Have you ever seen Russell Brand live?

Sausagenbacon · 2023-09-20T07:02:08+00:00

What strikes me in all of this is just how popular RB was, until 3 days ago. Has anyone been to see him, and did you find him funny? Watching clips of his shows, it seems clear how awful he is, but the audience love it. There must be a fair number of people on mn who did.

Smeshier · 20/09/2023 08:14

I saw him a couple of years ago. He was very funny. He was waaaay past his very overtly sexual stuff and before he went full blown right wing conspiracy theory nut job. But I HATED his god complex. He spent nearly an hour hugging everyone who wanted a hug. It felt insincere and gross and meant we were late home for the babysitter. The promo material had a picture of him falling backward into a crowd, arms outstretched like Jesus.

PenhillDarkMonarch · 20/09/2023 08:14

I did - or rather I saw the Teenage Cancer Trust comedy show in 2007 that he and Noel F presented.

Seems a very long time ago, now...

Shortpoet · 20/09/2023 08:24

I have yes. Was around 2013 I think.

I remember he did a bit about getting arrested for being protesting naked in London.
He also had that day’s local paper which he made jokes about the stories in there. I thought he was funny and quick-witted.

Weirdly, very near the end someone started heckling him and just wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t hear the person’s words, but they keyed shouting something. The heckler would stop, RB would start again, then get heckled again.
In the end RB just said, “fuck this” and walked off stage and that was it. Lights came on. Show over.

(I found a recording of the tour online afterwards. He’d declared earlier that he was The Messiah. Then was describing his sex life in detail (and how he made women come first) The final punch line should have been that he was the Messiah because he was “the second coming”).

As we left we saw a queue of people at the stage door. My friend said if she wasn’t in a relationship she would have joined it. I wouldn’t have.

I used to see a lot of comedy so he would have been one of many I saw that year. A lot of comedians do cringy sex and dick jokes, so it didn’t strike me as anything unusual.

Datdamndamp · 20/09/2023 08:31

Yeah, I saw his Shameless tour I think in 2006. Friend had the tickets. I didn't like him very much.
What stuck with me from the show was the part where he picked somebody out of the local paper adverts and called them. He was really weird and piss taking with them and then just started shouting. I remember thinking how upsetting and unsettling I would have found that.

He also let the women in the audience not to think he was out of reach because he was a celebrity and to come find him after the show if they wanted sex.

For me the absolute red flag was when he posted a photo of Katy Perry waking up in the morning without makeup and a world away from her usual immaculate image. No loving man wants to humiliate and degrade his partner.

Johnnylewis · 20/09/2023 08:35

Yes, about 15 years ago. Thought he was very funny.

I can't remember if there was any questionable sexual content in the show tbh. It's possible that there was, but I was younger then and didn't find the same stuff problematic as I do now.

MrsGalloway · 20/09/2023 08:38

I saw him around about 2006. I thought he was very funny. I also saw Jimmy Carr around the same time, also funny but objectively far more offensive.

ORYX99 · 20/09/2023 08:42

I saw him recently because my ex wanted to go. He always banged on about how he wanted to see Russell Brand live, then bought tickets as a surprise for me even though he knew I wasn't a fan. Very clear he bought them for himself and needed someone to go with him.

I didn't laugh once, and we got into an argument about how he thought I was intentionally not laughing to make a point. I really wasn't. He just wasn't funny.

Relationship ended a week later.

GuffyTheDustBuster · 20/09/2023 09:27

I saw him last year at the Brixton Academy. Place was packed.
I enjoyed the show - I definitely laughed. It was IIRC quite lefty political/family stuff- he joked about not being the messiah.
Afterwards he did a bit where people could go up on stage and talk about stuff (that was not a success!). And then a bit of group meditation.

I'm obviously cursed tho because I saw Neil Oliver 5/6 years ago on a talking tour and he was great. Interesting and engaging (altho he did make a few comments against Scottish independence which I thought at the time were a bit unnecessary). Now hes a complete crank!

xxSxxxxxxx · 20/09/2023 09:32

I have seen him more times than I can count, he was by far my favourite comedian. Also a massive fan of the old 6 Music and Radio 2 shows - his chemistry with Matt and Mr G on those was amazing.

I would say that his earlier comedy (2006-2012ish) was funnier than the more recent stuff where he has got too into the political/conspiracy stuff.

I agree with Ricky Gervais when he says there is no subject which can't be joked about - context is everything.

Just to be clear though, I believe the women who have come forward and stand by them, and won't be supporting him any longer

Dogon · 20/09/2023 09:34

I did, but it was so many years ago, and no idea how old I was (mustbe been a teen) that I don't really remember it!

OