 80% reduction in sensitive catchments.

"We have started the £100 million upgrade of our Mogden sewage treatment works and are currently increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works across the Thames Valley, including Witney and Fairford to be completed by 2025.

"Our aim will always be to try to do the right thing for rivers and for the communities who love and value them. We are already taking action to reduce discharges of untreated sewage and welcome measures that will enable us to deliver our long-term aspirations faster to the benefit of both the communities we serve and the environment we seek to protect."

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Russell Brand joins protest over sewage discharges in Henley-on-Thames | ITV News

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Watch: Russell Brand meets with protestors to talk about the importance of the River Thames. Play Brightcove video Russell Brand joined protestors in Henley-on-Thames today (Saturday 5 November), where he called for water companies to clean up their act. Mr Brand was a special guest at the 'Speak up for our river' event, organised by wild swimming group, Henley Mermaids.

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Brand's feature on Question Time not only physically pairs him with other official figures within Government but it helps to legitimise his critique and views within social and economic British politics.

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Russell Brand & Nigel Farage clash over immigration

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The Jeremy Paxman interview represents how quickly Brand managed to draw attention to his political persona whilst also representing the vast amounts of media interest in Brand's political involvement. Within the interview itself Paxman attempts to deconstruct Brand's political image through the critique of his surface level views on social and economic politics

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Paxman vs Russell Brand - full interview - BBC Newsnight

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Black Mirror Dictatorship - Is It Upon Us?

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This source represents Brand's broad claims about various hot topics during recent global events. Within the source Brand questions the deeper societal concerns regarding the corona virus and how this relates back into western society will operate during and after the pandemic. Brand presents an academic image within this source as he utilises his eccentric persona to argue his various different beliefs about the process of democracy within modern western societies. This couples to create an alluring topic which engages with millions of viewers.

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Is the pandemic being used to create a surveillance state?

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This source shows Brand's unorthodox views about surveillance and western states. Within the video he presents a informative image whilst still holding entertaining characteristics thus representing a hybridised persona which is mirrored throughout Brand's recent career products.

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Matthew McConaughey and Russell Brand have condemned the perceived hypocrisy of Hollywood political views in a raucous podcast.

Speaking on Brand's Luminary podcast, Under The Skin, earlier this week, the actors attacked those in the entertainment community who are urging Trump supporters to passively give up on hope of overturning the election results.

Brand asked McConaughey whether he had noticed a "condemnation and criticism of ordinary working people" by liberal Hollywood.

"[There is] a kind of offhandedness, like, 'Oh, they're dumb, they're voting for Brexit, they're voting for Trump.' I don't like it, and I don't like to hear it," Brand said.

McConaughey agreed, saying "There are a lot [of people] on that illiberal left that absolutely condescend, patronize, and are arrogant towards the other 50 percent."

The sore subject of the 2016 election was also a talking point between the actors.

"I'm sure you saw it in our industry when Trump was voted in four years ago, they were in denial that was real. Some of them were in absolute denial," McConaughey told Brand.

That attitude is hypocritical, he contended.

"[Now] it looks like Biden's our guy. Now you've got the right that's in denial, cause their side has fake news. And I understand, they've been fed fake news. No one knows what the hell to believe, right? So they're putting down their last bastion of defense,' McConaughey said.

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Matthew McConaughey And Russell Brand Slam Hollywood Hypocrites During Podcast

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Matthew McConaughey and Russell Brand have condemned the perceived hypocrisy of Hollywood political views in a raucous podcast. Speaking on Brand's Luminary podcast, Under The Skin, earlier t...

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The Opera House, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool: here, in this magnificent theatre, a metaphor as good as any for decline, Russell Brand meditates on the stage, which I think is another metaphor for decline: not of buildings, but of a political system. Brand is on his knees, sideways to the stage by a single candle, eyes closed, hands on his knees, as if in prayer.

Blackpool is odd: a suicide on morphine. Shops sell fake breasts and dildos made of sugar, or mobility scooters and junk food side by side. The pavements are smeared with filth. And yet, when you think all the ugliness in the world has gathered, you will find a ballroom dancer in black tie stealing down a street in patent shoes. Brand, too, was made for Blackpool. Destruction, and renewal.

Brand's tour, which ends today at the Brixton Academy, is a display, and the meditation is the most important part: the part that is most meaningful to him. It's the reveal of a show he calls "33" because he thought that was the age at which he would die. What is public meditation for a man as noisy and self-destructive as Brand: health signalling? Performative recovery? WELLNESS in lights? Brand is myriad - actor, polemicist, activist, comic - his most dominant self is former heroin addict. Though he is almost 20 years sober, addiction can chase a man his whole life, and terrify him with a glimpse of what he was. And yet, the man thinks, if he can meditate in front of a thousand strangers in Blackpool, he must be safe. It's a truism that a comic needs an audience more than an audience needs a comic, but it's truer of Brand than of anyone. He needs us. He says so. "How much attention does one man need?" he asks. "We don't yet know. We haven't found the upper threshold".

I am not here for Brand: not really. I have read his memoirs, and I feel I know everything he is prepared to tell us, and himself. I couldn't get through his polemic Revolution, which he wrote at his wealthy girlfriend's country house. His childhood was broken. He thought his mother's recurring cancer was his fault, and his father, on holiday, ordered prostitutes for them both in a room they shared. He almost killed himself, and then didn't. He is candid about everything except his anger: the kind of addict who is so ashamed he tells you everything. He is a very typical comedian in some ways: a man seeking his father's affirmation from the stage. He very obviously finds it agonising when hecklers interrupt him. He must be heard. He is a very typical addict too: softness and savagery twinned.

What interests me most about Brand is not him, though he is charismatic. It is his reach, the people who come to see him, and what they can tell us about political alienation. If he was a movie star in 2010 - he is an under-rated actor, not least by himself, but he's less afraid of his rage on screen - he is now a YouTube demagogue flirting with conspiracism and posting to 5.65 million followers. Typical posts are: "So...Trump was RIGHT About Clinton & Russia Collusion!!"; "You've Been LIED To About Why Ukraine War Began"; "Can We REALLY Trust Vaccine Fact-Checkers??!"

The doors open at 5pm. I watch them gather. I would call his constituency either fragile and seeking, or angry and untrusting. The first group, many of whom have risen from a sickbed, admire his personal transformation - his recovery from heroin addiction and the book he then wrote, ripped off from AA's 12 Steps: Freedom from our Addictions. You aren't supposed to monetise AA, but he has a very personal definition of humility. "You feel he really does care about people," says one woman. "He's been through so many things himself and he's still keeping going. He still comes out for people."

The second group admire his YouTube channel which segues from mistrust of the Establishment to disinformation and alienation. They ask me who I write for because they do not trust the press. "He knows exactly what's going on," says one woman. "He just makes people aware [of corruption]. I wouldn't vote for anyone. There's no one worth voting for."

I meet a superfan videoing herself by the stage door. Social media is important: as if by broadcasting, you will be listened to. It's one of his contradictions: Brand says that if we were forced to carry iPhones we would smash them up ourselves. Yet he depends on them. "Much as he is an intellectual," she says, "he teaches you in a nice way and actually I'd like to rip his pants off." Her friend likes "his videos about conspiracy things. Well, they aren't conspiracies. They are conspiracies for six months and then they are facts."

For another man, it's a modern political - or apolitical - encounter: he and Russell found each other through algorithm. "He's saying the right thing," he says. "A lot of the information that Russell finds is what I've found. Covid is an excuse for where they want to take us. It's all through fear." He fears tyranny, this man, but another contradiction is that Brand, who despises conventional political practises, will take him closer to it. "All political parties are the same", he says. "He [Brand] manages to channel anger or discontent in a positive direction."

I sit in the gods, which are like a velvet cliff edge, next to a serene sex therapist and her Italian husband. She is disappointed that Jeremy Corbyn is no longer leader of the Labour Party. She has no plan to vote in a general election: she thinks there is no point. I look up her constituency, which is a Tory/Labour marginal. Her vote does matter. But Brand, despite his personal message of empowerment, would have his followers more disempowered. It's the one thing I can't bear about him: his anti-voting message. It's fine for a rich man to shrug off politics. He doesn't need them. He can invent his own, and he does. He is not so very different from the men he despises. They lay false trails.

The show is in four parts. The first is pandemic-themed stand-up, and it is good stand-up. It's self-aware, and therefore bearable. He mocks the audience and himself. During the clap for carers, he tells us, he was a medical worker so the applause would be directed at him. He collects testimony of pandemic-themed shame from the audience - he's very interested in shame - and tells a story about a man who wiped his bum on a face mask, and a woman who drunk wine in a Zoom work meeting, and pretended it was tea. When he gets to the audience member who masturbated to something under every letter in the Pornhub alphabet, he invites us to shout the words: tea-bagging; wanking; zebra.

The second part speaks to his YouTube audience, and it's a lie: that you can be more politically engaged by placing your faith not in your democratically elected politicians but in him. Love is not a mandate - if it is even love, rather than the narcotic of attention and praise - but the root of this is clear enough: he didn't trust his father. "I don't like being told what to do," he says. "I start there". This sounds like his most authentic self. "I start at 'fuck off'."

"The system wants you hypnotised and stupefied," he says, as if government is only a meeting of Spectre. "We are told that we are participants in our democracy. That we are adults. That we matter. That our voice will be heard. That we would be able to organise society through the ballot box because you are adults and your voice matters. That is one of the myths of our time."

Brand is weirdly Manichean. He appears to divide the world into two parts, and they are solid, and immutable. The evil are evil, and will remain so. The good are here, as if buying a ticket to "33" is a kind of protective spell. Sometimes he tends to Luddism and talks as if he would like to live in some kind of idealised village, or circle, and why wouldn't he? He's strong, and a man.

The third part is the hug part, and it's the weirdest part. Having divested us of the desire for representative democracy he becomes a healer. It begins in the interval. He jumps down from the stage, and waits there, and people fill the aisles to hug him. It looks intensely silly, but they are moved by him. I wonder if this is the replacement - and true destination - for his sex addiction: intimacy, which other people have paid for. (I return, in my mind, to his father and the prostitutes.) I wonder if this is the real point of the exercise. They come, one after the after, for hugs of all kinds - swift, flirty, soulful - and photographs, and a combination of the two: the soulful hug selfie.

At the end of the show, he puts on a blue pointed party hat, like a wizard, and leaves the auditorium through the main exits, to hug people in the street outside. I notice he has a personal photographer and videographer: a slender man in black with a professional expression who follows him and who records every interaction. Does Brand archive them, and look back on them: on every piece of love? People cry in his arms. He whispers to them. He takes a picture of himself with us all behind him, like an army. It's so obviously his new addiction there is barely anything left to say: a delusion into which he carries others, by the sheer force of his charisma, and his silly pointy hat. And he won't know where to stop. He never does. And then he goes back inside for a mass meditation. The audience at Lancashire's biggest theatre close their eyes and pray.

At the end, when he has hugged everyone who waited, I listen to them praise him. "You can't have control over what's going on in the world, but you can have control over yourself," says one. It's a doctrine of renewal, but so atomised as to be meaningless. "He's got that attention to the working class," says another. "He is like us," says the third, "a free thinker [who] cares about everyone in the world, not ground down by politicians and big corporate companies. He cares about individual people."

But does he? I think he is using them, and, worse, they let him. Brand is another symptom of our alienation: of the fracturing of the institutions that we need. We will see more, and different Brands in future, as the centre falls away. They will blow in on the wind. His doctrine of disengagement will change nothing for them. Will they notice? Will they care? I wonder if, in the end, they have confused politics with love. Or, rather, magic.

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The Opera House, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool: here, in this magnificent theatre, a metaphor as good as any for decline, Russell Brand meditates on the stage, which I think is another metaphor for decline: not of buildings, but of a political system.

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New Russell Brand storm as he attacks thousands of listeners who complained about his 'Sachsgate' rant

Russell Brand, 38, left obscene messages on Andrew Sachs' machine

Forced to quid BBC Radio 2 show after Mail on Sunday exposé in 2008

Brand: 'There was obviously a pre-existing agenda to destabilise the BBC'

Sachs, 83: 'If he wants to think it's a dishonest scandal, that's up to him'

Russell Brand was facing a new storm last night after attacking the thousands of BBC licence fee payers who complained over his abusive rant at Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs.

Brand was forced to quit his BBC Radio 2 show in 2008 after The Mail on Sunday exposed obscene answer-machine messages which he and co-presenter Jonathan Ross left for Mr Sachs, then 78.
But in an interview with today's Desert Island Discs, the 38-year-old actor says the incident - dubbed 'Sachsgate' - was a 'dishonest scandal'.

He claims many of the 42,000 people who complained to the BBC either had no real idea of what they were complaining about or were motivated by an anti-BBC agenda. Brand said it was telling that the broadcast of the messages had attracted just two complaints - and that number only swelled in the light of what he said was hostile press coverage.

He says: 'There was obviously a pre-existing agenda in privately owned media to destabilise, attack and diminish the BBC.' When Desert Island Discs host Kirsty Young challenges him about whether viewers were motivated by the same agenda, he says: 'They were. Of course they were.'

But attacking his remarks, Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: 'Of course the people who complained at the time were genuinely offended by this man's actions. The fact that he doesn't seem to realise that shows that he hasn't learnt anything.'

The messages left by Brand and Ross concerned Mr Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie, a burlesque dancer and Brand's former girlfriend. He tells Ms Young the fact the comedy veteran was booked as a future guest on the same show showed the incident in a different light. Brand says: 'The situation with the granddaughter had been talked about in a previous show.

'I would always talk about things from my personal life on that radio show in a relatively respectful, cheeky way. The subsequent week Andrew Sachs was booked to come on the show as a guest on the phone.

'I think what people imagined happened is that I went, "Right, let's leave a message for Andrew Sachs." That is not what happened. What happened was he didn't answer the phone and so I said, "Right, let's leave a message." '

Brand says he accepts it was 'really, really wrong' to leave 'embarrassing and upsetting messages'.

But he adds: 'It is offensive if someone calls up an answerphone, does some swearing and hangs up. But if, incrementally, that act is led to by a series of innuendo and jokes, it's a different thing. It's still a thing that is wrong but it is not the thing that they are offended by.'

Brand also says his desire to start a family is 'almost unseemly' - but refuses to talk about his failed marriage to Katy Perry.

Last night Andrew Sachs said: 'My thoughts are the same as they were. We kept silent at the time and I don't want to have an opinion on it. If he wants to think it's a dishonest scandal, then that's up to him.'

The show is broadcast on BBC Radio  4 at 11.15am today.

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New Russell Brand storm as he attacks thousands of listeners who complained about his 'Sachsgate' rant

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Russell Brand, 38, left obscene messages on Andrew Sachs' machine Forced to quid BBC Radio 2 show after Mail on Sunday exposé in 2008 Brand: 'There was obviously a pre-existing agenda to destabilise the BBC' Sachs, 83: 'If he wants to think it's a dishonest scandal, that's up to him' Russell Brand was facing a new storm last night after attacking the thousands of BBC licence fee payers who complained over his abusive rant at Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs.

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Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross could face prosecution after obscene on air phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor, 78

The BBC could face prosecution over obscene phone calls that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made to 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

The controversial presenters left a series of lewd messages on Mr Sachs's answerphone claiming, in shockingly explicit language, that Brand had had sex with his granddaughter, Georgina.

Mr Sachs, who played waiter Manuel in the classic sitcom, was left deeply upset by the crude calls - which were also broadcast to about two million listeners to Brand's Radio 2 show. And Georgina's distraught mother, Kate, said last night: 'It's awful.'

Astonishingly, senior BBC executives cleared the offensive messages for broadcast, even though making abusive phone calls is a criminal offence.

Last night, the Corporation faced calls for disciplinary action to be taken against their highly-paid stars, with one Tory MP saying they had 'overstepped the mark'.

Mr Sachs's agent said his client had been 'terribly hurt' by the comments and had made a formal complaint to the BBC.

The calls about his granddaughter were made during an episode of Brand's Saturday night Radio 2 programme, co-hosted by Ross to help publicise his new book.

Shortly before they contacted Mr Sachs for a pre-arranged telephone interview, Brand said: 'In a minute we're going to be talking to Andrew Sachs, Manuel actor. The elephant in the room is, what Andrew doesn't know is, I've slept with his granddaughter.'

The comedian then rang Mr Sachs. When the veteran actor didn't answer his telephone, Brand left a message during which Ross shouted 'He ****** your granddaughter!', generating raucous laughter from the studio.

Ross subsequently speculated that Brand had 'enjoyed' Georgina on a swing. The pair then decided to ring Mr Sachs again to apologise. When he repeatedly failed to answer, Ross and Brand left three further messages, making the situation worse.

During one message, Brand said: 'I wore a condom.' In another, which took the form of an impromptu song, Brand sang: 'I'd like to apologise for the terrible attacks, Andrew Sachs . . . I said some things I didn't of oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter, though it was consensual . . . it was consensual lovely sex. It was full of respect, I sent her a text, I've asked her to marry me, Andrew Sachs.'

Ross could be heard singing quietly to himself: 'Your granddaughter ...she was bent over the couch...'

Later in the programme Brand even joked about the idea that Mr Sachs might consider suicide as a result of their comments.

Imagining a news bulletin, he said: 'The main news again. Manuel Andrew Sachs hung himself today...'

Brand's show sometimes goes out live, but the offending episode was prerecorded to fit around Brand and Ross's other commitments. According to the BBC, 'a senior editorial figure signed off the programme, including its strong language, before it was broadcast'.

The show, which aired between 9pm and 11pm on October 18, remained on the BBC's iPlayer website last week, where listeners could hear it again.

Ross, 47, and Brand, 33, are among the BBC's highest-paid stars. Ross
is paid £6million a year for his TV chat show, Radio 2 show and film review programme, while Brand is thought to be paid a six-figure sum for his weekly radio show.

The pair, who are close friends, are notorious for their use of swear words and have courted controversy throughout their careers. In 2006 Ross caused a storm by asking Conservative leader David Cameron if he had ever had teenage sexual fantasies about former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 'in stockings' and referring to a lewd act.

Brand, who once dated Kate Moss, caused outrage in July for making a prank call to Northamptonshire Police, claiming he had spotted a sex attacker. And in 2006, he became embroiled in a public row with Rod Stewart after boasting at an awards ceremony that he had slept with the rocker's daughter, Kimberly.

During the Radio 2 show in which they offended Mr Sachs, both men also discussed what it would be like to have sex with actress Helen Mirren.

Ross also appeared to breach the terms of his lucrative BBC contract by indicating his support for Labour. He said: 'I like him [Gordon Brown]. If I could say where I'm going to vote, I'd vote for them. But I can't say where I'm voting because I'm forbidden by my BBC contract.'

Mr Sachs, who was born in Germany but emigrated to Britain in 1938 to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews, still works regularly on TV and radio, including Radio 4's spiritual programme Something Understood.

A spokesman for the actor said: 'Andrew is deeply upset by this and terribly hurt. He can't understand why it happened and was particularly sorry that they kept leaving messages on his answerphone.'

Last night, Kate said her 23-year-old daughter did not want to comment.

A BBC spokesman said: 'Two complaints were received regarding Russell Brand's show on October 18.' But he would not reveal their content, saying that they were for 'internal use'.

He added: 'We are not aware of any complaint being made by
Mr Sachs.'

Anyone found guilty of making malicious or abusive phone calls can be fined or sentenced to up to six months in prison, although a Scotland Yard spokesman said there was no record of Mr Sachs filing a complaint.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: 'I know Jonathan Ross has been handsomely rewarded by the BBC for being rude, inappropriate and as vile as possible, but I would hope that even the BBC would accept he's overstepped the mark this time.

'In any other walk of life, anyone who did this type of thing would face serious disciplinary proceedings.

I hope the BBC will consider what consequences there may be if they don't take him to task for this.'

Last night, Brand, clearly worried about the listener backlash against his phone calls, made a sniggering, mealy-mouthed apology on his show.

He said: 'It was quite funny, but sometimes you mustn't swear on someone's answerphone, and that's why I'd like to apologise personally.'

But he then replayed the most offensive of last week's calls, and said: 'It might not be popular, with its barbershop style, but on the other hand I did rhyme "consensual" with "menstrual".'

Brand's spokesman said they had nothing to add to the BBC's comments, while Jonathan Ross's agent did not return calls.

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Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross could face prosecution after obscene on air phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor, 78

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The BBC could face prosecution over obscene phone calls that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made to 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs. The controversial presenters left a series of lewd messages on Mr Sachs's answerphone claiming, in shockingly explicit language, that Brand had had sex with his granddaughter, Georgina.

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Article Explaining Brand's Past Exploits

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Article Explaining Brand's Past Exploits

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This article views Brand's career through the most notable controversies that he has been involved in. The image of Brand represented through the article utilises a lack of context to shift the reader to disassociate with Brand and his ideals. Its interesting to note however that these controversies haven't damaged Brand's career as the persona he has adopted through different mediums is presented as counter normative. The controversies listed here attempt to deconstruct Brand's socio political identity and YouTube videos through these controversies. This shows how Brand's career is often seen within a controversial light.

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The Backlash Against Russell Brand, Explained

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Russell Brand faced backlash after his YouTube channel appeared to make a rightward shift.

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Like most broadcast media, Brand's videos run with advertising and are optimised for clicks, shares and audience interests. And the audience Brand has built would be the envy of most media organisations. Currents are shifting. Doesn't that mean he is now the mainstream?

"Maybe the mainstream media, we could say, is a nexus of intersecting interests that are abiding by the same implicit and sometimes explicit codes; where there are ownership models that are possibly biased and influence the nature of their reporting," he answers.

"This is stuff that's been spoken about from Chomsky onwards, but has become - oddly, given the availability of information - more concentrated.

"I suppose it's part of, at bare minimum, a triumvirate of establishment power: the media, government, big business."

So how would he fix it?

"I don't know, is the short answer."

The longer answer takes in fixing society in its entirety. "Decentralisation, devolution, where possible. What I mean by that is more assemblies, more juries, more control over your own workplaces, schools, hospitals and communities.

"In one word: democracy. Actual democracy, not democracy on a blade of fear and desire.

"Democracy where you look at the full gamut of possibilities of the ways that we might live. Accepting that tradition has to be observed at the same time as progressivism, where some people want to raise their children gender neutral and other people want to raise their kids double Orthodox, and both of those perspectives are going to have to be respected, otherwise we're going to live in continual tension.

"I feel like we need to bring spirituality to the forefront of our politics. What I mean by spirituality is what I would call Sesame Street values: kindness, service, community. The values and morals our grandparents had."

Brand is a talented communicator. He's always had a way with words, which either delight and enlighten or flummox you into submission.

Google his name and this is top of the suggested queries that comes up: 'Is Russell Brand intelligent?'

Photo courtesy of Russell Brand

In every video he is at pains to say he doesn't have all the answers, instead we're encouraged to ask questions. Is that his definition of intelligence? Knowing that he doesn't know everything?

"No, my definition of intelligence is the definition of intelligence, which is the ability to observe patterns. David Beckham is intelligent because he knows how to spot patterns. Stephen Hawking is intelligent because he knows how to spot patterns. Piers Morgan is intelligent because he knows how to spot patterns.

"This is necessary for our species to evolve. If you can recognise patterns, whether it's migratory behaviours of quarry, the movement of currents or the sun across the sky, you will be at an advantage and your genes will survive. Now, in evolved, advanced primates such as us, intelligence can become more refined: linguistic, mathematical, geopolitical.

"That is a definition of intelligence that I enjoy because if you have the basic skillset of being able to observe patterns, it doesn't allow you to classify certain types of information as valuable and others as not valuable. Although context is everything."

Another definition for intelligence would be "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills", according to the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary. Implicit in this is understanding that some information is objectively more valuable than other information.

In a vaccine-related video uploaded the day before we speak, he said: "Follow your heart, follow your intelligence, follow whatever information appeals to you." That could act as a signpost directing viewers from healthy scepticism to confirmation bias and onwards down a slippery slope to conspiracy.

The idea of reasonable readers and perfect information relies on everyone knowing everything and making up their own mind. That's not the reality, especially in YouTube's world of recommendations, echo chambers and rabbit holes.

There has been increasing criticism of Brand's content. The alarmist titles and presentation that don't necessarily reflect all available information. A video on censorship and, ironically, misinformation talks about "the knee-jerk condemnation of Russian cultural artefacts", featuring a Cardiff orchestra who pulled Tchaikovsky pieces from a concert.

Brand sees this as "reminiscent of the 1940s where we're smashing up Italian ice cream shops" but doesn't present their side of the story. The programme contained two military themed pieces that were withdrawn to respect a member of the orchestra who had family directly involved in the Ukraine situation. That doesn't get a mention in Brand's video. And, to be fair, plenty of other media also covered this story without asking the orchestra for the reasons behind their decision.

A statement from the orchestra read: "We have no plans to change our summer and autumn programmes which contain pieces by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Rimsky-Korsakoff... this is a one-off decision made with the best of intentions."

This is a minor moment in this one video, let alone in the context of what's happening in Ukraine, but it illustrates that facts can be cherry-picked, accidentally or not, to make a point. Things can be partly true without being entirely true. Mixing some facts in with conjecture doesn't always equal complete truth.

Presenting a balance of evidence is hard, but Brand's videos - with their clickbait headlines - are reminiscent of the worst habits of the mainstream media, which damaged their reputation in the first place.

Brand had been the subject of not one but three opinion columns from the Independent in the two days before we spoke. He responded in a video called 'My Response' decrying the title's Saudi shareholders.

Does Brand think that was establishment collusion at play or just different commissioning desks not talking to each other?

"I don't know. What do you think?"

Speaking from experience, it's more likely colleagues not communicating and looking at the analytics, rather than orders from above to take you down.

"It's probably just a coalescent set of interests that always head in that direction," he says. "Like if your sponsors all come from a particular place, the ad revenue is all driven by data capturing from the readers, you don't need to do that."

"It's like, once someone's playing for Liverpool, you don't have to tell them not to score a goal for Everton!"

. But sticking to the football analogy, Brand has a squad of defenders. The latest signing is Elon Musk who told his almost 80 million followers:

"With so many mainstream media companies saying @rustyrockets is crazy/dangerous, I watched some of his videos. Ironically, he seemed more balanced & insightful than those condemning him!

"The groupthink among major media companies is more troubling. There should be more dissent."

With so many mainstream media companies saying @rustyrockets is crazy/dangerous, I watched some of his videos. Ironically, he seemed more balanced & insightful than those condemning him!

The groupthink among major media companies is more troubling. There should be more dissent.
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2022

Those comments were welcome. "As Elon Musk kindly observed," Brand says, "I'm being accused of being radical and dangerous. You can look into my eyes and see if you think I'm telling you the truth."

And Brand is completely genuine. But truth is complicated.

That's why he encourages people to ask questions. But if we've to be distrustful of the established establishment, where do we find answers?

"Obviously it would depend on the question, hugely. I wouldn't say this is as simple as, 'why don't you look for a new news source?'

"Think about how the way you live today is connected to what you evolved for. Because when you came out of your mother, that infant was expecting to be living in a hunter-gatherer tribal society. Everything that's happened to it since has been a jarring shock. And the psychological consequences you are experiencing are the result of that.

"This body and this consciousness evolved to survive in certain conditions for hundreds of thousands of years. We lived in tribal communities that broadly speaking, as best as I understand it, were - to a degree - democratically run. Everyone wasn't sitting around threading daisies through their hair, there was a lot of problems, people were doing human sacrifices and flinging people off pyramids and all sorts of stuff. But we recognise that our identity as individuals, while sacred and important, intersects meaningfully with our identity as a member of a community.

"You can map that onto communities of 30 or 150 people. When you map it onto communities of 60 million or 300 million there starts to be a little bit of tension. Some of the cultural issues would not be so spiky if people didn't think we all have to be homogenised into one unit."

I tell Brand that I agree with what he says in some videos but I disagree with others. So what's a constructive way to disagree with someone who has different opinions?

"I reckon just to communicate. Sometimes, like anybody, I get attached to my opinion and my view, and I can get defensive or argumentative about it. But the truth is, I don't know anything.

"I do videos all the time, I go, 'yeah, I said that - that weren't right'. It's hard enough to just be in a family and to look after the dog properly. I don't think I know the answer to complex geopolitical issues with rich and contradictory and complex histories.

"We should communicate with one another from a position of good faith, accepting that other people might know stuff that we don't know, and hopefully vice versa."

How does he decide what to talk about each day?

"I have a team of people and we just talk about what's in the news," he says, explaining that the team has differing political views - "we don't agree on some pretty fundamental things" - and that content is aimed at a growing audience based in the US."

When did America start awakening to his YouTube channel?

"I don't know. But I try to keep things as universal as possible."

Planning a US tour any time?

"Not planning but I might do one. A friend of mine, who also is married into the royal family, said that other than the Queen of England, I was the most English person she knew. So, like, I belong here.

"I've got kids and dogs and cats and stuff. I like it here. It's hard enough going to Hull or Plymouth or Bristol... That bloody great big, sprawling, blocky continent. I'm sure I will go."

Brand is currently part-way through a UK tour, named 33 - the age Brand didn't think he'd live past. It begins with the audience sharing some of the mad ways they coped with lockdown before Brand retraces the already surreal-seeming period of our history, taking at least one positive from it: "You now know society can be radically reorganised overnight. You can't say it can't any more. It can. We've all just seen it."

So after two years of nobody going out, what's the energy like in the room?

"Magnificent. There is a new kind of seriousness and urgency. People are looking for more than entertainment.

"The reason I'm doing a tour is because I want to go to Scarborough, I want to be in Glasgow and Plymouth and Stockton-on-Tees. I like the people in this country. I like seeing their faces. I don't like the continual attempts to divide people around whatever single divisive issue it is that day - Brexit. 'Oh people that voted Brexit, they're all morons up north and they don't understand.' I don't trust that at all.

Russell Brand, photo supplied

"Being with people gives me a great deal of faith and hope in people. Even though, let's face it, there's enough to get desperate and despairing about, it's pivotal and necessary that we come together, literally, and ideologically."

For those who wish to stay at the end of the show, Brand leads a meditation session. "I do put quite a lot of effort into remaining calm. It's strange for us to think about stuff like that. But we accept that everyone goes to bed and dreams all night, we accept that the moon has a consistent influence on tides and menstruation."

The show starts at 6pm. "Punishingly early," he says. "And it goes on so late - punishingly late. Make sure you put in that it's punishing."

In the days before the interview I tried to guess what Brand's next video would be each day. I was thinking about his tour of regional theatres when news of the theatre bombing in Mariupol came through. I thought touring similar-sized venues might have prompted him to talk about that. I was disappointed when he didn't and instead the next video was about neo-Nazi factions in the Ukrainian army.

Why does he feel like he always has to go for the counter narrative? Is sometimes the real narrative not compelling enough?

"You said 'real narrative'. I'll remind you what Chomsky said to Andrew Marr when Andrew Marr said, no one's told me what to say: 'What I'm telling you is that if you didn't agree with what they wanted you to agree with, you wouldn't be sitting in that chair'. Often we don't even know. We just unconsciously say, 'real narrative'.

"That's an ideological thing and not an accusation, by the way. But what I will say is when we're selecting the content, we don't go: 'What's on the news?' - because that's on the news.

"It's not to negate or to say 'that's just not true'. Because if there's been a pile-up on the M25, there's been a pile up on the M25. If there's been some terrible devastation in a war zone, there's been terrible devastation in a war zone. What else might be relevant in the way we discuss these things?"

What is the consequence of only consuming counter narratives? Who's to say if Brand's audience is also watching Clive Myrie on News at Ten as a counterpoint, or launching headfirst into the darker corners of the internet where debate grows distant from the facts.

"Based on what I read in the comments they come from a wide and varied background with a wide and varied set of interests, probably like people that are watching a football match, or a makeup tutorial, or anything," he says."If you're not willing to have conversations with people you don't agree with, who are you going to have conversations with?

"The people that you love most in the world you disagree with all of the time.

"Surely our aim is to get to a point where we operate in good faith. Like, I'm going to love this person and see if we can, through open communication, get somewhere together."
Russell Brand is now on tour in the UK
This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed, marginalised and vulnerable people the opportunity to earn an income. You can support them by buying a magazine. If you cannot reach local your vendor, you can still click You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the or Google Play. to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. russellbrand.com/live-dates/
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Russell Brand: 'Look into my eyes and see if you think I'm telling you the truth' - The Big Issue

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Like most broadcast media, Brand's videos run with advertising and are optimised for clicks, shares and audience interests. And the audience Brand has built would be the envy of most media organisations. Currents are shifting. Doesn't that mean he is now the mainstream?

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Represents how Brand's political involvement engaged interest within youth culture. The article itself compares Brand's success to the failures of MP's who struggle to interact and relate to Youth culture. The source itself presents Brand's image as relatable showing how his hybridised identity was effective within political cultures.

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Responses from young people to Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand have been overwhelmingly positive, despite critics dismissing it as a sign of madness.

The Sun called Labour the "Monster raving Labour party", the Daily Mail asked if we "really want this clown ruling us", and the Telegraph ran an article about the "silly stunt from a party whose hypocrisy defies belief". However, the general consensus across social media, as well as among a selection of the Guardian's polled voters, was that Miliband's decision to meet Brand was completely vindicated.

Wednesday's 15-minute interview was published on Brand's YouTube channel and has now received more than 500,000 views. As a point of comparison, the portrait of Ed Miliband released on Labour's YouTube channel on Wednesday has had 28,000 views.
The numbers
In the course of the Brand interview, the Labour leader insisted he would stand up to big businesses, expounded the value of voting, warned about the threat to living standards posed by Conservative spending cuts and claimed Rupert Murdoch was "much less powerful than he used to be".

As a result, Google said searches for the Labour leader jumped by 17%, making him the most searched for party leader on the search engine on Thursday. The top Miliband queries were :

1. Ed Miliband Russell Brand
2. Ed Miliband Russell Brand interview
3. Ed Miliband Russell Brand YouTube
4. The Trews Ed Miliband
5. Russell Brand Ed Miliband full interview

Brand, an outspoken critic of voting and the political system, backed Miliband over the need for credible change, stating: "I completely agree with you, Ed. We don't want some giddy, Yes-we-can euphoria ... People don't want euphoria this time. People want security and stability and an end to this fear." The comedian has almost 10m Twitter followers and more than 1 million people have subscribed to his YouTube channel, so his remarks will not go unnoticed.

The response

David Cameron said he had no time to hang out with the "joke" Brand, despite a ComRes poll suggesting 40% of young people "wish more people like Russell Brand got involved in politics". Even Nick Clegg criticised his coalition partner for his "po-faced piety", claiming that it was "an insight into quite how mind-numbingly dull the Conservative party campaign has become that they've become so critical when anybody choses to do anything a little bit differently".

All of the young voters contacted by pollsters BritainThinks - who have joined the Guardian to track the political mood of the nation - said they liked Brand and had a lot more respect for him than individual politicians.

In a focus group in Dewsbury, young people said they were impressed that someone as radical and anti-establishment as Brand had found some common ground with Miliband. Those who had seen Cameron dismiss Brand and Miliband as a "joke" felt that this was naïve and reflected badly on the prime minister.

BritainThinks' Cordelia Hay, who conducted the focus group, said: "There was some cynicism underlying the whole thing - they saw it as a very blatant attempt to reach the youth vote and felt that Miliband was a little bit clumsy in his performance with the weird cockney accents.

"But they said that ultimately this didn't really matter - they were pleased that one of the main parties was trying a bit harder to engage with younger people and felt that, on the whole, Miliband came across well, managing to get across some good ideas and policies.

"They said that it felt like an important and positive election moment when there haven't been many and brought it up spontaneously when I asked about 'key election moments that have changed your mind or confirmed your view'."

Among those who took part in the Dewsbury focus group, Uwais, 25, said: "I thought it was good - he [Brand] was asking the right questions, the questions I would want to ask. He surprised me, Miliband. He came across well, he handled it well, he had some good ideas."

Yedidia, 18, said: "I saw it on Facebook and read comments about it. I think it was targeted more at our generation. Everyone on Facebook was saying Miliband did well."

Husna, 23, said: "I really like Russell Brand. David Cameron said something about Russell Brand being a joke and so Miliband was a joke, but I think he said that because he was intimidated. Russell Brand is very, very confident and for Ed Miliband to go and be interviewed by him knowing what views he has I think it was quite challenging.

"Ed Miliband has done well. You can't ignore people like Brand who say 'don't vote' because I'm at uni and I've never once had a conversation with other students about voting, and the youth vote matters. Cameron's being a bit naïve to think that Brand doesn't matter because he does."

Among those who noted their responses on the BritainThinks mobile app, Joanna, 22, from the Ealing Central & Acton constituency said: "I initially thought Ed was an idiot for having an interview with Russell Brand. Brand is anarchical in his views and it seems odd that a politician would even entertain a debate with him - almost like mixing oil and water.

"However, I actually think it is a great thing to have done, and that Miliband did something really important today. His policies weren't impressive, the interview didn't make me more pro-Labour, but it made me respect Miliband for encouraging people to vote through an interview that will be watched by a very different group to the one watching the election debates on the BBC."

Rochella, 18, from South Thanet, said: "Fair play to Ed for doing the interview with Russell Brand. As Brand said at the end, Ed understands 'how the media works' now and clearly did this interview as it probably has an entirely different audience perhaps to those who watch BBC News. I found it helpful, helped me understand that change, not just in politics, but in anything we do takes time. There are no instant results with anything."
Conclusions
Miliband defended his decision to give the interview to Brand, saying he wanted to engage people who did not vote. "You've got millions more people who may well not vote who are not watching, frankly, who are not watching, not listening and are planning not to vote and therefore I will do anything and engage with anyone to try and persuade people to vote," he said.

The outcome of his attempts can be summarised as thus: Frost/Nixon it was not, but it certainly struck a chord with the target audience.

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Ed Miliband's Russell Brand interview receives positive youth response

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Responses from young people to Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand have been overwhelmingly positive, despite critics dismissing it as a sign of madness. The Sun called Labour the "Monster raving Labour party", the Daily Mail asked if we "really want this clown ruling us", and the Telegraph ran an article about the "silly stunt from a party whose hypocrisy defies belief".

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Milibrand: The Interview - OFFICIAL VIDEO The Trews (E309)

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The chapter 'Resolution' within this source depicts specifically the route in which sports stars have to endure in order to regain their career and reputation after par taking in doping and PED's. Whilst this doesn't relate directly to Brand's career the explanation of redemption within the context of stardom does. As the source effectively represents Brand's story of redemption through his sobriety

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Normalisation of Drug Use in British Media

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Normalisation of Drug Use in British Media

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The content within this article is relevant to the construction of Brand's image as he recounts numerous stories about drug use within his routine. Thus representing how the normalised nature of drug use within the UK worked to benefit and commercialise Brand's early image

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'A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity' Richard Dyer (1991)

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'A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity' Richard Dyer (1991)

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Richard Dyer's chapter on authenticity is a good link to Brand's fluctuating image as it relates directly to multiple personas that he adopts throughout his career. Brand's authenticty is a key part to his the success of his star image.

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Represents Brand as a counter normative figure especially when considered to mainstream media and socio-political discourse about vaccination within the UK.

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If there's one thing few people had on their 2021 bingo cards, it would be anti-vaxxers becoming enamored with British comedian Russell Brand for his conspiracy theory-laden YouTube channel.

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor has always presented himself as a contrarian-a "free-thinker" who isn't afraid to challenge established views or spout off at the government (both U.K. and U.S.).

But recently, Brand, who always seemed to skew left in his political beliefs, has found a loyal fanbase in right-wing conservatives and anti-vaxxers who have flocked to his YouTube and Facebook accounts, hailing the 46-year-old as a so-called "voice of reason."

He's played heavy to this fanbase, interviewing right-wing trolls Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, although he does disagree with them on certain points. In June, he asked his watchers if he should accept Fox News' invitation to appear on the network; most agreed he should. "I would suggest Tucker; he's very fair," one fan commented.

The titles of his videos are often designed to delight or infuriate, depending on the viewer's political stance, leaning heavily on incredulous clickbait titles such as: " Thought Biden Couldn't Sink Any Lower?? THINK AGAIN!!," " Did Liberals Use Feminism to Justify Afghan Cluster F*ck?," " SHOCKING Wuhan Evidence: Did Fauci LIE?," and " So...Trump was RIGHT About Clinton & Russia."

But for the past few weeks, Brand has also taken issue with the vaccine, casting doubt on the trustworthiness of the FDA, asking if vaccine mandates are an assault on people's bodily freedoms, calling the vaccine a "gold rush," and pondering whether people could trust Bill Gates. Most recently, Brand declared that there was a "vaccine apartheid," going after CNN anchor Don Lemon after he called out people who refused to get vaccinated.

And Brand has struck a viewership goldmine with his videos. His videos, which appear to be monetized, often rack up millions of views across YouTube and Facebook, and his comment sections have become hotbeds of misinformation.

His viewership has railed against Dr. Anthony Fauci, mocked the phrase "follow the science," talked about microdosing with ivermectin, and claimed loved ones had passed away as a result of getting the vaccine.

"Either he had a complete awakening after I last checked or either I was completely wrong about him," a user commented on Brand's video about the alleged untrustworthiness of Facebook putting disclaimers on posts that contain medical misinformation. "I thought he was one of these crazy people who think CNN is real news."

On Wednesday, YouTube announced it planned to crack down on content posted to its platform that spread medical misinformation, saying it had already removed more than 130,000 videos within the past year that violated its COVID-19 vaccine policies. YouTube said of Brand's channel, "We're reviewing the videos raised by The Daily Beast."

Brand's YouTube channel has long been a haphazard and rambling space where the comedian posted conversation-style videos-picking a controversial hot topic, political or trivial, and rattling off his take for the next 10 minutes, occasionally interviewing a guest about the matter.

While these videos didn't necessarily flop, Brand only recently found his core viewership when he began discussing COVID-19 and political hot topics after Donald Trump left office.

And for all of Brand's clickbait titles, his actual videos aren't as incendiary as their names suggest. He tends to aimlessly circle the topic, repeating the dubious vaccine-skeptic claims of others while offering precious little insight of his own, playing the role of the guy "just asking questions." For instance, in " Can We REALLY Trust Vaccine Fact-Checkers??!" he simply reads through a dubious report by Russia's state-controlled news arm RT line by line, going on various tangents. A December 2020 video titled, " Covid Vaccine - Skepticism or Trust?," released just as the vaccine was rolling out in the U.K., saw Brand airing a series of clips of vaccine skeptics being interviewed on the street, before sharing, "I'm certainly by no means saying 'Don't take a vaccine,' neither am I saying 'Do take a vaccine'" and railing against an increase in "government authority" and decrease in "personal liberties" that is "concerning."

In " Vaccine Mandates: An ASSAULT On Your Bodily Freedoms?," published on Sept. 16, Brand opined, "The idea of mandating something, that's authoritarianism. That's what that is. That's telling people they have to do stuff... I think that it's pretty significant and serious around this issue, even though I would never tell anybody what they should do with their own body, that's my personal perspective..." He later falsely claimed that "everyone went along with [the lockdowns] patriotically" during the early stages of the pandemic, and to impose mandates now would violate "the principles of freedom... the very principles that countries like the United States of America were founded on."

After Joe Rogan admitted he had contracted COVID-19 and was taking ivermectin, which is also used to deworm horses, to treat it, Brand quickly jumped at the chance to lament how the media was "deeply cynical about the method of his treatment."

"[What] I find interesting is the way that Rogan is being treated by what you'd have to call the mainstream media and their appetite to condemn, and in some ways, with particular bias," he says, while neglecting to mention that the FDA had warned people against using the drug to treat COVID-19 due to its dangerous side effects.

He then reads off journalist Matt Taibbi's Substack post about ivermectin and its popularity among those who lean right politically, and says people should recognize that "science is not free from biases, [and] science exists within certain economic and financial constraints with certain economic and financial imperatives."

"I'm not recommending anyone does anything," Brand later clarifies, saying he doesn't want any "aggravation" from YouTube. "I really don't feel inclined to or qualified to do anything of that nature."

And in his takedown of Lemon's appearance on Chris Cuomo's CNN show, he reads through a New York Times story and recent Kaiser Family Foundation report that breaks down groups that are unvaccinated and their reasons for doing so. He quickly brushes past those who refuse to get the vaccine because of their religious beliefs, reasoning they value their personal liberties and their primary authority is religion-based, rather than taking edicts from the government. Brand then parses the KFF report, pointing out minority groups' valid concerns about getting the vaccine, such as obtaining childcare so they can get their shot, worries about missing work if they experience side effects, and hesitancy about getting a vaccine that hadn't been FDA-approved. He fails to mention the extreme rarity of people having severe side effects to the vaccines and then makes a side note that the FDA is untrustworthy even if it did approve Pfizer's vaccine.

Dr. Sadiya Khan, an epidemiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, told The Daily Beast that while she would never have any issue with Brand or anyone else asking questions about the vaccine or being hesitant to take it, she says it's important to get their answers from a trusted source.

"I think it's really important for everyone to think for themselves," she says. "I am not frustrated at all by individual-level questions, by individual-level discussion, or making sure that individual concerns are addressed. What's frustrating is when there is not rational conversation, when there is misinformation, or blatant lies as related to the FDA approval."

Dr. Rebecca Weintraub, an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, agrees. "I think the most important thing is going to the source and looking at the original data for these discussions and decisions."

"There has been both a mistrust in science and a politicization of this pandemic," she adds. "We understand why folks are questioning and asking good questions about the vaccine. We are recommending that folks initiate a conversation with a provider they know to speak directly with a provider who's trained as a clinician."

Even if someone has a distrust of government organizations, both Khan and Weintraub say they should still go to the CDC and FDA websites and review the primary data as part of their information-gathering.

But Weintraub and Khan draw the line at Brand seeming to signal-boost the idea that it's safe to take medicines such as Ivermectin as an alternative method to treat or stave off COVID-19.

"It's almost comical that the vaccine side effects are being used as a reason not to proceed with something that is safe, effective, and has been shown to protect one against COVID," Khan says. "Then use a medicine that has no evidence whatsoever for protection, but can give you headache, dizziness, muscle pain, nausea, or diarrhea to list some side effects."

"The medicines he's mentioning do not work for treating COVID-19, there is no data," Weintraub adds. "There's no reliable data. I wouldn't give it to my family member; I wouldn't give it to a patient. I would not as a physician, I would not give you medicine that does not work to treat COVID-19."

Weintraub urges people who are hesitant about getting the vaccine to listen to the experts, in the same way you would listen to experts of other industries.

"The example that comes to mind is, when I bring my car in for repair and I ask my mechanic, 'Are the brakes working?' And he says, 'Yes, I tested them, they're safe, you can drive the car.' And I get in the car and I drive along, acknowledging the expertise of my mechanic that he's tested the brakes. There's times when it's a rare event and my brakes don't work. But I've relied on the right expertise, not assuming I can become an expert overnight in mechanics."

Khan acknowledges that in this era of mass information with multiple differing opinions and beliefs, it can be difficult to know who to trust, especially when the information is coming from a high-profile figure.

For a celebrity such as Brand with millions of followers, Weintraub says he has taken on the responsibility of giving accurate info to those looking to him for advice. But she says that experts are more than happy to help out and come on his platform to make sure his followers have the best information available.

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Russell Brand Has Become a Powerful Voice for Anti-Vaxxers

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If there's one thing few people had on their 2021 bingo cards, it would be anti-vaxxers becoming enamored with British comedian Russell Brand for his conspiracy theory-laden YouTube channel. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor has always presented himself as a contrarian-a "free-thinker" who isn't afraid to challenge established views or spout off at the government (both U.K.

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This source looks at the rebranding of Brand within a negative light stating that the intentions of Brand are purely commercial and that his route to sobriety and self care is a performance to further Brand's career. The source also includes contextual details regarding Brand's early life and career.

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The Podcast Under the Skin with Russel Brand is rooted through Brand's modern image within the more recent stages of his career. While much of the career is rooted through Brand's sobriety it takes on a different tone when comparing the content of his sobriety with his earlier comedic work regarding it. Within the podcast Brand utilises his experiences with addiction to provide both spiritual and life advice. Whilst this is still the commercialisation of Brand's sobriety its held within a tone which doesn't necessarily consider the topic as a funny or entertaining one. However, Brand's image within the podcast is still eccentric and entertaining.

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Listen to Under The Skin with Russell Brand on Spotify.

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Within Big Brother's Big Mouth Brand represents a consistent persona similar to that which is utilised within his stand up comedy. This consistency through different entertainment mediums creates a level of authenticity through Brand's early star image.

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Big Brother UK - Russell Brands Best Bits

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Brand's channel is a great representation how his current and most recent image. The channel itself displays all his most recent podcast episodes swell as shorter videos which tackle issues surrounding global and social politics

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Welcome to my YouTube channel! Everybody knows that the old ideas won't help us. Religion is dead. Capitalism is dead. Communism is dead. Where will the answers of the next century lie? Particularly, when we're facing a mental health epidemic and ecological melt down.

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Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married for just 14 months before Russell filed for divorce and informed her via text on New Year's Eve 2011

Theirs was a whirlwind romance fit for a Hollywood movie.

She was the rising popstar, he was a comedian-turned actor who was just breaking into the US, and from their very first date, Katy Perry and Russell Brand were smitten.

"You're a mermaid and I'm drowning," Russell told the Teenage Dream singer as he drove her home in September 2009, before gifting her with a sensational black diamond necklace.

A besotted Russell popped the question just three months later in a tent at the foot of a mountain in India on New Year's Eve.

They tied the knot in a lavish Indian ceremony in October 2010 and got matching 'Anuugacchati Pravaha' tattoos, translated as 'go with the flow'.

But just months in, rumours of trouble in paradise began to swirl. Recovered drug addict Russell, then 36, and his 25-year-old wife were said to be clashing over everything from her partying and when to have children through to his stand up jokes.
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What's more, her mammoth 122-date California Dreams tour kept her away from home and the accompanying Part Of Me documentary showed Katy repeatedly curled up crying in her dressing room after yet another long-distance row with her husband.

And a source told The Mirror at the time they quickly realised they had 'nothing in common'.

"Russell left his party lifestyle behind a long time ago because it nearly killed him. All he wanted to do is stay at home, do his yoga, keep his demons away and have a family with Katy," the source said.

"But when Katy had rare time off from her touring all she wanted to do was go out partying in Hollywood.

"After the high of the wedding, reality kicked in. Katy was away all the time. Russell couldn't handle it."

Another problem was that Russell wanted to start a family but Katy didn't feel ready.

"[Russell] really wanted me to have children, and I knew I wasn't ready," she told Marie Claire of wanting to steer the course of her own life.

"I think it was part of, If I have a kid - I'd have to be home more."

Even comedian David Badiel - who is good friends with Russell attended their wedding - said the warning signs were there before they even got hitched.

He once recalled: "I was there... Russell did tell me that they had a big row the night before they got married.

"I did think when he said that, of asking, 'Are you sure?' but I didn't say that. Perhaps I should have done."

For Katy's part, she was apparently furious when she went to surprise her husband at a stand up gig only to find him making jokes about their marriage.

Furthermore, she claimed the presenter and actor struggled with her success and power.

"At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they're like, I can't handle the equalness," she later told Vogue.

"He didn't like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting."

Twice they drafted statements announcing plans to take time apart, but withdrew them at the last minute it was claimed, before things finally came to a head when Katy gave Russell her wedding ring back after a huge row before Christmas.

A source told The Mirror Russell responded by flying back to London with his mum Barbara while she flew to Hawaii with friends and turned her phone off, further inflaming the situation.

Katy had apparently only meant to call his bluff, but instead Russell blindsided her by filing for divorce and informing her by text on New Year's Eve.

"Katy was surprised that Russell didn't come running back but she had met her match. They are both strong-willed people and there has been a lot of game-playing going on," the insider continued.

Despite the writing being on the wall, Katy was devastated, telling the Sunday Times in 2013 that she 'got a good knock'.

"I was in bed for about two weeks. I was pretty f**ked, yes. It hurt a lot," explained the star, who reportedly retaliated by taunting vegan Russell with a picture of a half-eaten Big Mac.

She continued: "Unfortunately, although I had the outward self-identity, I didn't have the inner kind, I hadn't built that up. My self-worth was in someone else's hands which is never a good idea, because it can be taken from you at any time. And it was, and it was shattered."

Meanwhile, Russell blamed her pop career for the split, blasting: "I'm associated with the very thing I detest: vapid vacuous, plastic, constructed, mindless celebrity."

But there was no going back. Their divorce was made official 10 years ago today, with Katy famously signing her papers with a heart and a smiley face.

In the years that have come since, Russell - who now has two children with his yoga teacher wife Laura Gallacher - has had nothing but nice things to say about his ex.

And when Katy announced her pregnancy with fiancé Orlando Bloom, Russell shared a video about overcoming heartbreak.

'I have come away from that experience and I still feel very warm towards her," he said in 2017.

"When I hear about her or see her, I think 'Ah, there's that person, that person in the world.'"
Do you have a story to share? Email webfeatures@trinitymirror.com.

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Furious Katy Perry 'sent bitter taunt' to Russell Brand after his divorce text

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Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married for just 14 months before Russell filed for divorce and informed her via text on New Year's Eve 2011 Theirs was a whirlwind romance fit for a Hollywood movie.

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This article depicts and connects Brand's past image associated with drug abuse with his new political one. It also represents Brand's route to stardom and his desire to effect the political landscape of Britain within the context of his image.

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Russell Brand meets with Parliament to Discuss Addiction

From the War on Drugs, to the scientific advances in medical marijuana, the topic of substance abuse has evolved with modern civilization. It's evolved as society comes to terms that drug and alcohol addiction is in fact a disease. Russell Brand advocates this fact and that it should be treated and addressed as a health issue.

Not only is substance abuse a riveting topic for policymakers and law enforcement, it also is a subject of research in the academic fields of cognitive psychology, medicine, biology, chemistry.

Unfortunately, societies across the globe continue to see this health issue as criminal behavior in which one has made a conscious decision to become a detriment to his/her own life, lacking moral compass. Very few focus on breaking the stigma that has survived the ages of time.

Russell Brand's Movement for Change

Russell Brand is an actor and human rights activist from the UK who pursued abstinence-based recovery for his chemical dependence to drugs and alcohol. Brand was accompanied by Chip Somers during their committee with Parliament.

Somers is a therapist and addiction specialist in Harley Street and Cotswolds in England. He is also the founder of the treatment program where Russell Brand got clean. His role in the video was to reinforce Brand's point with over 20 years of experience personally and professionally in the addiction field.

Familiar with the stigma associated with chemical dependency, Somers is determined to utilize his platform to address the perception of drug addiction to facilitate change in molding the minds of the masses. Russell Brand supports recovery through the use of evidence-based treatment methods and abstinence-based recovery as an effective solution over incarceration.

In 2012, he met with the UK's Committee of Addiction to ignite a movement of change in regards to decriminalization of minor drug offenses, research funding for addiction and its treatment, effective methods for drug education, and the incompetence of outdated policies. In the video, he encourages policymakers and the public to adopt a more pragmatic approach to dealing with drug addiction.

According to Merriam-Webster, Pragmatism is defined as a reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories. Currently, those who commit criminal acts to feed their addiction are incarcerated and often times refused the medical help they need.

For me it's more important that we regard people suffering from addiction with compassion and that there's a pragmatic rather than symbolic approach to treating it

Russell Brand does not view these methods as pragmatic and addressed the committee about decriminalizing drugs as opposed to legalizing them.

In a 2016 survey recently conducted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there are more people incarcerated for drug offenses than any other crime, making up 46.6 percent of the prison population with 85,569 inmates.

The decriminalization process would involve treating addiction with evidence based treatment and effective substance abuse treatment programs to educate, treat, and rehabilitate the individual to be a productive member of society. He expresses his uncertainty about whether or not it would be smart to legalize these harmful substances.

"I don't feel entirely qualified to talk about legislation. For me what's more significant is the way that we socially regard the condition of addiction. It's something that I consider to be an illness and therefore a health matter than a criminal or judicial matter," Brand stated in his opening statements to Parliament.

So while he is aware that his knowledge of law is subpar by comparison to that of the elected officials, he is adamant that addiction should not be a matter that is put into the hands of law, rather medical professionals.

In the video, Brand argues that investing tax-payer dollars in law enforcement to prosecute and imprison people for drug related crimes is not as effective as funding research for addiction treatment and the development of treatment plans for those chemically dependent.

The legislation enacted in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, has proven to be inhuman and counter-productive because it treats drug addiction, which is a mental illness, as a crime by using incarceration.

Recidivism rates demonstrate the effectiveness of incarceration for drug based crimes. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that about 76.7 percent of drug offenders go back to prison within 5 years of last conviction. This is not including the rate of those who are incarcerated for offenses that were a result of drug use such as property crimes.

This is not a viable solution that yields long-term results. Imprisonment is not a deterrent from drug use, in fact, the negative effects that being labeled a criminal has on the psyche perpetuate the behaviors.

Somers also suggests that there is a lot of money being spent on minor possession of drugs. Somers stated that "...there is a real argument for decriminalizing [drugs] so it gets treated like a health issue rather than a legal issue."

By adopting a pragmatic approach to decriminalization as opposed to institutionalization, we can be more proactive in combatting the cycle of addiction and transition those who suffer into more productive member of society.

Importance of Drug Education

Russell Brand also comments on the current effectiveness of drug education for the youth of our society. Brand and Somers were not arguing to defund drug education, rather make it more efficient and factually consistent.

Resources for drug education in schools appear "out of touch with reality" and lack honest open-mindedness. Many times the information presented to the youth is regurgitating a command like "Just Say No" lacking depth and factual information that allows them the ability to make decision for themselves.

Psychology of Drug Addiction

Academic professionals primarily focus on cognitive functions that are altered as a result of ingesting chemicals found in street, prescription, or legal drugs. Psychology of addiction makes connections between altered brain chemistry and behavior. Drugs provide an increase in dopamine levels.

Dopamine is an organic chemical in the brain responsible for reward motivation. Drugs increase these levels in dopamine which offers the feeling of euphoria. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in learning and memory. When a person increases his/her level of dopamine, glutamate remembers this feeling, which is the beginning of developing an addiction.

Changes in the Brain, Effected in the Behavior

People who struggle with addiction have common traits and tendencies psychologically and behaviorally. A sense of detachment from others and low self-esteem are characteristic traits that are likely to plague the mental and emotional stability of addicts.

These are people that are often disinterested with not only the well-being of society but also their own, when they are trapped in the grips of addiction, although in reality individuals who suffer from addiction tend to be hypersensitive and emotional.

Many people use drugs to suppress these intense feelings. Active drug addiction and the actions accompanied, send these people into further self-loathing and isolation. When they are treated as criminals, those feelings are just reinforced and amplified.

It has been proven to be much more effective to provide treatment under the care of professionals that understand the nature of addiction and are able to complement the assets of a person and counteract the negative feelings of inferiority. "Being arrested isn't a lesson, it's just an administrative blip," Brand said.

Treatment for the Disease

The treatment approach and abstinence-based recovery provides recovering addicts with long-term tools and solutions that can transition them back into a society within which they can be productive rather than detrimental.

Rehab, or drug rehabilitation, is a form of psychotherapeutic treatment for addiction to psychoactive substances. The overall purpose of rehab is to help the addicted persons cease the use and abuse of dangerous drugs that have been detriments to social life, employment, finances, physical, and psychological well-being.

Many rehabs also provide treatment for co-occurring disorders with medications for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or anxiety disorders. Treatment methods include expert counseling and developing proper communication with other people who have struggled with addiction. It is common in many rehabs to utilize more spiritual tools in order to assist those in need.

Abstinence-based recovery is a process in which the mind and body remain abstinent of psychoactive substances. Abstinence-based recovery is offered in several different varieties. There are twelve-step programs, SMART recovery, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

A twelve-step program is a substance abuse treatment method comprised of principles that are used to overcome specific issues such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and compulsive disorders. Commonly referred to as "the steps", these guidelines were established by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, in 1935 in Akron, Ohio.

Alcoholics Anonymous has been the foundation for other twelve-step programs such as Narcotics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Over-eaters Anonymous, and Gambling Anonymous. Twelve-step programs can now be found in over 132 countries across the world.

SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) is a method used by individuals with the intent of maintaining abstinence from addictive behaviors. Like the twelve-step program, SMART recovery is non-profit and international. It utilizes scientific discovery and changes its approaches as science changes it findings.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) uses psychological methods to treat mental disorders such as depression and addiction. CBT refers to the incorporation of both cognitive and behavioral therapeutic methodology. Upon the understanding of the cognitive details of addiction, medical experts can then focus on the environmental and behavioral aspects to gain knowledge of how they are related.

Economics on the War on Drugs

Trillions of dollars have been aimed at attacking supply lines such as the Mexican drug cartels. But that is an extremely simplistic method to combat a complex problem. Basic supply and demand economics is based within the demand. There can be no supply if there is not a demand.

Furthermore, the weaker the demand, the weaker the supply. Fighting the supply while leaving a healthy demand only leaves opportunity for others to step in to fulfill the demands. Take out one drug supplier, another emerges because of the monetary incentive attached with the drug trade.

Drug treatment focuses on the demand by education and correct treatment methodology. The more people that are able to stay clean, the less amount of drugs are being desired; thus weakening the incentive of the suppliers. Again, you cannot fulfill a demand that is not present.

But drugs will always be in demand to some degree. The idea is not to completely eradicate addiction, for this is seemingly impossible. It is about progress not perfection. Over time, using the correct methods will establish societies where drugs are not nearly as prevalent. Although it is unlikely that the supply and demand will be completely abolished, policymakers and civilians alike can come together to weaken the threat.

In the following videos, Dr. Joshua Kane, lecturer at Arizona State University and Head of Research for A Better Today Recovery Services, illustrates the failures within the War on Drugs along with its causes and effects.

Let's Join the Movement

Russell Brand and Somers' message is that society as a whole must take on a more informed stance toward addiction rather than maintaining antiquated philosophies that are inherently incorrect. Bringing these ideas to Parliament was a good way to begin the process of enacting adequate solutions that can consequently shed light on the issue to the general public.

As a collective, we must embrace learning information that contradicts our prior beliefs. There is a stigma associated with addiction and it is fueled by the ignorance of the masses. As science advances our society toward bigger and better things, so must our perceptions of reality.

Again, addiction is a disease, not a crime, and it should be treated as such. There are humane, cost-effective, and logical solutions to a problem that has only gotten worse over time despite the overwhelming efforts to shut it down. It seems like an extremely elementary idea, but it is still far-fetched for many elected officials and their electorate.

In 2012, Russell Brand and Chip Somers met with the UK's Committee of Addiction to ignite a movement of change in regards to the unhealthy perception of addiction and the steps that could be taken to make a societal transition toward more effective treatment.

Four years later, not much has been done to change this. Brand is still passionate in conveying his message across international lines. Approximately 23.2 million Americans are negatively affected by drug addiction according to the National Institute of Health. It is about time that the public has easy access to information regarding addiction so they may develop informed opinions that will bring a shift in legislation and the electorate as a whole.

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Vote for my True Story of Addiction on Detox to Rehab

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From the War on Drugs, to the scientific advances in medical marijuana, the topic of substance abuse has evolved with modern civilization. It's evolved as society comes to terms that drug and alcohol addiction is in fact a disease. Russell Brand advocates this fact and that it should be treated and addressed as a health issue.

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This article documents Brand's substance use issue within the context of his childhood. This adds context to his substance use and helps to further the development of his authenticated image through the media understanding of Brand's life.

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Star-Studded Addictions: Russell Brand - TruHealing

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On December 13th of last year, comedian and actor Russell Brand celebrated 18 years of sobriety. At the height of his addiction, he was sneaking into friends'

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The last time I thought about taking heroin was yesterday. I had received "an inconvenient truth" from a beautiful woman. It wasn't about climate change - I'm not that ecologically switched on - she told me she was pregnant and it wasn't mine.

I had to take immediate action. I put Morrissey on in my car as an external conduit for the surging melancholy, and as I wound my way through the neurotic Hollywood hills, the narrow lanes and tight bends were a material echo of the synaptic tangle where my thoughts stalled and jammed.

Morrissey, as ever, conducted a symphony, within and without and the tidal misery burgeoned. I am becoming possessed. The part of me that experienced the negative data, the self, is becoming overwhelmed, I can no longer see where I end and the pain begins. So now I have a choice.

I cannot accurately convey to you the efficiency of heroin in neutralising pain. It transforms a tight, white fist into a gentle, brown wave. From my first inhalation 15 years ago, it fumigated my private hell and lay me down in its hazy pastures and a bathroom floor in Hackney embraced me like a womb.

This shadow is darkly cast on the retina of my soul and whenever I am dislodged from comfort my focus falls there.

It is 10 years since I used drugs or drank alcohol and my life has improved immeasurably. I have a job, a house, a cat, good friendships and generally a bright outlook.

The price of this is constant vigilance because the disease of addiction is not rational. Recently for the purposes of a documentary on this subject I reviewed some footage of myself smoking heroin that my friend had shot as part of a typically exhibitionist attempt of mine to get clean.

I sit wasted and slumped with an unacceptable haircut against a wall in another Hackney flat (Hackney is starting to seem like part of the problem) inhaling fizzy, black snakes of smack off a scrap of crumpled foil. When I saw the tape a month or so ago, what is surprising is that my reaction is not one of gratitude for the positive changes I've experienced but envy at witnessing an earlier version of myself unencumbered by the burden of abstinence. I sat in a suite at the Savoy hotel, in privilege, resenting the woeful ratbag I once was, who, for all his problems, had drugs. That is obviously irrational.

The mentality and behaviour of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help they have no hope.

This is the reason I have started a fund within Comic Relief, Give It Up. I want to raise awareness of, and money for, abstinence-based recovery. It was Kevin Cahill's idea, he is the bloke who runs Comic Relief. He called me when he read an article I wrote after Amy Winehouse died. Her death had a powerful impact on me I suppose because it was such an obvious shock, like watching someone for hours through a telescope, seeing them advance towards you, fist extended with the intention of punching you in the face. Even though I saw it coming, it still hurt when it eventually hit me.

What was so painful about Amy's death is that I know that there is something I could have done. I could have passed on to her the solution that was freely given to me. Don't pick up a drink or drug, one day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple but it isn't easy: it requires incredible support and fastidious structuring. Not to mention that the whole infrastructure of abstinence based recovery is shrouded in necessary secrecy. There are support fellowships that are easy to find and open to anyone who needs them but they eschew promotion of any kind in order to preserve the purity of their purpose, which is for people with alcoholism and addiction to help one another stay clean and sober.

Without these fellowships I would take drugs. Because, even now, the condition persists. Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution.

If this seems odd to you it is because you are not an alcoholic or a drug addict. You are likely one of the 90% of people who can drink and use drugs safely. I have friends who can smoke weed, swill gin, even do crack and then merrily get on with their lives. For me, this is not an option. I will relinquish all else to ride that buzz to oblivion. Even if it began as a timid glass of chardonnay on a ponce's yacht, it would end with me necking the bottle, swimming to shore and sprinting to Bethnal Green in search of a crack house. I look to drugs and booze to fill up a hole in me; unchecked, the call of the wild is too strong. I still survey streets for signs of the subterranean escapes that used to provide my sanctuary. I still eye the shuffling subclass of junkies and dealers, invisibly gliding between doorways through the gutters. I see that dereliction can survive in opulence; the abundantly wealthy with destitution in their stare.

Spurred by Amy's death, I've tried to salvage unwilling victims from the mayhem of the internal storm and I am always, always, just pulled inside myself. I have a friend so beautiful, so haunted by talent that you can barely look away from her, whose smile is such a treasure that I have often squandered my sanity for a moment in its glow. Her story is so galling that no one would condemn her for her dependency on illegal anesthesia, but now, even though her life is trying to turn around despite her, even though she has genuine opportunities for a new start, the gutter will not release its prey. The gutter is within. It is frustrating to watch. It is frustrating to love someone with this disease.

A friend of mine's brother cannot stop drinking. He gets a few months of sobriety and his inner beauty, with the obstacles of his horrible drunken behaviour pushed aside by the presence of a programme, begins to radiate. His family bask relieved, in the joy of their returned loved one, his life gathers momentum but then he somehow forgets the price of this freedom, returns to his old way of thinking, picks up a drink and Mr Hyde is back in the saddle. Once more his brother's face is gaunt and hopeless. His family blame themselves and wonder what they could have done differently, racking their minds for a perfect sentiment; wrapped up in the perfect sentence, a magic bullet to sear right through the toxic fortress that has incarcerated the person they love and restore them to sanity. The fact is, though, that they can't, the sufferer must, of course, be a willing participant in their own recovery. They must not pick up a drink or drug, one day at a time. Just don't pick up, that's all.

It is difficult to feel sympathy for these people. It is difficult to regard some bawdy drunk and see them as sick and powerless. It is difficult to suffer the selfishness of a drug addict who will lie to you and steal from you and forgive them and offer them help. Can there be any other disease that renders its victims so unappealing? Would Great Ormond Street be so attractive a cause if its beds were riddled with obnoxious little criminals that had "brought it on themselves"?

Peter Hitchens is a vocal adversary of mine on this matter. He sees this condition as a matter of choice and the culprits as criminals who should go to prison. I know how he feels. I bet I have to deal with a lot more drug addicts than he does, let's face it. I share my brain with one, and I can tell you firsthand, they are total fucking wankers. Where I differ from Peter is in my belief that if you regard alcoholics and drug addicts not as bad people but as sick people then we can help them to get better. By we, I mean other people who have the same problem but have found a way to live drug-and-alcohol-free lives. Guided by principles and traditions a programme has been founded that has worked miracles in millions of lives. Not just the alcoholics and addicts themselves but their families, their friends and of course society as a whole.

What we want to do with Give It Up is popularise a compassionate perception of drunks and addicts, and provide funding for places at treatment centres where they can get clean using these principles. Then, once they are drug-and-alcohol-free, to make sure they retain contact with the support that is available to keep them clean. I know that as you read this you either identify with it yourself or are reminded of someone who you love who cannot exercise control over substances. I want you to know that the help that was available to me, the help upon which my recovery still depends is available.

I wound down the hill in an alien land, Morrissey chanted lonely mantras, the pain quickly accumulated incalculably, and I began to weave the familiar tapestry that tells an old, old story. I think of places I could score. Off Santa Monica there's a homeless man who I know uses gear. I could find him, buy him a bag if he takes me to score.

I leave him on the corner, a couple of rocks, a couple of $20 bags pressed into my sweaty palm. I get home, I pull out the foil, neatly torn. I break the bottom off a Martell miniature. I have cigarettes, using makes me need fags. I make a pipe for the rocks with the bottle. I lay a strip of foil on the counter to chase the brown. I pause to reflect and regret that I don't know how to fix, only smoke, feeling inferior even in the manner of my using. I see the foil scorch. I hear the crackle from which crack gets it's name. I feel the plastic fog hit the back of my yawning throat. Eyes up. Back relaxing, the bottle drops and the greedy bliss eats my pain. There is no girl, there is no tomorrow, there is nothing but the bilious kiss of the greedy bliss.

Even as I spin this beautifully dreaded web, I am reaching for my phone. I call someone: not a doctor or a sage, not a mystic or a physician, just a bloke like me, another alcoholic, who I know knows how I feel. The phone rings and I half hope he'll just let it ring out. It's 4am in London. He's asleep, he can't hear the phone, he won't pick up. I indicate left, heading to Santa Monica. The ringing stops, then the dry mouthed nocturnal mumble: "Hello. You all right mate?"

He picks up.

And for another day, thank God, I don't have to.
* Red Nose Day is on Friday 15 March. Join the Fun Raisers at rednoseday.com Topics

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Russell Brand has not used drugs for 10 years. He has a job, a house, a cat, good friends. But temptation is never far away. He wants to help other addicts, but first he wants us to feel compassion for those affected

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This source documents Brand's drug use through the lens of his own experiences with different types of illicit substances. The article itself offers an insight for readers who don't understand drug use to relate to Brand's logic behind the reason he used substances. The article presents contextual details for Brand's image and connection to drug use within the media

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Ever since the first couple of times I'd smoked it, in my early 20s, I had always maintained a great interest in heroin. I'd sort of fallen in love with the warmth of it - the way it felt like crawling back into the womb. Heroin delivered. LSD does a bit, especially when all the things that are familiar to you peel away and you suddenly realise the fragility of how you normally see the world. Marijuana doesn't really, although it's a laugh for a while (I say that having smoked it constantly for a decade). Alcohol makes you sick and gives you a headache. Crack is like inhaling plastic, but so brief and flimsy and brittle as a high. Normal cocaine just makes you nervous, amphetamines are even worse, and ecstasy never really agreed with me. But heroin gets the job done.

All of us, I think, have a vague idea that we're missing something. Some say that thing is God; that all the longing we feel - be it for a lover, or a football team, or a drug - is merely an inappropriate substitute for the longing we're supposed to feel for God, for oneness, for truth. And what heroin does really successfully is objectify that need.

It makes you feel lovely and warm and cosy. It gives you a great big smacky cuddle, and from then on the idea of need is no longer an abstract thing, but a longing in your belly and a kicking in your legs and a shivering in your arms and sweat on your forehead and a dull pallor on your face. At this point, you're no longer under any misapprehension about what it is that you need: you don't think, "Nice to have a girlfriend, read a poem, or ride a bike," you think, "Fuck, I need heroin."

And I never had much trouble getting it, especially when I was working as a presenter at MTV's Camden studios. Heroin was everywhere in Camden: little blue bags the size of, I suppose, two peas. That's how big a £10 bag is - half the size of a Malteser, twice the size of a pea. Just in case you ever become a junkie and you need to score in north London, you can take this article with you as a guide to weights and measures. "That's not £10 worth, you scumbag. Look at this Malteser." Possibly that'll be the last sentence you utter before being flung into a canal.

The dealers keep the bags in their mouths. When you buy one they spit it into their hand and you have to put it directly into your mouth. Even though you want the heroin, a little bit of you is thinking, "Eeugh! He's had it in his mouth." After a while, though, you stop thinking that. It's a bleak day when that happens. You know that's another little boundary that you've crossed, another principle chalked off to experience, another thing you've put behind you, because there's so little in front of you.

"All my days are empty and the pages of my diary are all silver foil, with nought but an inky black snake carving its way through the days," I once wrote. Probably to impress a girl.

Once I started hanging out with homeless people in the West End, scoring heroin with them, I realised that there's this secret culture of people going up and down Oxford Street, whistling and yelping to each other in a kind of tropical slang - men on BMX bikes delivering £10 bags of heroin to be purchased with grubby fists full of 50p and 10p and 2p coins; West Indian housewife-type women perambulating past Topshop, cheeks wedged with packets of smack.

You don't see this bustling underworld until you need to. There have been occasions, thrilling to me, when I went off to score, cutting a purposeful stride down past Tottenham Court Road tube station in the company of three or four homeless people, their sleeping bags worn about their shoulders, like the cloaks of Roman legionaries. I must have cut a ridiculous figure, dressed in my MTV-presenter attire - skintight white jeans, graffitied tops, Ray-Ban sunglasses - jostling along with them, as they set off in search of a bag in Covent Garden.

Until recently, when I gratefully gave up public transport, I would see people I'd scored drugs with begging in tube stations. There was one bloke - I don't know if he's still around - whose eyes were missing. First he lost his wife, then his house, then his shoes, then his eyes; heroin is a greedy drug, robbing you by increment first of your clothing, then of your skin; when it finally comes for your life it must be a relief.

The first time I realised I'd become addicted to heroin, I was staying with Amanda, the woman I've come closest to loving, in a risible 70s-style hotel in Ibiza. We lived together for six years, on and off, sometimes in Spain, where she came from, and sometimes in Britain, but there was never any prolonged period when we were what you'd call comfortable together. I'd go to see her in Ibiza, and we'd just ricochet from argument, to sex, to argument. (I remember chasing her down the street in nothing but a towel once, shouting, "Please come back!") Then I'd return home to London, to a life of whores and heroin. I wanted Amanda with me always, but because we spent most of our time apart, I went through a lot of psychological tumult, and increasingly used heroin to take the edge off. When things went well, I'd smoke heroin to celebrate, and when they went badly, I'd smoke some to comfort myself. "Mustafa Skagfix", my mate Matt nicknamed me, after I acquired a predilection for wearing Arabian robes.

Amanda didn't like me using heroin. She knew I'd been doing it in London, but I'd told her I'd given up, so I had to hide my drug-taking from her. On this occasion, though, there had been no opportunity for me to smoke it in secret. When I said I thought I might go for a walk, Amanda was suspicious and insisted on coming with me. At that point I began to get anxious. I could feel myself heating up and breaking out in a sweat, and then my legs started kicking and jumping. That's the worst symptom of heroin withdrawal; I can tolerate the nausea and the sweating, but I hate it when your legs go all kicky. That's where the phrase "kicking the habit" comes from.

Amanda eventually fell asleep, and I had to go into the bathroom and quietly unfold all the things I needed, which I'd managed to secrete about the place. I got the foil out, sat on the toilet, lit the lighter under the foil, and the tiny lump of heroin started to liquefy and bubble. Then it begins to run along the foil, and as it does so a vapour escapes, and you have to hover above it, sucking it up with a tube.

I remember being very conscious of the sound of the lighter, then almost as soon as the smoke had hit the back of my throat, that feeling - the kicky leg, the sweating - it just went. It was like turning off a light. Then I could lean back and everything was suddenly all relaxing and beautiful. It was at this point that I knew that I was an addict, though the pain of that realisation was greatly mitigated by the impact of the heroin: that's how it gets you.

I used to get in a lot of trouble going back and forth between London and Ibiza. One time, my pursuit of drugs led me to be shot at with what Matt describes as "a tiny gun". I was on my way to the airport, and I had to go to this estate in Swiss Cottage, taking the dealer with me in the MTV account car.

I had dealings with this individual over a long period of time without ever being sure if he/she was a man or a woman. Anyway, me and the androgynous creature went to the tower block where Goldie used to live (the drum'n'bass pioneer plays no further part in this anecdote - it was just that whenever you had to go anywhere near that place, people always used to point it out and say, "Goldie lived there"). The driver took the dealer's bike out of the back of the car, while he/she went inside to get the drugs, and as he/she did that a pellet pinged off the top of the car. Someone was firing at us from inside the block.

It might seem a bit reckless to be picking up drugs on the way to Heathrow, but my need for a regular supply of narcotics would not be constrained by the exigencies of international air travel. I generally travelled with drugs up my arse in the belief that if customs officers decided to pursue this unsavoury line of inquiry, my day would already be ruined, and the discovery of crack or heroin couldn't make it much worse.

Eventually I succeeded in convincing Amanda to leave Spain and come and live with me in London. Her two conditions for doing this were that 1) I quit heroin, and 2) I get us somewhere to live. In pursuit of the first of these goals, my friend Martino booked the three of us a cottage in the Cotswolds. The last night (as I grandly, though ultimately inaccurately, styled it at the time) of my using, I was presenting the annual awards for some dance music magazine.

I had a coterie of friends around me, including Amanda. I smoked abundant marijuana, smack and crack, and drank a skinful, as well as taking four tabs of Viagra, so I could still fuck. At one point, I mispronounced the name of a famous DJ (I think it was Danny Tenaglia, but I'm not sure even now) and fell off the stage. Boy George wrote in his Daily Express column that I had been brilliant and had done it all deliberately. The canyon between the perception of me and my actual reality seemed to be widening on a daily basis.

The next day, me, Amanda and Martino took an MTV cab to the Cotswolds, costing them £400. I took a bottle of Jack Daniel's, an ounce of weed, and loads of videos to get me through my rattle (as we denizens of the drugs underworld term it). It was awful - hot and cold, nausea, and, worst of all, I remained horrifically awake all weekend. The best thing about heroin is it turns your life into a waking dream, but then, when I needed it most, my mistress sleep had deserted me.

I still made it through, though, with Amanda and Martino's help, and managed to fulfil the other precondition for Amanda moving to London, by renting this ridiculously gorgeous flat, just off Brick Lane. This glamorously empty warehouse-style apartment soon echoed with misery, as our relationship almost instantly became a psychological war.

Amanda was a strong, beautiful woman. After a string of infidelities on my part, she finally had the good sense to leave me. I just came home one night, and all her clothes were gone. I thought this a flabbergasting affront, and threw myself with ever more self-destructive intensity into my work, womanising and, above all, a renewed and increasingly all-encompassing relationship with heroin.

I thought, "Well, at least now she's left me, I can just take loads of drugs again".

Not content with damaging myself physically, I set about dismantling my career. Gritty was the main dealer I used to get heroin off when I worked at MTV. I liked the fact that destiny had allotted him the name "Gritty". Just as Ned Ludd, leader of the Luddites who opposed the Industrial Revolution, would have struggled to make such an eloquent case against the spinning jenny had his name been Fabrizio Zodiac, so the name Gritty seemed well adapted to the needs of his profession.

He seemed a nice sort of man, though. He had quite a caring side to him, for a drug dealer. I remember one occasion when I was buying drugs off him near Camden Bridge. Having just sold me my two £10 bags of smack and two £10 rocks of crack, he gave me a sincere look and said, "Be careful with that, won't you Russell?" I was thinking, "What do you mean, 'Be careful with that'? They're drugs. What does he think I'm gonna do with them? 'Oh no, I seem to have taken them. Why didn't I heed Gritty's prophecy?' "

One day Gritty asked me once if he could bring Edwin, his eight-year-old son, into MTV to have a bit of a look round. I said, "Sure, why not?" What could possibly go wrong? We could call it Bring Your Drug Dealer to Work Day.

The date that the inaugural BYDDTWD happened to fall upon was September 12 2001, the day after the destruction of the World Trade Centre. With typical restraint, I decided to go into work dressed in a camouflage flak jacket, a false beard and a tea towel on my head, held in place by a shoelace.

I had been aware of Osama bin Laden for about a year. He wasn't someone people of my age group generally knew about, but he'd been involved with some other bombings and he was top of the FBI's most wanted list, and I was fascinated by that sort of stuff. That day, I was going to present this programme called Select, where kids phoned in and chose videos for us to play, and pop stars would come on to flog their records. Our guest was to be Kylie Minogue. Me, Gritty and Edwin went into the toilet and the two older members of our party smoked some crack. Edwin didn't have any. He was just a little boy, and seemed quite upbeat about life anyway. Children don't need drugs, because they have sweets.

We blearily swaggered out of the disabled toilet. On the other side of the foyer - with its round console, banks of TVs, trendy turnstile and endless parade of beautiful young people of both genders and every sexual persuasion trundling in and out - I saw Kylie Minogue, all famous and everything.

Somewhere in my mind, the artist within me - the situationist within me - thought: "I can create a moment here. When am I ever going to get an opportunity like this again?" Before I knew it, I'd walked across that foyer, made a kind of "Woo-ooh" noise - in a mum-across-a-neighbour's-fence sort of way - and said: "Kylie, meet Gritty." Then I just stood back to watch it unfold.

What were these two going to talk about? It's the day after 9/11, and Kylie and Gritty are having a sort of awkward chat, with Gritty trying to be polite and Kylie asking, "What do you do?" sort of like the Queen would. And there's me standing beside them, still dressed as Osama bin Laden.

I thought: "It don't get any better than this."

And it didn't, cos they sacked me about two days later.

· My Booky Wook, by Russell Brand, is published by Hodder & Stoughton on Thursday, price £18.99. To order a copy for £16.99 with free UK p&p go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875.
Topics

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Russell Brand's autobiography: The day I introduced Kylie to my drug dealer

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Russell Brand tried every drug in the book, from cannabis to crack cocaine. But heroin was the one that took over his life. In our second extract from the comedian's autobiography, he reveals what he was willing to endure for the sake of that 'great big smack cuddle'

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This article utilises Brand's sobriety the theme of his redemption. The article itself presents Brand's image as an underdog and a success example of someone who's battled drug addiction and changed their life to better their health and career.

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Russell Brand is celebrating a huge milestone - after struggling with a heroin addiction in his twenties, he's now been sober for 19 years.

The comedian and actor, 46, reflected on the nearly two decades that he's now spent free of drugs or alcohol in a video shared on social media on Monday, his 19-year anniversary.

"On the 13th of December, 2021, I'd like to say thank you, to all of you, and I'd like to say to any of you that are suffering from addiction or know anyone suffering from addiction, there is a way out. It is possible," Brand said.

"It is possible to live differently if you are a drug addict. It is possible to live differently if you are suffering. It is possible to live differently if you live in a twisted and broken culture."

Brand acknowledged, though, that going sober typically feels like a daunting task for someone struggling with addiction or dependency on drugs and alcohol.

"All of these things may seem a little high falutin and even fanciful and impossible, and individually, that's exactly what they are, but collectively, human beings motivated by spirit, willing to change and sacrifice can create wonderful things together," he said.

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star has been open about dealing with an addiction to heroin and agreeing to go to rehab in 2002. Brand has been sober since, and wrote the book Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions in 2017, documenting that time in his life and his work sponsoring others as they go through rehab. He has said that the overdose death of his close friend Amy Winehouse spurred him to do more to help drug addicts.

"The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help they have no hope," he wrote in a 2013 essay for The Guardian.

RELATED VIDEO: Jessica Simpson Celebrates 4 Years Sober with Candid Photo Showing 'Unrecognizable Version of Myself'

In his video on Monday, Brand said that he hopes to be an example for others hoping to get sober.

"If someone as crazy and hopeless and lost as I was can become a father and a husband and a member of various communities, committed to service and change, then there is hope for all of us," he said.

"I believe in recovery. I believe in you. I believe in our future,"

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Russell Brand Celebrates 19 Years of Sobriety After Heroin Addiction: 'There Is a Way Out'

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Russell Brand is celebrating a huge milestone - after struggling with a heroin addiction in his twenties, he's now been sober for 19 years. The comedian and actor, 46, reflected on the nearly two decades that he's now spent free of drugs or alcohol in a video shared on social media on Monday, his 19-year anniversary.

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This video is taken off of Brand's YouTube channel and mirrors much of his content within his early media through the lens of his reflection and evolved attitudes. Brand's image within the source represents how his past unorthodox experinces is a key foundation of his star image.

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What It Was Like Being A Dr*g Addict | Russell Brand

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Nowadays, it seems that everyone's a self-made expert and addicted to something - drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, tech, social media, you name it. So it's no surprise that actor, stand-up comedian, author, political activist and ex-heroin addict Russell Brand has added another hat to his closet full of them: addiction rehab advisor.

The loquacious Englishman, 43, best known in the U.S for his 2010 movie "Get Him to the Greek," a brief marriage to singer Katy Perry and a rollicking Cockney flamboyance with the language, will be the keynote speaker at Wellspring, a three-day wellness festival in Palm Springs Oct. 26-28. The event will feature more than 200 classes on yoga, meditation and holistic medicine (wanderlust.com).

Below, he discusses his own recovery from addiction, his fitness activities and his 2017 book, "Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions," a tribute to the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous-based 12-step program that helped his recovery.

How did you go from kooky comedian to pop-culture guru of an unfunny topic like addiction recovery?

I hit rock bottom in 2003 with an addiction to heroin, which had cost me a job at MTV, a radio show, friends and girlfriends. I'd been doing drugs since age 19 and was a heroin addict for four years. Luckily, my (then-) manager and friend Chip Sommers stepped in, telling me I'd wind up either in a prison, lunatic asylum or graveyard. So I went to a 12-step program.

The classic 12-step AA program was created in the 1930s. Your book basically rewrites the steps in blunt street language with liberal use of f-bombs and seems to remove religious references. Why?

This book is not "new" - it's just my interpretation of the 12-step method, which itself was derived from ancient self-help ideology. I wrote it the way I did because the classic program seemed a little bit exclusive, religious and pious, with a Christian-y feel that could be off-putting to some. After all, lots of Muslims and Jews and Hindus have addictions too.

Yet, that said, while not religious myself, in the book I agree with the need for an undefined higher power. Is that power God, science, our home group, the music of Mozart, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the people that have loved me? All these allude to some power that is greater than me.

You emphasize meditation. Did you get that Step 11 of the original program, which mentions it?

I have been aware of mediation for a long time before I did it. Drug use and interest in the counterculture have been wedded together from the days of the Beatles and the Beat poets, so meditation was a familiar idea. Now I do 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation twice a day. It gives you a beautiful serenity. A selfless connection. A relaxed sense of oneness. It's a cornerstone of recovery because it changes consciousness. It's a shower for the brain. It teaches you that you are not your thoughts, not your feelings; you can simply witness them. It gives you a quiet space, a place of relief where peace and serenity are not contingent on the behavior of others.

Happily, I think my musings on meditation are having an impact. Every day now, some of my wife's friends and other people I meet are telling me that they are meditating now due to reading the book. I just finished a film, and a guy who was driving me around said, "You know, I meditate now because of you." It's kind of surprising.

I've heard people have used an "addiction" to running to help beat an addiction to drugs. Where do traditional fitness activities fit for you and and recovering addicts?

For me, daily exercise is important. I'll go running, do Brazilian jiu-jitsu and also some quite aggressive forms of yoga. You have to design your own program, what's right for your body and your mind. For me meditation is not nearly enough. I need exercise too. And community.

Does community mean a support group like AA?

Yes. Inevitably, when reason wanes, when the spiritual experience wanes, being part of a community lets you remind one another. Addicts yearn for some sense of connection that makes them feel more healed, more whole, more happy. Sharing your story with another addict, as I did in my recovery, proved vital. Nothing I said to this other person was too boring or terrible or trivial to him. He related to me - and the disconnectedness that I had always felt lifted. And so did the need to take drugs.
READ ON! Yes, you can eat your way to beautiful skin 10 high-tech gadgets to help you get to sleep How 'Scandal's' Katie Lowes hid her psoriasis

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Russell Brand on how he pulled his life together after heroin addiction

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Nowadays, it seems that everyone's a self-made expert and addicted to something - drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, tech, social media, you name it. So it's no surprise that actor, stand-up comedian, author, political activist and ex-heroin addict Russell Brand has added another hat to his closet full of them: addiction rehab advisor.

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This source utilises Brand's story of sobriety to relate to possible addicts and to represent how Brand employed multiple techniques within rehabilitation programmes to overcome his addiction. The source presents his persona through the lens of redemption and as a example of someone who can set their life towards success through sobriety.

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FHE Health - Addiction & Mental Health Care

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English comedian, actor, author and activist Russell Brand is a household name in America, the UK and beyond. From his tumultuous marriage to Katy Perry to his well-known struggles with substance abuse, Brand has led a challenging life.

However, the hurdles he has experienced have not left him hopeless. Through hard work and dedication, he has been able to embrace a healthier, happier life. This is what you can learn from Russell Brand's recovery.

The Early Life of Russell Brand

Russell Brand was born and raised in Essex, England, primarily by his mother after his parents' split early in his childhood. Unfortunately, his mother was diagnosed with cancer when he was in his teens, leading to an unstable home life with relatives while his mother underwent treatment. During this time, he suffered from bulimia, involving him binging on sweets for the euphoric feeling the experience gave him.

After his mother's recovery, he had the chance to return home but chose to leave shortly after at age 16 due to challenges with his mother's partner. At this time, he started experimenting with drugs like marijuana, ecstasy and LSD. Brand's relationship with his father was tumultuous at best; he only saw his father occasionally, including a trip to Thailand to visit sex workers as a teenager.

Brand's interest in performance manifested at a young age; his first role was in a rendition of Bugsy Malone at 15. From there, he began to work as an extra in film projects. He was accepted into the prestigious Italia Conti Academy but was expelled for substance abuse issues.

A Spiral Into Abuse

Brand has a long history of abuse and addiction. Throughout his life, his addictions and predilections have been varied, ranging from eating disorders to pornography addiction before resulting in excessive drug and alcohol use. He has also been diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, two factors that likely contributed to the growing cycle of abuse.

At the peak of his abuse, there were few drugs Brand wasn't willing to take. Heroin was a personal favorite, but he also used crack, marijuana, meth, alcohol and hallucinogens. While necessary to him at the time, his problems with drug addiction affected many aspects of his life. Brand said, "I hit rock bottom in 2003 with an addiction to heroin, which had cost me a job at MTV, a radio show, friends and girlfriends." Over the course of his addiction, Brand's abuse saw him arrested 12 times.

He started using hard drugs in 1999, which culminated in a serious heroin problem that spanned four years. At this time, he also fell into a pattern of sex addiction, using a wide range of vices outside of himself to attempt to cope with the world around him.

"I look to solve inner problems with external things," he told Oprah during a 2014 interview. "I'll use anything to stop myself feeling, and as a little kid, I was very lonely and confused. Anything that could temporarily relieve that, I was very grateful for."

Breaking Away From Addiction

By 2003, when he was 27, he knew it was time to make a change. His friend and then-manager, Chip Sommers, told him that if he didn't get help, he would end up in prison, dead or in a residential psychiatric care facility. Instead of facing these eventual fates, Brand decided to get clean, once and for all.

To battle his demons, Brand took the same first step as millions of others around the world: he entered the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Twelve-step programs are popular worldwide, offering a way to come to terms with addiction, make amends and focus on a brighter future free of the tethers of drugs and alcohol.

While this process doesn't work for everyone, Brand is convinced that his participation in Alcoholics Anonymous is directly related to his recovery. It's certainly an effective course of care for many people, providing a foundation upon which to build a life of sobriety. With over 115,000 groups around the world and millions of participants since the program's founding, AA has successfully helped 22% of participants to stay sober for 20 years or more.

Reinterpreting the 12 Steps

Despite the popularity of 12-step programs, their anonymous nature makes it hard for some participants to talk about them. Admitting involvement in such a course of treatment seems almost shameful, as if the person didn't have adequate willpower to overcome addiction solo.

However, Russell Brand seeks to change this. He is remarkably open about his time in AA and the amazing influence it has had over him. "It gives you a system to change the way you think, feel and relate - it can bring about total change in anyone who does it," he explains about AA.

He even wrote a book that attempts to reconstruct the 12 steps in a way that resonates with less orthodox substance users in an effort to reach a larger audience. Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions is a non-secular spin on the standard steps, providing a road map for success regardless of personal beliefs. "I wrote it the way I did because the classic program seemed a little bit exclusive," he says. "After all, lots of Muslims and Jews and Hindus have addictions too."

Since entering a 12-step program in 2003, Brand has managed to remain sober. He's candid about his substance abuse habits and the consequences of his actions and is always vocal about the need to get support. He believes in building a community during the recovery process, creating a world that ensures those seeking help are not alone.

"Addicts yearn for some sense of connection that makes them feel more healed, more whole, more happy," he says. " Sharing your story with another addict, as I did in my recovery, proved vital."

Brand truly believes in the community that a treatment program can provide. Unlike many celebrities who choose to go to rehab under a shroud of secrecy, Brand is willing to break the stigma associated with getting help and speak candidly about the advantages. "Under the guidance of a mentor, with the support and community of other people on the same path, you have, by following the actions suggested by this program, broken loose from your prior confinement and become a different person," he explains. The right rehabilitation program can be that community, providing the foundation of support necessary for a healthy future.

Russell Brand hopes that by communicating his experiences, sharing his feelings, and expressing the reality of his addiction, he can inspire others to seek sobriety. As he explains it, recovery means "recovering the person that you were intended to be."

Addiction can affect anyone, regardless of fame and fortune. By seeking help, anyone can attain Russell Brand's recovery experiences. If you or someone you love is living with drug addiction, please contact FHE Health to learn more about a comprehensive approach to addressing addiction.

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How Russell Brand Found Life After Sex and Substance Addictions

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English comedian, actor, author and activist Russell Brand is a household name in America, the UK and beyond. From his tumultuous marriage to Katy Perry to his well-known struggles with substance abuse, Brand has led a challenging life. However, the hurdles he has experienced have not left him hopeless.

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r/russellbrand: For the followers, fans, and fervent fanatics of Russell Brand!

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'My Booky Wook' Biography Published in 2007

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'My Booky Wook' Biography Published in 2007

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Brand biography covers a range of topics throughout his life and media career (up to 2007). This Brand's first released book and started the formation of his identity within the media as it outlined details about his personal life/childhood and early career. The video referenced shows Brand reflecting on the book stating that he feels it captured his outlooks and personality perfectly for the time as Brand states in the video "it captures a little smacked junkie's life". The interesting aspect of the book is that Brand hadn't been classed as famous for long in 2007 however he had lived an out of the ordinary life through his family life, drug use, and mental health issues. This represents effectively how Brand's early eccentric image was commercialised and built around his out of the ordinary childhood and route to stardom.

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Trumps tweet about Brand shows how much of his identity within American media is associated with his marriage to Perry

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Twitter spat between 'bald' Donald Trump and 'loser' ex-husband of Katy Perry turns nasty as UK comedian claims billionaire businessman inherited everything from his 'daddy'

Businessman Donald Trump and comedian Russell Brand engaged in a nasty digital fight on Thursday

The Twitter spat began when Trump tweeted that Brand is 'a major loser'

Brand eventually suggested that Trump is not the entrepreneur he has claimed to be

He linked to an an article that mentioned Trump's multi-million dollar inheritance from his father and financial aid from the US government

Businessman Donald Trump and comedian Russell Brand engaged in a nasty Twitter spat on Thursday.

The digital fight started when Trump tweeted that the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star is a 'major loser.' Brand, however, hit back - and eventually suggested that Trump is not the entrepreneur he has claimed to be, by linking to an an article that mentioned his multi-million dollar inheritance and financial aid from the US government.

'I watched Russell Brand @rustyrockets on the @jimmyfallon show the other night-what the hell do people see in Russell-a major loser!' Trump first wrote.

Trump's comments came three days after Brand appeared on 'Late Show with David Letterman' on Monday. Brand is not scheduled as a guest this week on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'.

Trump then published another tweet, which read '.@katyperry must have been drunk when she married Russell Brand @rustyrockets - but he did send me a really nice letter of apology!'

It was not immediately clear what 'letter of apology' Trump was referring to.

Perry and Brand were married in 2010 and divorced two years later, with Perry telling Vogue in June 2013 that Brand announced his intention to divorce in a 2011 New Year's Eve text message.

Brand soon retaliated and responded to Trump's second message with jokes about Trump's sobriety and his much-lampooned hairline.

'.@realDonaldTrump are you drunk when you write these tweets? Or does that foam you spray on your bald head make you high?' he tweeted.

Brand later tweeted '.@realDonaldTrump I don't think your daddy left you any witty ripostes, and everything you have you inherited.'

Included in that tweet was a link to an excerpt from 'The Self-Made Myth: The Truth About How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed' - which disputed Trump's image that he independently built a real estate empire.

Trump inherited between $40million and $200million from his father Fred Trump - who himself received government funds in both the Great Depression and World War Two for projects, according to the excerpt.

When Donald Trump was head of The Trump Organization in 1990 and the company faced a $5billion debt, 'The survival of the company was made possible only by a bailout pact agreed upon in August of that same year by some 70 banks, allowing Trump to defer on nearly $1 billion in debt, as well as to take out second and third mortgages on almost all of his properties,' the book excerpt argued. 'If it were not for the collective effort of all banks and parties involved in that 1990 deal, Trump's business would have gone bankrupt and failed.'

Brand later tweeted '.@realDonaldTrump Also -' and included a link to an April 2011 opinion article from The Atlantic which slammed Trump on several fronts.

That article quoted 'a former Deutsche Bank employee familiar with Trump from this $640-million deal gone awry on the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Trump was sued to collect on a $40-million personal guarantee that was part of the deal.'

'[The Chicago deal] was pretty minor given all the other things going on at the time,' the ex-employee told The Atlantic. 'Real estate developers do default from time to time. But this guy has been doing it for 20 years, failing. Remember the Trump Shuttle? That's why he'll never run. His finances just won't hold up to scrutiny. It's pretty well known in financial circles that this guy is a deadbeat.'

Included in the piece was an April 2011 NBC report around the time Trump considered running for president, which reported Trump had faced multiple casino bankruptcies and lawsuits from various business ventures.

Following Brand's tweets, Trump later pulled Perry more directly into the spat, writing '.@katyperry Katy, what the hell were you thinking when you married loser Russell Brand. There is a guy who has got nothing going, a waste!'

He also tweeted '.@katyperry I watched Russell Brand and I think his mind is fried - he looks really bad. Russell is a total joke, a dummy who is lost!'

Perry has so far not responded to the feud on Twitter.

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Donald Trump and Russell Brand engage in nasty Twitter spat

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Businessman Donald Trump and comedian Russell Brand engaged in a nasty digital fight on Thursday The Twitter spat began when Trump tweeted that Brand is 'a major loser' Brand eventually suggested that Trump is not the entrepreneur he has claimed to be He linked to an an article that mentioned Trump's multi-million dollar inheritance from his father and financial aid from the US government Businessman Donald Trump and comedian Russell Brand engaged in a nasty Twitter spat on Thursday.

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Image Being Questioned through the Lens of Commitment to Perry

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Image Being Questioned through the Lens of Commitment to Perry

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This source represents effectively the differing standards which Brands star image was held too after his engagement with Perry. The article itself utilises the relationship within the context of norms and values related to western ideas of monogamy.

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Steady on, Russell! Katy Perry's fiancé plants a kiss on a fan as hundreds flock to meet him at book signing

In his new book, Russell Brand reveals he swore off other women after his very first date with fiancée Katy Perry.

But the reformed lothario couldn't say no when an attractive brunette fan asked for a kiss at a signing of My Booky Wook 2 in Liverpool today.

He obligingly planted one right on her lips, much to her sheer delight.

She was one of hundreds of fans who had queued to see the kookky author.

A queue of 500 screaming fans snaked around the Metro Centre with some girls literally shaking at the prospect of meeting their idol.

Of course, between promoting his new release, Brand is also busy planning his wedding to the pop star which is set to take place later this year.

The 35-year-old told Lorraine Kelly the wedding will be a quiet affair.

He said: 'We've not got that many people coming. My mum's worried about it. "What am I going to wear?" She always looks lovely my mum.'

The Get Him To The Greek star recently had his stag do with pals such as Noel Gallagher and it was rumoured to be a quiet event.

He said: 'It was quite quiet, my life has been a stag do. I spent a lot of my life taking drugs and drinking a lot.

'Then a lot of my life showing off with girls and all of that sort of stuff. So when the actual stag do came, I'd used up all my tokens.'

Talking about his bride-to-be, he gushed: "She's a challenging individual to be in love with, but I think that's no coincidence.

She's a remarkable person and very, very engaging and interesting and intriguing. It's been very good for me. It's the most normal relationship I've ever had.'

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Steady on, Russell! Katy Perry's fiancé plants a kiss on a fan as hundreds flock to meet him at book signing

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In his new book, Russell Brand reveals he swore off other women after his very first date with fiancee Katy Perry. But the reformed lothario couldn't say no when an attractive brunette fan asked for a kiss at a signing of My Booky Wook 2 in Liverpool today.

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Claims of Misogyny and Abuse from Jordan Martin

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Claims of Misogyny and Abuse from Jordan Martin

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This article draws into question Brand's authentic image within the media. The contents of the article stem from Russel Brand's ex girlfriend Jordan Martin. Martin makes claims against Brand stating that he holds views which directly contrast his views which are commercialised on social politics. The image presented within the article and accounts from Martin contrast with those presented by Brand himself.

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Russell Brand is a misogynist who hurt and abused me says his ex

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It comes as little surprise to Jordan Martin that her former lover, Russell Brand, now styles himself as a people’s champion and revolutionary hero. To Jordan, it is simply ‘a natural progression’.

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Interview Regarding Perry and Get Him to Greek (2010)

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Interview Regarding Perry and Get Him to Greek (2010)

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This interview is held within regard to the curation and release of Get Him to Greek (2010). Within the interview Brand adopts an easy going attitude as he cracks jokes with the interviewer about various topics. Brand employs similar comedic techniques included within his early stand up work however the topic's of his jokes are much less taboo and controversial (representing a change of persona when operating in American media culture). The interview also directly links the relationship of Perry and Brand to the release of Get Him to Greek (2010) showing the commercial uses of the relationship and how it was being utilised by Brand to draw media attention towards the film release (as Perry and Brand met on set during filming)

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Russell Brand Talks Get Him to the Greek, Diddy & Katy Perry

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This article released on Mens Mental Health includes an interview conducted with Brand about his preconceived notions of his own image and how his career has adapted and changed throughout his life. The article references that when Brand turned 40 (2015) he wasn't happy with his own personal relationship to stardom and his attitudes towards his declining fame. The article itself represents a vast difference to the image represented through Brand's early career and offers readers a deeper insight into his choices to adapt the type of media he produces within recent years and present day. The contextual details regarding the release of the article within Men's Mental Health again acts as a clear signature of Brand's altered image rooted in mental and physical health.

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Russell Brand: How to Become a Brand-New You

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In his new audiobook, Revelation, the comedian-turned-guru explores what’s sacred in life. Here he riffs on education, reflection and rebranding yourself into the person you want to be

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Broad view of Brand and Conspiracy Theory

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Broad view of Brand and Conspiracy Theory

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The mockney stand-up turned populist pundit has followed US podcaster Joe Rogan down the rabbit hole of online misinformation

The mockney messiah with a man bun has found a new calling. Russell Brand, formerly known for stand-up comedy, hosting reality shows and making incendiary phone calls about granddaughters of Fawlty Towers actors, can now be found posting 'truth-seeking' daily videos and weekly podcasts to some 10m people across YouTube and Instagram. Recent episodes include 'You've Been LIED To About Why Ukraine War Began'; 'Can We REALLY Trust Vaccine Fact-Checkers??!', and 'Trump was RIGHT About Clinton & Russia Collusion!!'. It's all a far cry from the man three times named 'S------ of the Year' by The Sun.

The charismatic Brand, who became ubiquitous in the mid-Noughties, has harnessed his popularity into virtual populism, his 'anti-partisan' videos winning millions of fans across both Left and Right. The 15-minute posts usually begin with thanks to "awakened beings" for joining the "journey to truth"; he has defended both Putin and Trump, decries billionaires, and wants to root out racism. Brand detests authority - mass media and the Government being the primary evils - and wants revolution. So much so that he wrote a book of that name in 2014 (from the country pile of his then-girlfriend, heiress Jemima Khan).

Seemingly modelling himself on Joe Rogan - the controversial US podcasting phenom who followed the stand-up to reality presenter to populist pundit pipeline to become one of the most powerful figures in American media - Brand promises to "say the unsayable", earning himself a loyal, and large, following. The 46-year-old says he is not there to flout conspiracy theories, but to ask questions and "create new narratives" - a similar defence employed by Rogan, who in January found himself at the centre of a scandal after being accused of peddling Covid mistruths.

One episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, which has 11m listeners, resulted in a letter from more than 270 doctors slamming the programme as a "menace to public health". Neil Young and Joni Mitchell told Spotify, the platform on which his podcast is streamed, that it had to ditch Rogan or their back catalogues; Rogan won out. The brouhaha only solidified the status that the podcasting behemoths now wield - which is good news for brand Brand.

There are major differences in their approaches, however. While both are martial arts fans keen to host divisive figures - Rogan's include ex-NRA leader and Sandy Hook-denier Alex Jones, academic Jordan Peterson and Gavin McInnes, founder of the far-Right Proud Boys group - the US presenter's hours-long conversations belie a genuine desire to find what makes his interviewees tick. Brand is a different beast, his videos a stream of verbal ablutions that begin with a plea for viewers to buy tickets to his live tour (his T-shirts bearing anti-Government slogans sell for £25.99). 'Stay Free' is splashed across merch from tea towels to phone cases and mugs, the latter of which also features his face. His site promises that "grants using money generated by this endeavour" will be made, though no further details are provided.

Brand - an avowed anti-capitalist with a net worth over £10m, according to Spear's - was criticised for his 2017 book Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions, which some said was a for-profit version of the 12-step programme used for alcohol and drug addicts (which is available for free). "The point is that you don't profit from the 12 steps," says an insider who knew Brand as his star was rising; that is "really frowned upon". But he's "very funny, he's very charming," she admits. "When I was with him, I felt like I was the only person in the world."

It is this "incredible ability to make people feel as though he's talking just to them" that has supercharged his online success. "This is what it feels like to be part of a conversation," he tells viewers in a video posted this week: "to be heard, to be seen."

Henry Jeffreys saw that appeal up close in 2007, when working as a publicist for My Booky Wook - Brand's sex and drink-fuelled memoir. "People loved him," he recalls of Brand's effusive chats with old ladies and security guards. Back then, Brand was a household name, thanks to hosting E4's spin-off show Big Brother's Big Mouth, appearing in Hollywood films from Forgetting Sarah Marshall to Get Him to the Greek, and tabloid-documented liaisons with Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Geri Halliwell (and many, many more).

"He was still developing his political persona [then]," says Jeffreys. "He used to kind of throw around names of Noam Chomsky and stuff, but I'm not sure he could actually read them." Still, his transition from comedian to revolutionary was afoot.

By the middle of the last decade, Brand had interviewed Holocaust-denier David Icke on multiple occasions and, in 2015, invited the would-be Labour leader Ed Miliband on his YouTube show, The Trews (a portmanteau of True News), so great was his appeal among young voters deemed to be by politicians. Brand, at the time, was not registered to vote.

Jeffreys remembers Brand being obsessed with things "going on beneath the surface [that] you don't really understand, you know - 'Wake up, people!'" It is this that has become "more explicit" in his current YouTube trajectory. In the age of online conspiracies, which have flourished since the onset of Covid, Brand's alarmist video headlines have found support among the frustrated and locked-down. Now, with global restrictions lifting, Ukraine has become the natural next area for scrutiny.

"There are particular individuals within the anti-vaccine world who are amenable to pro-Russian propaganda," according to Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, who notes that there is also crossover among supporters of QAnon (the group who believed Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles across the government, media and corporate worlds). Rather than these groups fading with Covid, experts warn that the same mindset - dismissing the prevailing logic so as to deny the status quo, no matter the evidence - will merely be transferred to other crises.

This has also led to hybrid conspiracies: such as that the US has long had a secret, illegitimate bioweapons lab in Ukraine, which now works with bat-borne coronavirus samples, which Russia is simply attempting to destroy.

Brand never clearly nails down his own views, "discussing" conspiracies, so as to skirt accusations of being a conspiracist. He is helped somewhat by those who still associate him with his cheeky Noughties screen persona and former marriage to pop star Katy Perry, as well as his quest for wellness - the subject of another of his YouTube channels - and faithful practise of yoga and veganism, all of which obfuscate possible sightings of tin foil hats.

He is currently touring the UK with 'The 33', which consists of three segments - his back story, the hypocrisy of the Government during the pandemic, and a meditation with the crowd. An Instagram post from Monday's show in Sheffield features him clasping the hands of an audience member, as others watch on in wonder at what Brand called "a magical meeting of souls".

Rogan's brand remains more steak and dumbbells than spinach and savasanas. But the pair share a great deal: both are "funny and fearless", says listener Jon Miltimore, 42, who appreciates their ability to "talk intelligently about complex ideas and provocative ideas"; these are men who aren't "afraid to poke at those sacred cows, and to question authority".

They share mutual affection, too. "You've emerged authentically," Rogan told his British counterpart during a marathon three-and-a-half-hour episode of his podcast in 2019. "This is who you really are... you found yourself."

Brand - who posted videos of support over Rogan's Spotify debacle earlier this year - also cited him in his 2019 book, Mentors, in a nod to his "influence and impact." With a net worth of around £92m, Rogan is still around 10 times bigger than Brand - but with his YouTube subscribers climbing by a million in a month, that gap may yet be closing.

My Booky Wook was a bestseller; My Conspiracy Wiracy is looking like a dead cert.

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How Russell Brand became the 'Mad Hatter of conspiracy theories'

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The mockney stand-up turned populist pundit has followed US podcaster Joe Rogan down the rabbit hole of online misinformation The mockney messiah with a man bun has found a new calling.

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This timeline represents the interest held within the media regarding Brands past transgressions and his identity within his rise to fame during the 2000's.

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Russell Brand has never been one for a quiet life.

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This article represents the marriage of Brand and Perry through direct quotes to the media from pair of them. Their marriage is presented as spontaneous as the pair met on the set of Get Him to Greek during the filming of a romantic scene. It's interesting to note that the marriage of Brand and Perry also occurred during the same year that Get Him to Greek premiered in cinemas and the relationship of the pair was utilised within marketing for the film through various forms of media.

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Life imitating art. Katy Perry first met ex-husband Russell Brand while filming a romantic scene for his 2010 film, Get Him to the Greek.

"When he was filming Get Him to the Greek, I did a cameo with him. My scene called for me to make out with him," the "Firework" singer told Glamour in 2010 about working with the British comedian two years earlier. "And on the way down the stairs after the scene, I was hopping like a bunny. I hop like a bunny when I'm happy - I get a bit childlike. He gives me the Christmas Eve jitters."

While the scene was ultimately cut from the movie - with Perry explaining to MTV in June 2010 that "it seemed too ... literal" if they included the kiss - their interaction gave her the courage to make the first move when Brand was onstage at the VMAs the following year. "I was 25, 30 feet away from him. And I threw the bottle straight at him. Hit him smack dab on the head," Perry told Esquire in July 2010. "Can you imagine the horrible feeling he had, when he was used to getting everything he wanted? I was like, 'You've met your match.'"

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star reflected on the moment in an interview with Metro around the same time: "I was really annoyed but when she came up to me she was so mouthy, smart and cocky, it made me really interested. ... I didn't feel like I had a choice. It didn't feel like a decision. It was just really natural. It just felt like we were mates."

After a whirlwind romance, the duo announced their engagement in January 2010, just four months after they began dating, and tied the knot during a Hindu ceremony in India in October of that year. "[Marriage is] at once the most mundane and spectacular thing in the world," Brand told Details magazine in March 2011. "There are a lot of areas where I've simply relinquished decision-making. It really does make my mates laugh, though."

However, their relationship seemingly ended just as quickly as it began, with the England native announcing in December 2011 that they had decided to call it quits after just over one year of marriage. "Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage," Brand said in a statement to Us Weekly at the time. "I'll always adore her and I know we'll remain friends."

In July 2012, the Arthur star explained that while he "loved [Perry] so much," he ultimately realized that their relationship just wasn't working. "I was really, really in love with her, but it was difficult to see each other," he said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show at the time. " We were together when it was right to be together, and when it wasn't we worked it out ... It was a lovely relationship ... It mostly didn't work for practical reasons ... We did work it out, she's happy, I'm happy."

The American Idol judge, meanwhile, was less kind about the end of their relationship, telling Vogue in June 2013 that Brand ended things over text. "At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they're like, 'I can't handle the equalness,'" Perry said at the time.

The twosome did eventually find their happy endings, though. In 2015, Brand reconciled with his on-again, off-again partner, Laura Gallagher. He and the Scottish blogger tied the knot two years later and they share two daughters: Mabel, 5, and Peggy, 3. Perry, for her part, began dating Orlando Bloom in January 2016 and the Lord of the Rings star proposed on Valentine's Day 2018. They welcomed a baby girl, Daisy Dove, in August 2020.

Keep scrolling to relive Brand and Perry's whirlwind romance:

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Katy Perry and Russell Brand: The Way They Were

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Life imitating art. Katy Perry first met ex-husband Russell Brand while filming a romantic scene for his 2010 film, Get Him to the Greek. "When he was filming Get Him to the Greek, I did a cameo with him.

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Brand has employed his illegal substance use into multiple facets of his differing star image throughout his career.

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The film Get Him to The Greek (2010) is often cited as the height of Brand's Hollywood career as he was a major star within the text. The film itself launched to various forms of critical praise producing a total box office of 91 million.

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Cast overview, first billed only:

English rock star Aldous Snow relapses into drugs and booze after a break up and a disastrous record. In L.A., Aaron Green works for a record company stuck in recession. Aaron's boss gives him a career making task - to bring Aldous from London to L.A. for a concert in 72 hours. That day, Aaron's girlfriend Daphne tells him she wants to finish her medical residency in Seattle. Aaron's sure this ends their relationship. In London, things aren't much better: Aldous delays their departure several times, plies Aaron with vices, and alternates between bad behavior and trenchant observations. Can Aaron moderate Aldous's substance abuse and get him to the Greek? What about Daphne?

Taglines:

Aaron Green has 72 hours to get a Rock Star from London to L.A. Pray for him.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive language | See all certifications "

Release Date:

4 June 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Get Me to the Gig

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,570,955, 6 June 2010

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$91,720,255

Runtime:

See full technical specs "

Trivia

The Greek Theatre's marquee includes Bob and the Yeoman, a reference to director of photography Robert D. Yeoman. See more "

Goofs

In Aaron's POV camera shot of his tongue, lipstick appears around the tip of the tongue before the dancing girl kisses it. See more "

Quotes

Aldous Snow : Now I'm just worried about drugs. Your life's to-do list must be a baffling document. You're worried about so many things Aaron. You're worried about will we get to the show, will I perform well, will you get the credit you deserve. Mine has on it but one word. Do you know what that word is?
See more "

Crazy Credits

After the end credits role, Aaron Green's hallucination of Sergio's head appears saying, "Go home. Get the fuck out of the theater. The movie's over." See more "

Connections

References Surrogates (2009) See more "

Soundtracks

Girls on the Dance Floor
Written by Ray Romulus, Jeremy Reeves (as Jeremy L. Reeves), Jonathan Yip (as Jonathan James Yip), Bruno Mars, Prohgress (as James Roh), Kevnish (as Kevin Nishimura), J-Splif (as Jae Choung)
Performed by Far East Movement featuring 24/8
Courtesy of Broken Glass Music Company LLC
See more "

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Cast overview, first billed only: English rock star Aldous Snow relapses into drugs and booze after a break up and a disastrous record. In L.A., Aaron Green works for a record company stuck in recession. Aaron's boss gives him a career making task - to bring Aldous from London to L.A.

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Get Him to Greek Collider Interview w/ Brand

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Get Him to Greek Collider Interview w/ Brand

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This article discusses aspects of Brand's persona within the context of the film Get Him to the Greek (2010).

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Last weekend I got to participate in a roundtable interview with Russell Brand for the very funny comedy Get Him to the Greek. Since we've been covering the film extensively over the past few months (here's my set report, a bunch of new images, on set interviews with Jonah Hill, Russell Brand and writer/director Nicholas Stoller) I'd like to think most of you are familiar with the film and are excited to see it next weekend. But for the three people that have no idea, watch this awesome red band trailer and read the synopsis. Trust me, the film is worth your hard earned money.

Anyway, while some actors/comedians might shy away from their past, or try and push an interview towards certain subjects or agendas, Brand answered every question with brutal honesty. Subjects ranged from his past drug use to his recent battles in England over some prank phone calls. No subject was off limits. Also, the guy is incredibly sharp and very funny. If you have the time, I really suggest listening to this interview rather than reading the transcript. It's a good one. Hit the jump to check it out:

As always, you can either read the transcript below or listen to the audio by clicking here. Get Him to the Greek opens this Friday.

Question: I love your scarf.
Russell Brand: Thanks very much. Alexander McQueen designed it.
So you're enjoying this publicity campaign thing that you're on.

Brand: I don't mind these bits. It's quite nice. It's like a dinner party where I get too much attention. ( laughter)

You don't seem like the type that would shy away from attention.
Brand: well you say that but actually if this was a dinner party I'd [say] I don't want to go. Sign me off. Say I'm not well. Because my job is showing off, socializing I just consider to be more work, you know? It's just some work. It's that thing where I have to talk, isn't it? Yes, it is. Well, we've got to go. And you kind of listen as well. I like that also. I do like listening.
I am curious though, when you do something like a Letterman or Leno or Conan, whatever show, how much do you prep for your segment or do you sort of improv it the whole time you're going?
Brand: Well the shows impose some preparation on you as part of their own preparation because they need to be secure that there will be content. But myself, I do not do any preparation. Like, what do you want to talk about. I go, I don't know, anything. And then they go all right, what about this? I go, yeah, yeah, that'll be alright. And then like but me I get very adrenalized and scared I suppose before a performance and I think that energy, that fight or flight energy is translated into neurological activity that I can then translate into anecdotes.
Russell, there are so many elements in this movie that obviously mirror your own life, right?
Brand: There's a lot of elements.
Right. So was it challenging for you doing this in a sense that you know you've got the drugs and everything and that idea that you might relapse.
Brand: No. I didn't think I would relapse. It was interesting, actually, the props person who gave me pretend cocaine to take in one scene which I don't think was in the movie was himself 21 years clean. And I go, "what is this?" and he said it was...it looked like cocaine and I had to snort it right up my hooter and he goes "this is organic matter". That's something that you read on a Nestle label. What is organic matter? Oh nothing. It just killed some kids. What? Yeah, so to answer your question, like addiction being a drug addict and that you have to...I'm in like a daily program of recovery and everything so one day at a time I'm alright. But doing them things it's more the emotional stuff when you get all like angry or shout at people, but if your body don't know that you're not serious...apparently you can tell your brain any old information. It would just respond to it. If you just keep telling your brain that's why that power of positive thinking which some people say is mumbo-jumbo and perhaps they're correct, but apparently if you just fill your head with positive, it'll all be alright.
Well, doesn't the amount of candor that you're able to have about your past, does that sort of like give you some control over it or does the extent that people may feel comfortable asking you about even more intimate details?
Brand: It means I have to take responsibility to where I want to draw boundaries about what I actually consider to be private. But I'm kind of comfortable doing that. I think by being...sort of the exposure that I've had I think initially when I first became famous in the United Kingdom it was helpful because it meant there wasn't a spite of "this bloke's a drug addict" "this bloke fucks all these women" because I was just making jokes about all those things already, so it kind of made me some kind of incorruptible indefatigable, indestructible force. So it was a good idea. And also I think it transposes those things from being things that make you sad to sort of stuff that makes you laugh and all of those things ...there's some stories I tell on stage and they're funny, but like things that was...you know in the words of Morrissey I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible.
In the trailer there's a few sequences...in the commercials they've been showing on TV, a few sequences that aren't actually in the movie and Nick has said there's a bunch of stuff that didn't make the final cut. Was there certain scenes or...I heard the video...there's a really funny video that didn't make it.
Brand: Oh yeah, I Am Jesus. Welcome to the church of me.
Besides the video were there other sequences that you were sad to see cut out?
Brand: In a sense. Actually, it's very true... when I was younger if I had to make some teli thing myself or something to send to TV stations I would always make them too long. Now...because I was vain and I'd go "all of it's brilliant". And now I think like it's good to be succinct. So because I'm actually genuinely pleased with the film, I think it's good. I think they've done a good job. I would have done it really different because I sort of would have made me much more funny. They made me dead sad in loads of it. But they seem to know what they're doing better than I do. I hope. We'll see if the film's a hit. Otherwise I'm going back into the edit and do the Russell Brand version, which is just different shots of me just looking out like this. So there is stuff that I think is really, really funny but I can't question the job they've done with the movie because I rate them people. I think Nick's a talented man, so.
Well, it's interesting because you have this stand-up background, so you sort of have your own thing that you do, and then coming to a movie it's very collaborative, but beyond that, you're giving a performance and then Nick takes it and does what he wants with it.
Brand: Difficult.
Is that hard for you? Is that sort of hard to let that go?
Brand: It is because as you say as a stand-up comedian you have this sort of absolute authority once you're up on stage you can just go nuts and I have done lots of time. Sometimes I get in trouble with the police. When I was a drug addict, I got really beaten up on several occasions because I was just thinking let's say this now. It's what I believed and sometimes I knew I was right about what I was saying. I was definitely, definitely right about the nature of consciousness and the nature of culpability that the way we're all socially culpable for each other and you can't demonize certain individuals even the most extreme criminals you have to take social responsibility. People don't want them kind of ideas in a comedy club. They just beat you up. I was saying we have to take responsibility for the notion of pedophilia. But I was unable to articulate in a way that people thought was acceptable. Their response was much more to do this to my leg. That.
Oooh.
Brand: Yeah, I got really badly beaten up and thrown through a door.
Jesus.
Brand: Luckily I was on quite a lot of heroin that day. Didn't hurt. What was interesting was watching the blood go "whoosh" to the beat of your heart pulsing literally.
Wow.
Brand: Then I went to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I wanted to get...Edinburgh is a good place to get heroin in Scotland. And I go to these kids, go get me some heroin lads. I give the 40 quid upfront. Never pay upfront! There are very few places you can make advance heroin payments. We'll be delivering the heroin. Always no money down for heroin. Installments possibly, yeah. HP-high purchase.
I was reading about some incident that happened regarding prank phone calls in England.
Brand: Oh yes.
And I was sort of wondering the different....seem to me that wouldn't be a big deal over here. And I was just wondering like what's the different between doing the kind of stuff you do in England and here in the States?
Brand: This is difficult for me to answer...it's not difficult it's just complicated. Here it is. That prank phone call, it was not the nature of the phone call itself. It was the nature of socialist construction of the country I'm from. We have a thing called the BBC. The BBC is publicly funded. The privately owned media wanted to destroy the BBC because it's brilliant and the private owned media -mostly Rupert Murdock - so the private owned media wanted to destroy the BBC. They don't like me or Jonathan Ross at the Daily Mail, a powerful newspaper in the United Kingdom. They don't like us. We're both from working class backgrounds. I'm a former drug addict and instead of dying, I've gone on and fucked everyone and made loads of money. That's not the story they want. Drug addicts are dead in gutter...that's drug addicts for the Daily Mail. "what! He's fucking who?!" it's confusing for their message. Plus I'm innately anti-establishment in my behavior and stance, so they want to destroy me. Then like the person who's answering...now the thing we did that was wrong that we did was we left a rude answering message on an elderly man's phone but in my head he was still the character he played on the sitcoms 30 years ago. I don't think of the reality. He played the character called (inaudible), which I loved. I just saw this man in a white waiter's jacket holding one of them silver things like that. And that's who I was leaving an answering phone message for. One of them silver platters. So like the thing is, I had sex with this dance troupe and one of that dance troupe was the grand-daughter of this man. I was explaining this on the radio actually in quite a funny way, and we phoned up Andrew Sachs and ended up leaving this message. It was very silly and juvenile but actually funny. So like the newspapers as know, you're a journalist, are dying. People don't need these papers no more, so people get news from other sources, so newspapers need to campaign to remain relevant and they have to have opinion. So they manage to push these opinions, they have to campaign and so there was this perfect storm. Jonathan Ross, they don't like him earning so much money. Me, they don't like what I represent. They don't like that he was an old-style comedian attacked by sort of younger folk. So it became this conglomerate of lunacy. But to be honest, I found it amazing. It was like a sociological experiment. I like it if the news begins...the main news again Russell Brand, I think, good, yeah, that is the main news. About time.
Is that the vanity in you then?
Brand: Yeah, I'm narcissistic. I'm working on it because I recognize that the self is a sort of construct it's all going to dissipate into nothing, isn't it? If you take it too seriously, you're fucked.
But isn't that the nature of comedy? If you're successful you're challenging the structure of the...I mean it's...I would think it would be...you could be...actually succeed.
Brand: I think I am because as I remember I used to be a penniless junkie. And now I'm not. Something's going right. I'm happy with it.
Seems like you're getting some enjoyment out of it.
Brand: Getting some good enjoyment and I feel like I'm expressing myself. There are compromises like...because when you're stand up you just do what you want. You have to sort of trust other people. I don't generally like doing that, but you know, there you go. Basically things are alright.
I'm curious, with the success you're having right now is there a lot of debate, for you, what is my next project or what is my next choice because it might impact the success I'm having? Or are you sort of like I'm going to stick with my gut with...because it's been working?
Brand: Yes, I did the latter because I know what I'm doing next, I'm starting Arthur in July. The Dudley Moore movie, you know, like that billionaire guy got married for money or choose love/fairy tale. So I'm playing Arthur. I'm up for that. And that 's starts in July. I'm doing it with Helen Mirren. She's got an Oscar already, so she must be brilliant. That's the way I see it. So like that'll be good I think. So I'm doing that. I've read another book. It's 85,000 words. It's boring writing on your own. Finished it and that's coming out soon as well. So that'll be happening and I've got loads of things I've already shot. This thing where I'm the Easter Bunny called Hop. That comes out next year. I've got another thing called Despicable Me or Evil Me or something. I'm in that and that's coming out. The Tempest which I've done with Helen Mirren, that's already been shot and coming out. The I'm making a film that Adam Sandler's producing where I play a con-man posing as a priest called Bad Father, set in the south, which is here in the states, that I've got to make next year. So I've got all sorts of different things. I can't really do stand up though because of the autonomy in the control and the authenticity it affords you. So things are all right as long as nothing goes wrong. I hope I haven't jinxed it.
Do you feel compelled to test your own boundaries in terms of doing things that are more dramatic or at least dramatically different from what you've already been doing?
Brand: Not yet, because to be honest with you, say you're the best comic actors ever, right? Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams. All that is proper movie stars, it's not that they go, oh and this week he's a French hunchback. You want them to be doing stuff where you recognize them at first at least, you know? And this is my first significant part in a movie, first lead role, eh? So let's see if this works, and then like Arthur I think I'll stay within that pallet. I can act, you know? I went to drama school. I can pretend to have a different voice and different height, different head. All of these things are possible. They're art. This is the best thing to do at the moment.
Going back to the Arthur thing for a second, how much are you taking from the first movie or are you guys doing your own path?
Brand: Very much our own path. I mean as demonstrated by the decision to have the butler as a female/nanny played by Helen Mirren. So that's already a distinction. We've taken some of the best lines from the script, but even that I'll go...hmm it's dodgy doing that. Like there's some just such amazing lines in it that...what's that....oh how did you end up being a prostitute? My mom died when I was 6 and my father shot himself when I was 12. So you had 6 relatively good years? I wanted to keep that. What can I say? But like I...so the spirit of it like you know Dudley Moore he's sort of innocent isn't he? So you've got to have that innocent vulnerability. That's got to be maintained and the sort of sadness of somebody that's a drunk or whatever. And the optimism, the affability and all that. Keep all those things. But it's sort of different because it's a different time and look what's happening economically and all these things. A billionaire. Wish fulfillment and he can do anything. He's got so much money. I like that sort of stuff.
Well, it's funny because Arthur came out right at the end when you could be a cute, funny drunk.
Brand: Yeah, exactly. You can't. It's serious.
You can't be a cute, funny drunk anymore. Now it's like everybody has to change now. You have to learn at the end of the movie and really go....so are you going to have to do that or are you going to still be a cute, funny drunk?
Brand: Yes, no. You can't be, as you have correctly observed, attitudes towards alcohol have changed now. Now being a drunk is...hey he's a loveable party guy! I think he's dead! it's really sad that someone is drinking. So there has to be sort of a more sophisticated approach to the problems of alcoholism to which I'm actually sensitive as a person in recovery. But I don't want to lose the fun. I like when also in Arthur was it like you're the guy with all the money, right? Yeah. What's it like? It's brilliant. I don't want to lose that. Like you don't want to lose that. But like yes, you have to be a little more responsible. Particularly because like studios and things are big conglomerates and that if they're responsible you can't have people around pacing around spreading the wrong message. Everyone's got to remain conditioned citizens at all cost, but for God's sake don't think.
I imagine there'll be a really different sort of feel to the movie because in the original, now that you have a really attractive older woman as your nanny, that's probably a different...
Brand: Yes, it's a very different dynamic isn't it? Because that's the thing about Helen Mirren is she's a powerfully sexual animal even into like a part of her life where that would not be typical. What I'd like is for her to give me a bath and I'm planning for that to be in the script. You know when you find some women, I don't know how it works with homosexuality, but with me, what it is is I want women like older to sort of look after me a bit, but then it goes a bit sexual. First it was "come on, I'm really hungry". Get in the bath. Oh you silly boy. Just wash it properly. And then it gets all sexy. That's what I want.
That sounds artistically valid.
Brand: I think that should be in the movie!
I think so. The studio will really like that. (laughter)
Brand: Oedipus. They will love this pitch. This we'll go in there as a gang. Look, we worked on this and it made sense then and it will make sense in the movie.
And it'll put his eyes out.
Brand: Yeah, they're going to struggle with that.
Back to the movie, what part was the hardest part for you to shoot?
Brand: I don't like it...I have to shout at Jonah at one bit and that made me feel a bit bad because like the bit where I go give me the fucking drug. I went intense on people.
That was a good scene though. I think that was one of the best scenes in the film actually.
Brand: Did you?
Yeah, because it showed another...it showed actually how drug addicts are like when they're not getting the drug, like how they'd react to somebody that is just...the drug comes first.
Brand: Drug comes first, fuck everything else. Yeah for me it's tricky to revisit that...obviously that's the reason I was able to hopefully bring authenticity to that is because I've been in that situation loads of times. When you're a drug addict, people, they're always tipping your drugs down the toilet like that's going to help. You just gotta go get more. Inconvenient. People tipping stuff. Emptying envelopes. Dropping little bags. It's a nuisance. Pack it in because you've got to have something for therapy. You're not going to have like a Archimedes moment of oh, yeah. Eureka. Thank God you tipped them drugs down the toilet. Also I noticed the water level rose. Which is interesting as a side note. So what...yeah, I mean to revisit, I've had that stuff happen loads of times, so I remembered it and it made me angry, you know, but I don't like to get into that part of my character too much as a human being anymore because it makes me feel sick. Say, do you know?...I don't know if anyone's in recovery from drugs or alcohol but when you shout at someone like say like you're trying to get your phone to work and like and it's even worse in your fucking country, like trying to get like the phone to work and like you go to the person, oh I'll put you through to my supervisor. No, I want it done! Like if I do that now I feel really bad. I feel like in my stomach--awful. So it's sort of now I think crippled by some sort of cosmic empathy. So now I can't be mean even when I'm pretending, I feel a bit bad.
So you're a really nice guy?
Brand: I'm pretty nice now. Pretty nice, out of selfishness.
Do you feel a sense of, I mean a greater sense of sympathy for the folks who are sort of corralling you and trying to get you into things like Jonah's character? Or are you just kind of like I'll get there when I get there?
Brand: I sort of became aware of the irony while making this film that there people that have to fulfill that function in my own life. That there are people who, please Russell can you please? No, I'm just not getting up. I can't be bothered. No I won't. There are people that have to do that job. Not seem to be awareness. I'm sort of amused on it. Whimsically.
You didn't change your behavior though. (laughter)
Brand: Actually, not. Like I was in smoking jacket. Oh, the irony. Like something that Dorothy Parker might have thought about and just flicked some cigarette ashes on the floor. Pick that up.
Russell, one last question. Are you affiliated to any charities that are related to...
Brand: Yeah, Focus 12. They're a drug rehabilitation center when I myself got clean. I'm a patron of that charity in the U.K. and the David Lynch Foundation for Transcendental Meditation. I'm affiliated to these causes. But also the on-going revolution, but that's more subversive. We can't admit to that because otherwise we'd all be killed.
We'll put you down for Breast Cancer as well.

(laughter)
Brand: God knows I've contributed to that.

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Russell Brand GET HIM TO THE GREEK Interview

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Last weekend I got to participate in a roundtable interview with Russell Brand for the very funny comedy Get Him to the Greek .

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Brand's success during his early career spawned a new period of representation of his image within entertainment media. Much of the early 2010's Brand exercised a career in Hollywood which was shortly lived. His career was coincided with his marriage to Katy Perry which was again short lived. After the demise of Brand's notability within American media culture he went on to began a career within political commentary. His image during the 2010's maintained a similar tone however much of Brand's attitudes and representations had become less outlandish whilst still remaining counter normative. His image within this period and the 2020's adopted a hybridised nature utilising his comedic personality and political attitudes for commercial success.

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Russell Brand stalks into a Manhattan hotel room, sharp-elbowed, bent-kneed, staring wildly through the windows of the 37th floor. He looks like Jack Frost and sounds - "Going for the hip-hop look?" - like someone's sarcastic older brother. I glance down. Above the waistband of my jeans something has, indeed, gone horribly awry.

"Two inches of visible pants!" Brand looks delighted. "But aren't you nice and slim! You don't look like a person who's - I mean, you're not tortured by that, are you? It's not like you starve yourself?"

Er, no.

"Nice work."

Here it is, Brand's stock in trade, the casual delivery of absurd or obnoxious statements, and it gets excellent results. The 35-year-old has enormous faith in his power to win over people, which is just as well, since he spent most of his 20s aggravating, in minor but persistent ways, the police, his employers and every woman he ever dated. Quite how a former heroin addict who kept keys to an ex-girlfriend's flat so he could let himself in to steal from her - who in public at least always talks in italics - can come off as guileless is a mystery, but he does.

You wonder what he is like in the off hours.

Today, however, he is very much on, promoting Get Him To The Greek, a sequel to the 2008 hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall in which he played laconic British rock star Aldous Snow. Produced by Judd Apatow and co-starring Sean "P Diddy" Combs and Jonah Hill, the film is so full of Brandisms - those long strings of mock-serious locutions - that he might have asked for a writing credit. No, he says, "Given the opportunities these people have afforded me and the platform they've given me, that would be rather unchivalrous." Brand can afford to be generous. Engaged to pop star Katy Perry, free of his addictions and with several more Hollywood films in the pipeline, there's a sense of him teetering on the edge of the really big time, although what the Americans see when they look at Brand is hard to work out. Actually, he says, it isn't. "Americans: what are their assumptions about people from the United Kingdom? Probably they're informed by Monty Python, rock'n'roll and Victorian England. If you have those things about your character, they'll go, all right, I know what this is." He dips his head and gives me the look that says, how can you resist someone as quiveringly self-aware, as attuned to the mechanisms of his own irresistibility, as I, Russell Brand, am?

Of course, in among the comic verbosity and finely tuned bathos, Brand talks a lot of shit. In lesser hands what he does would be pretentious student comedy. When he was a presenter on MTV, he tried to break through the wall of meaningless white noise by coming in on cue with total absurdities. " Derrida! Kettle- Russell!" he would say in lieu of "welcome back after the break". Or " Baudelaire! Pipe-cleaner Russell!" ("I'd try," he explains, "to say one thing that was cerebral and one thing that was just stupid.")

As a child, he observed among his peers a group he characterised as "nan-kids" - children brought up wholly or in part by grandparents with vocab idiosyncrasies from two generations above, and has taken inspiration from their linguistic style. "Twit", he says, and "balderdash" and "nincompoop". His memoir, My Booky Wook - the title comes from A Clockwork Orange and has the same disruptive effect as trashing the MTV script - is a combination of fine comic schtick (in the US edition, he explains to American readers that what is known in England as a Waltzer is a "tilt-a-whirl" in the US, which sounds "like a nonconsensual, diagonal sex attack") and straightforwardly good writing: Oxford Street with its "perpetual glum buzz"; his father's "cheap charisma".

The most irksome part of his act is the babytalk, used to flatter and throw into relief all that intellect, and there is a question of how much the comedy plays on snobbish reactions to a guy with long hair and Essex vowels name-dropping philosophers.

Brand is a partial nan-kid. His mother suffered recurring bouts of cancer when he was growing up and he was farmed out to relatives in Essex, the nan he loved and the nan he didn't, and his absent father, who was half-useless, half-inspiring. "My dad is from an estate in Dagenham, but wholeheartedly believes you can do what you want if you work hard enough. If you refuse to give up. So I got that. That message was loud for me."

When Brand's father was flush, he was sent to private school, then the cash ran out and he went back to a comprehensive. The most useful part of his education, he says, came from obsessively watching TV comedies. He has huge bits of script still by memory: "I do have a regard for the musicality of language that came from BBC sitcoms like Fawlty Towers. 'Your glasses are there, Mrs Richards! You can see the sea, it's there between the land and the sky - you'd need a telescope to see that - well, then may I suggest that you move to a hotel closer to the sea, or preferably in it!' "

It was his role as Fat Sam in a student production of Bugsy Malone that convinced him to apply to Italia Conti, that "famous school for unbearable brats" as he calls it, from which he was later expelled for drug use. His mother was always being called to the school for one crime or another, so that, he writes, "even now when I do something wrong - if I say something inappropriate on a live TV show, for example - I half expect to have to deliver a note to Barbara Brand: 'Please come up to Channel 4 head office, Russell's done something despicable.' "

Brand conveys all this with the talent he has for putting himself outside his own experience, as if he is, to some extent, an innocent bystander to his own histrionics. From the beginning he cultivated a style based on the idea he would one day be famous - that these would be stories to enliven a memoir. "I don't know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions, but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic, so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly, it would be a kind of defence. That I would have a degree of safety."

When Brand was 17, his father took him on a sex tourism holiday to the far east - unorthodox parenting that was, he says, actually quite helpful. If there are roots to his bad behaviour, particularly the incontinent sexuality that would see him checking into a sex-addiction clinic in America, it was something that happened a decade earlier. He was sent to a tutor who, he writes in the memoir, "when I got a question right - by way of congratulation - stuck his finger up my arse and felt my balls." He told his mum, who told his dad, who said "he'd deal with it. But he never did anything."

Now, says Brand, "People advised me to take that part out. The reason I left it in was because I thought, if in chapter four you see this happen, when in chapter 12 I'm rampaging round having it off with prostitutes, you might see a corollary. It might be less unsavoury. That was my hope."

At some point, while he's off on one of his soliloquies, I go momentarily offline and stare out of the window at rainy New York. Brand notices instantly and for the next few seconds leans urgently forward, punctuates everything he says with pats to my knee and uses my name a lot, until I have clicked back in. It's not aggressive or sexual, but the highly tuned, professional insecurity that drives successful performers.

His honesty is of course winning, and his self-deprecation - he describes himself as a "right arsehole" and his early life as "a trivial Greek tragedy" - one of his key appeals, although it doesn't exculpate him quite as much as he thinks it does. Fairness is important to Brand. He has just delivered the second volume of memoir (it is currently with the lawyers, he says heavily), in which he had to tread even more carefully because so many of the people in it are famous. "I've tried to think, well, how is that person going to feel when they read that? And there aren't many cases in which I think, 'I don't fucking care.'"

It is striking how protective of Jonathan Ross he is, in a brothers-in-arms sort of way and in contrast to his history of infidelity to women - despite the fact he goes on endlessly about his matriarchal upbringing, his close relationship to his mother and how women love him because he loves women. (Ha.) Anyway, he won't say anything that risks getting his friend into more trouble over Sachsgate and denies the perceived disparity in the fortunes of the two men since the scandal - Brand going from strength to strength, Ross still in the wilderness. It was Brand who seemed the more sensible, quitting the BBC instantly before he could be pushed and promptly leaving the country. He had more options than Ross, but also, one senses, a keener eye to his own interests.

In fact, Brand's ambition is the strongest force within him. It's what got him, ultimately, to quit drugs, although he is still charmed by his memories of the bad years. "I hear stories from people who remember better than I do how I was, and I sometimes think, 'Wow, this guy sounds amazing.' A pirate! A wildman! Romping around with no shirt on, drinking tequila from the bottle, causing chaos, cutting myself up! It adheres quite well to the clichés one hears of rock'n'roll characters and self-destructive poets."

Still, everything subordinates to his desire to get ahead, which comes, he says, partly from his dad, partly from some innate part of him and partly from growing up under Thatcher, when families such as his were encouraged to buy their council houses, climb up the ladder and "be selfish!" Is a small part of him grateful to Thatcher?

"No." He laughs. "Not one bit. I have no gratitude to Thatcher, nor to Cameron, neither. I've never voted, never will."

What?

"Never. Coz I think, you're not blagging me on this ridiculous journey, with a bit of paper. I don't want to participate in this. I recognise the futility of it all. I think if you want to change things, it's not with an X on a piece of paper, it's with an X on someone's forehead. Ooooh, that's good."

Shouldn't you vote, then, for the least bad option?

"No, coz you're acknowledging the system. Look at the Lib Democrats. They're saying they want PR PR PR, and the first chance they get, they fuck off with the Tories. So no." There are moments when no amount of ironic window-dressing can overcome how seriously Brand takes himself.

This is most keenly in evidence when he talks about recovery. He is involved with David Lynch's foundation, which seeks to introduce transcendental meditation techniques into schools and refers to things like the "ocean of consciousness". Does he have a mantra?

"Everyone has their own mantra. They give it to you and you can't tell anyone what it is, ever."

Did he see that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when someone stole Larry's mantra?

He looks fleetingly unamused. "I guess they perverted it for reasons of comedy." Abruptly he smiles. "I liked that episode a lot."

How does it work?

"You close your eyes and you think the mantra, think the mantra, your mind tries to drag you off, you go back to the mantra. You're right: anything that is pompous or serious invites ridicule. But this, to me, doesn't. Because apart from anything else, Lynch is fucking funny. Funny. I mean, obviously I'm aware of that drug addict recovery cliché. But this stuff is working for me. I'm into yoga, I meditate all the time, I'm vegetarian. The most serious thing in my life, I suppose, is my recovery."

And Katy Perry, with whom he is in the first monogamous relationship of his life. They got engaged at New Year. "It's lovely, actually. What I most enjoy is knowing that I'm trying my hardest, I'm really trying my best. It's rewarding for me to know that. There's no lying or tricking; it's a nice feeling."

Why doesn't he want to cheat on her, like he did on all the others?

"She's funny. She's really - I think what it is - and I don't want to rinse away the romance with some incredibly acute analysis, and I'm probably too befuddled and cockeyed with it all to even offer that - but: I'm quite able, I think, to seduce people. So usually I'd be like, right then, oh good, that person seems to be spellbound, I can get on with the rest of my day. But with her - I mean I love her, in a really pure way - she's a beautiful person, funny and gentle and sweet. But she's so demanding! You know that programme I Love Lucy? It's like that round my house. A lot of the time it's mental. Proper handful. It's very diverting. That woman can put on several voices that mean I have to stop what I'm doing."

I imagine her parents were nervous at the prospect of having him as a son-in-law? No, he says, and shows me a photo of them, which he has as a screensaver on his phone. "They're like refugees from the 60s. They're really spiritual, take their religion seriously, but also he did a lot of acid, her dad. He was born-again as a result of being almost on the point of vagrancy. Katy's mother went to Berkeley in San Francisco and went to a Doors gig and danced with Jimi Hendrix. They're not austerely judging me like Quakers. They really like me. Her dad gets me cute presents."

Like what?

"A teddy bear, bearing the legend When Did My Wild Oats Turn To All Bran? You press its hand and it sings, 'When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now...'"

Brand is in a position at this stage to turn things down and it plays into the idea he has of himself as highly ethical. "I was offered loads of money for an advert recently, I really nearly done it, came so close. Then I thought, I ain't doing it. I sort of think it would be good, wouldn't it, to steer a straight path through this. The thing that's a little bit frightening, Emma, is to garner some kind of actual authority; this is why I'm not having any part of it and I'm giving it all back, like Buddha. Aaarrgh."

Finishing the second volume of his memoir has made him consider his life and the anticlimax of having got what he wanted. He is honest about this in a way celebrities rarely are, lest it sound like whining. Of fame, he says, "It's peculiar and confusing and surprisingly unsatisfying." The prospect of success in America thrills and dismays him. "I don't want to get all Jean Genet, but the people around me are from Essex, not LA. I still feel an affinity with these people. I'm not suggesting that Essex is some kind of Steinbeckian doss house. But it almost is."

There is only so much satisfaction Brand can get out of things. "In the words of Morrissey," he says, "I was bored before I even began."

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Russell Brand stalks into a Manhattan hotel room, sharp-elbowed, bent-kneed, staring wildly through the windows of the 37th floor. He looks like Jack Frost and sounds - "Going for the hip-hop look?" - like someone's sarcastic older brother. I glance down. Above the waistband of my jeans something has, indeed, gone horribly awry.

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Within this interview the consistent comedic persona of Brand is represented. The interview itself is also revolves around Brand's roles on Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth e (2006) and therefore acts as an advertisement for the show and routine. When considering this interview within the context of Brand's stand up show it only represents more clearly how and why Brand implements this consistent persona throughout his early media as the contents of the interview regarding ross sell both the entertaining persona of Brand and also the show Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth (2006). The interview also details regarding Brand's drug addiction and how this relates to his stand up comedy

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Russell Brand - 2006-05-12 - Jonathan Ross [couchtripper]

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Mirror Article Listing "7 Most Controversial Moments"

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Mirror Article Listing "7 Most Controversial Moments"

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End the Drugs War airs tonight on BBC Three - join us as we look back at his most outrageous moments

Russell Brand returns to the small screens tonight with End the Drugs War on BBC Three.

Days after taking on Nigel Farage during an eventful verbal joust on Question Time, the left-wing comedian will turn his attention to another battle.

The documentary sees Russell attempt to discover the truth about the war on drugs and whether it is a worthy or "pointless" cause.

In the trailer above, he is heard pondering: "People think compassionate perspective is wet liberalism. It's not - it's pragmatism."

As the outspoken star looks to provoke more debate, we look back at other controversial moments from his past.

*Russell Brand: End the Drugs War is on tonight at 9pm on BBC Three.

Mayday nudity

In what he later described as "a combination of youthful idealism and personal exhibitionism", Russell stripped off in Piccadilly Circus at the steps of the statue of Eros on Mayday in 2001.

The anti-capitalist protest saw him arrested by the Metropolitan Police, although charges were later dropped.

It came during his work for MTV. On which note...

Dressing as Osama bin Laden

The world was shocked and appalled at the events on September 11 2001 - but Russell Brand has never been one to avoid offending people.

The very next day, the comedian - then working as a presenter for MTV - turned up to work dressed as al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

Not surprisingly, Russell was fired two days later.

Clash with Geldof

When Russell hosted the NME Awards in 2006, to say there was already a bit of animosity with Bob Geldof would be an understatement.

The Irishman simply opened his speech with: "Russell Brand, what a ****."

The comedian fired back: "It's no wonder Bob Geldof knows so much about famine - he's been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for 30 years."

Sachsgate
Comedian pair Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross were banned from their radio show after making a shocking call on air in 2008.
The pair were the subject of more than 40,000 complaints to the BBC after making prank calls to the mobile phone of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, with Ross telling the star Brand had had sex with his granddaughter Georgina Baillie.

The pre-recorded radio show was aired and the BBC later sacked Brand and suspended Ross for three months, admitting the remarks were "grossly offensive" and a "serious breach of editorial standards".

Nazi jibe towards GQ

In 2013, Russell could not resist ripping into GQ Men Of The Year awards backers Hugo Boss for kitting out the Nazis.

He placed a finger under his nose, in a Basil Fawlty-style impersonation of Adolf Hitler, and started goose-stepping.

On stage, he said: "If anyone knows a bit about history and fashion, you know it was Hugo Boss who made uniforms for the Nazis.

"But they looked f**** amazing."

Rent not up for discussion

A furious Russell Brand lost his temper after he was asked how much rent he pays on his London home.

"I'm not interested in talking about my rent mate - I"m here to support a very important campaign,'" Brand hits back.

The comedian, who once owned a £4million Los Angeles mansion with ex-wife Katy Perry and sold his Hampstead home for just under £2.4million in 2010, joined residents from an east London estate to march on Downing Street after they were threatened with eviction.

Question Time clash with Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage went to war with Russell Brand over the weekend after being dubbed a "pound shop Enoch Powell" by the comedian on BBC's Question Time.

The UKIP leader claimed he saw Brand having his chest hair straightened before they appeared on the BBC show together.

But Brand shot back that Farage was a "sad" man who "drinks too much".
Like this? Did you know we have a dedicated TV and Film page on Facebook?

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Russell Brand's 7 most controversial moments: Osama Bin Laden costume after 9/11 to public nudity

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End the Drugs War airs tonight on BBC Three - join us as we look back at his most outrageous moments Russell Brand returns to the small screens tonight with End the Drugs War on BBC Three. Days after taking on Nigel Farage during an eventful verbal joust on Question Time, the left-wing comedian will turn his attention to another battle.

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Resurfaced footage has offered an insight into why Russell Brand went into work dressed up as Osama Bin Laden on the day after 9/11.
*Warning: Discussion of drug abuse.*
Russell Brand has gained a reputation as a controversial enough comedian as it is - having recently even been viewed as on par with podcast host Joe Rogan.

However, one of his lowest moments - which saw him fired from his job at MTV - was when he decided to dress up at Osama Bin Laden.

Resurfaced footage has shown Brand opening up in an interview with talk show host Chelsea Handler - on Chelsea Lately - about how he ended up dressing up as the founder of extremist network Al-Qaeda.

Resurfaced footage has revealed Russell Brand speaking out about why he was fired from MTV. Credit: Tommy London/ Alamy Stock Photo

Brand confirmed to Handler he indeed got fired from his job as a presenter at MTV days after he came into work dressed up.

He explained: "When I was a crack and heroin addict I made some unusual decisions. They included dressing, in an inappropriate way on 11 September.

"Now before I talk about this, remember I was on crack and heroine Chelsea, and I challenge any of you to take crack and heroine and see how it affects your personal, private and professional life.

"So, having taken a lot of crack and heroin. On 12 September, 2001, I went to work dressed as Osama Bin Laden."

Russell Brand showed up to work at MTV on 12 September, 2001 dressed as Osama Bin Laden. Credit: REUTERS/ Alamy Stock Photo

Met with sounds of mass disapproval from the audience, Brand reflected: "Now, I know, the worst time to do it, in many ways."

However, many social media users have since flooded to the clip in support of Brand's honesty.

One said: "Dude owned up without hesitation. Respect."

Another wrote: "Brand's openness and honesty about his past and his mistakes, and the fact that he's been consistent with his values and has used that to help direct his personal growth moving forward from his younger self actually cultivates in me a lot of respect for the man.

"Humans who can embrace humility and admit when they make mistakes are few and far between. And I have a lot of respect for the journey he's been through and the places he's arrived at."

Brand spoke out about being on crack and heroine when he dressed up as Bin Laden. Credit: REUTERS/ Alamy Stock Photo

A third commented: "This is how you admit to doing something awful without being cancelled."

However, one user contested: "I spent many years as a coke addict and I mean 24 hours a day and never did something like this cross my mind."

A final resolved: "I used to hate this man until I learned how f**** smart he is and how passionate is about recovery."
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or from 2pm-6pm any day of the week

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Russell Brand was fired for dressing up as Osama Bin Laden on September 12th 2001

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Resurfaced footage has offered an insight into why Russell Brand went into work at MTV dressed up as Osama Bin Laden.

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252787691 4Music 02:30 Welcome to the weird, dark and twisted world of comedian Russell Brand, a world that has all the distinctive characteristics of a David Lynch film. Russell is sick of the world he lives in, so sets out to establish his own society. He writes his manifesto and begins to recruit his population. His interview techniques are bizarre, his methods anarchic and his mind patterns diverse as he attempts to understand the people he speaks to. A show full of monologues, locations and distinctive themes. N False 33 False 1 False False 252787695 False 37148 N

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252787691 4Music 02:30 Welcome to the weird, dark and twisted world of comedian Russell Brand, a world that has all the distinctive characteristics of a David Lynch film. Russell is sick of the world he lives in, so sets out to establish his own society. He writes his manifesto and begins to recruit his population.

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Russell Brand was born on June 4, 1975, in Grays, Essex, England, the son of Barbara Elizabeth (Nichols) and Ronald Henry Brand, a photographer. An only child, his parents divorced when he was only six months old, and he was subsequently raised by his mother. Enduring a difficult childhood that saw him living with relatives while his mother was ... See full bio "

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Russell Brand, Producer: Arthur. Russell Brand was born on June 4, 1975, in Grays, Essex, England, the son of Barbara Elizabeth (Nichols) and Ronald Henry Brand, a photographer. An only child, his parents divorced when he was only six months old, and he was subsequently raised by his mother.

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Russel Brand, Comedy, Celebrity, Politics' - Ben Little, Jane Arthurs, (2016)

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Russel Brand, Comedy, Celebrity, Politics' - Ben Little, Jane Arthurs, (2016)

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The second chapter in this source named 'Stand Up Comedy'  analyses the 'signature practices' that Brand has adopted within various stand up acts throughout his career ranging from 2004 to 2013. The chapter notes that 'signature practices' adopted within Brand's comedy have a correlation with Brand's media identity. This correlation has subsequently led to the perception of Brand's media image in the 2000's to adopt both 'comic performer' and 'controversial celebrity'. The two of these images thus presented brand as a controversial figure which was subsequently utilised as apart of his multi media branding.

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Review of 'Better Now' -Show on a Recount of Brand's Heroine addiction (2004)

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Review of 'Better Now' -Show on a Recount of Brand's Heroine addiction (2004)

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This article reviews the show 'Better Now' which Brand toured on the Edinburgh Comedy Festival circuit. The content of the routine covered Brand's Heroin addiction. The routine itself represents a key part of Brand's persona and how he uses honesty about events within his own life to curate an image of authenticity. This was a perfect choice of act when considering the wider contextual details of Brand's career in 2004. After being fired by MTV for dressing as Osama Bin Laden on 12th of September 2001, Brand needed to curate a routine that would indirectly address this controversy within a light hearted manner whilst also making it clear within a public sphere that he was addicted to substances such as heroin.

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It's instantly obvious why MTV employed Russell Brand a quirkily good looking comedian with a passionate delivery and a certain edgy, eccentric style.

And when you hear of his heroin-fuelled exploits including showing up to work on September 12, 2001, in Muslim fancy dress with his terrifying dealer in tow - it's easy to see why they fired him, too.

Brand's solo Edinburgh debut, promises to be a redemptive tale of how he conquered his addiction to smack and crack and got his life back together.

But he's never quite so obvious as that. Indeed, plenty of the laughs come from the fearless jinks his altered mental state gave him the misplaced courage to attempt - which sometimes feels as if we are celebrating the appalling behaviour of a sick man.

This is never more obvious that when we are shown TV footage of him at the May Day protests in London, repeatedly stripping naked, waving his genitals around, tumbling over railings and feigning an epileptic fit. It reduces the audience to hysterics, but to my sensibilities, it's uncomfortable.

Elsewhere we hear how he gave Hand Relief to a man in the cubicle of a public toilet a shameful episode mined for plenty of easy laughs but this was actually for work, encouraged by the TV company who stumped up the cash for an edgy series.

Eventually, his agent decided enough was enough, and packed him off to a drying-out retreat, and he kicked the habit. But if his experience in rehab were bleak, he never lets on sharing instead only jolly, self-deprecating stories of trips to the go-kart circuit or the pretentious daily diary he kept on the orders of his counsellors.

For whatever the serious undercurrent to his story, the irrepressible Brand always keeps things bright and bouncy. His unflagging energy is a marvel, and his skilful use of language and metaphor vividly memorable.

Some of his finest material doesn't rely on his dependency one jot suggesting he'll be able to pick up his aborted stand-up career exactly where he left off, or probably even higher, without being saddled with the label of just being the 'ex-junkie' comic.

Best of the lot is his portrayal of The Sun newspaper, as a toxic, cockney mate; sharing the laddish joys of women and sport but always tagging an offensive comment against minorities on the end. He really does become the newspaper, with an animated, effective delivery.

The hour was a blast, whatever my concerns about mocking the afflicted, even when it's the formerly afflicted themselves leading the way. The majority don't share those hangs ups and enjoyed it even more. For them, it would no doubt be thought miserly not to award that fourth star for a show that has plenty of legal - highs.

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It's instantly obvious why MTV employed Russell Brand ­ a quirkily good looking comedian with a passionate delivery and a certain edgy, eccentric style. And when you hear of his heroin-fuelled exploits ­ including showing up to work on September 12, 2001, in Muslim fancy dress with his terrifying dealer in tow - it's easy to see why they fired him, too.

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This source depicts both the controversial nature of Brands star identity whilst also paying homage to his talent within the context of comedy. This represents a key component of Brand's image as his critically acclaimed comedy stand up routines are an essential part of his rise to fame and how he utilised the controversies produced through his behaviour within a commercial context.

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With his skinny jeans, back-combed hair and dandyish manner, Russell Brand has always looked an outsider on the comedy stage. To many people his style of humour is just as alien. So what's the appeal of Russell Brand's humour?
By now actor Andrew Sachs has probably realised he is not the only person to have been offended by comedian Russell Brand. Rod Stewart, Christian pop group The Jonas Brothers, and Northampton police have all had their own run-ins with Brand.

The comedian has already resigned from BBC Radio 2 for the series of pranks calls he made to Sachs, 78, best known for his role as Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Collaborator Jonathan Ross has been suspended and the BBC Trust is investigating an episode that has drawn criticism from the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.

It's nothing new for a comedian to experiment on the edge of what's acceptable, but the furore surrounding Brand's latest stunt takes things to a higher level.

Brand, a Sony Radio Award winner, appears to polarise people, and those who do find him funny tend to be young.

"He has a Marmite effect, you either love him or you hate him," says Dr Oliver Double, who lectures in stand-up comedy at Kent University and is a former circuit comedian. "Few people are ambivalent."

The 33-year-old is far from being a traditional stand-up. His fans appear to engage with the persona he has created as much as the lines he delivers.

What really sets him apart are his idiosyncratic mannerisms and use of language, say those in the business. He dresses like a modern-day dandy, all tight black trousers, flowing scarves, black eyeliner and necklaces and his speech is excessively articulated and flowery. Last year's half-million-selling autobiography, My Booky Wook, is a good example - its playful, almost childish title concealing a vivid memoirs of sex and drug taking.

"There is something almost Dickensian about him," says Mr Double.

"Language is a huge part of the texture of comedy and he uses it in a very interesting and individual way. He sounds incredibly old fashioned and plays around with the tone, making it higher for camp effect. He's almost created his own language."

Jim Holt, author of Stop Me If You've Heard This, a History and Philosophy of Jokes, said Brand's humour conforms to one of the classic theories of comedy - that we can be amused by something that is completely incongruous with what we expect.

"He has an epicene or even slightly effeminate manner. He is taking you down this garden path, you are building up all kinds of expectations and suddenly at the end there is a weird twist.

"We make jokes about sex, death and disturbing things because the whole point of humour is to take a threatening, disquieting something and by a clever twist make it okay."

The other notable aspect of Brand's schtick is that his private life and his bragging of it is, if anything, better known than his actual performances. And it has come to provide much of the material for his routines and banter.

But with the spotlight of publicity firmly on him, there is a risk that people will lose interest.
"All comedians have an ego, it's what makes them get on stage," says Dr Double. "But Russell Brand's routines have become all about being Russell Brand and little else. He has become his only frame of reference and that's just not interesting."

It's no surprise that success can lead to problems, says comic Ivor Dembina, a veteran of the stand-up circuit.

"Russell Brand's been given so much exposure and is so feted he probably thinks he can say and do anything. This whole situation is a salutary reminder that comedy is of no value if it doesn't take into account the vulnerability of others. If it doesn't it's just bullying."

Below is a selection of your comments:

Russell Brand isn't funny. He's unfunny. Strip away all the affectations, and you're left with the immature ramblings of a drunk sixth former. bill macfarlane, ipswich uk

Russell Brand is the boy at the back of the classroom who gets his willy out. It's funny when you're 10.
D Edwards, London, UK

All very well but this is the man who went around yesterday saying, "'Arry Kreesshna, 'Arry Kreeshna". Sorry but this did not appear to be self parody. Simply the words of a complete prat.
James, Tehran,Iran

I just don't get Russell Brand. There may be a generational thing here - but to me his "humour" is infantile and self-obsessed. Even if some people find this amusing, I don't think it is necessarily something that should be encouraged or celebrated. Any parent knows that their young children go through phases of infantile humour, and they have to either ignore it so that it will go away, or nip it in the bud by explaining why it is not funny. In this regards I think that Mr Brand just hasn't grown-up.
Andy, Swansea

It's clear to me that his appeal is based on his character rather than comedic ability; I therefore feel completely justified in saying that I don't find him funny in the slightest.
Nick, Southampton, UK

Russell is just so unique in his comedy; there's really no-one else like him! Even if he comes across as loud and arrogant, deep down he is a very humble, self-depricating man.
Rachel, Inverness

I know you only live once, but you just can't go through life offending people.
J.Warren, Winchester

I think Russell Brand went over the top with this prank, but I really like him. I love the way he talks, and I think there is far more to him than many people assume. He's a lot more intelligent than he's given credit for, and he has a vulnerability and fragility that seems to be endearing to women. At least I think that's why my mum is in love with him. Chris, Aberdeen

Brand's appeal is apparently to my generation... As a teenager I find him an ignorant, stupid person who doesn't think before he speaks a thing I was taught to do since I was 5! he and ross should have been fired... Juvenile behaviour!
Hannah Lui (17 years old), Belfast

I'm 27 and I think Russell Brand is hilarious, as do my sisters (23 & 28). My parents don't get him so much and they both have a great sense of humour and are very liberal! Brand provides an evolution in comedy in a similar way Monty Python or Spike Milligan did: if you get it it has you weeing with laughter; if not you are baffled by the appeal.
Kahla, Leeds

I'm 21 so I suppose that I would be considered 'young'. Many of my associates seem to find Brand hilarious, whereas I can barely stomach the sight or sound of him.
Lucy,

The title of this article is wrong. It should be "Is Russell Brand funny?", which is a far more relevant question.
Mark, Plymouth UK

I think that both Brand and Ross childish and seeking to boost their own egos by being 'different'. They have no talent and are only where they are today by being verbal thugs.
Katharine, Surrey

He's a modern day Byron; this time he just got a little carried away
Matthew, Bury St Edmund

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With his skinny jeans, back-combed hair and dandyish manner, Russell Brand has always looked an outsider on the comedy stage. To many people his style of humour is just as alien. So what's the appeal of Russell Brand's humour? By now actor Andrew Sachs has probably realised he is not the only person to have been offended by comedian Russell Brand.

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This article mirrors information provided in the H-M profile whilst also interlinking Brand's childhood issues into the his controversies throughout his media career.

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Photos of Russell Brand's career highlights - For all the latest celebrity gossip browse through Glamour's extensive celebrity photo gallery online today.

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First significant comedy show - 'Shame' (2006)

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First significant comedy show - 'Shame' (2006)

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Shame was Brand's first notable comedy routine that was toured around the Uk and also shown on TV broadcasts. The content of the routine covered various different aspects of Brand's early life and career as he recounts several stories relating to his sex life and drug addiction. Through the routine Brand's image is presented through his excentric personality and direct honesty helping to both downplay his past transgressions and to confess about them to his audience thus positively impacting his image within media and social discourses

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This article depicts Brand's early recognition within the British comedy media and culture as he made a name for himself preforming in multiple British comedy circuits and shows. The article presents his Persona as one who has received enormous praise within comedy media stating that Brand is a 'award-winning comedian' who is best known for his 'impeccable wit and his controversial, satirical take on celebrities, politicians, sex and drugs'. The article also notes that Brand often incorporates controversial antics that he has experienced within his life into his stand up.

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Russell Brand - Comedian Profile | Comedy Carnival

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Russell Brand is a stand up comedian who has performed at Comedy Carnival in London.

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This Hello Magazine (H-M) 'biography' on Brand is presented on the 'H-M profile's' website section. The profile utilises direct quotes from Brand to illustrate his childhood and early life. The profile first depicts the struggles that Brand endured within his early life through the absence of his farther and the medical issues of his mother. Through this depiction the article later links these parental issues into Brand' struggling mental and physical health (depression/bulimia), and his expulsion (due to substance use) from a 'prestigious' theatre 'Italia Conti' school. This depiction of Brand's childhood plays into Brand's persona as an underdog. The documentation of these experiences coincided with the fact that Brand was accepted into a 'prestigious theatre school' provides a contextual understanding that despite all the adversity Brand had experienced, he still possessed a level of talent. It also presents his childhood an unorthodox route to being classed as a media celebrity.

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He's triumphed over adversity, courted controversy and beaten addiction to emerge as one of the hottest British comedy talents of the decade. Along the way he's bagged a beautiful pop star fiancée - Katy Perry - while his dandy dress-sense and tabloid-friendly love life have generated enough column inches to paper the walls of his brand-new LA pad.

Horoscope : Gemini

Russell Brand himself describes his early life in Grays, Essex, as "a trivial Greek tragedy".

With a father who was often absent and a mother who battled repeated bouts of cancer, he suffered from bulimia aged 11, was treated for depression and threw himself into theatre work - securing a place at the prestigious Italia Conti school, funded by Essex council. "My personality was defined by solitude," he's said, admitting he never fitted in as a child.

He was expelled from the school for substance abuse and by the time he applied for a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was a heroin addict with an alcohol problem.

Typically, Russell looks back at this period with wry humour and has detailed his lifestyle in bestselling autobiography My Booky Wook.

"My life is just a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents," says the comedian, who has been arrested 11 times and attended rehab for drink, drug and sex addiction.

Despite his life of debauchery, Russell was always ambitious and determined to be famous. He got work as a presenter on MTV, but was sacked when, on September 12, 2001, he turned up to work dressed as Osama Bin Laden. He also worked for E4, where his womanising and ability to attract controversy made him a tabloid favourite.

He landed a job on E4's Big Brother spin-off show Big Brother's Big Mouth, and his stand-up tours were sell-outs. He secured his own TV show, Ponderland, as well as a Hollywood movie role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

But, in 2008, when it looked as though he had put his troubles behind him and his career was going from strength to strength, disaster struck. He was forced to quit his job as a presenter on BBC Radio 2 after a national outcry over "lewd" and inappropriate messages he and friend Jonathan Ross left on Andrew Sach's answerphone.

"I felt I didn't have any choice but to resign," he says of the incident. "I thought, 'I don't have to do that radio show, I'm only doing it for a laugh and it's become not a laugh.' And then it was a relief."

He moved to America where he was already making a name for himself, having hosted the MTV Music Awards in his typical controversial manner - calling then-President George W Bush "a retarded cowboy fella", who, in England, "wouldn't be trusted with scissors".

A year later, while filming Get Him To The Greek - a movie based around the character he played in hit film Forgetting Sarah Marshall - he met songstress Katy Perry. By September 2009, the two were dating, and became engaged while on holiday in India over the Christmas period.

He proved his commitment to the singer when he made his vows in a beautiful, Indian wedding ceremony on October 23, 2010. "The very private and spiritual ceremony, attended by the couple's closest family and friends, was performed by a Christian minister and long time friend of the Hudson Family," said a spokesman for the couple, who later both wrote on Twitter: "WE DID!" as a confirmation for their fans.

So are his womanising days a thing of the past? Will he be faithful to his pop-star bride-to-be? "I will have to be," he says. "That's one of the things about this institution of marriage - you must be faithful. I'm really, really in love."

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Russell Brand. Biography, news, photos and videos

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He's triumphed over adversity, courted controversy and beaten addiction to emerge as one of the hottest British comedy talents of the decade. Along the way he's bagged a beautiful pop star fiancée - Katy Perry - while his dandy dress-sense and tabloid-friendly love life have generated enough column inches to paper the walls of his brand-new LA pad.

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Contextual Information Regarding Brand's Life and Career

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Contextual Information Regarding Brand's Life and Career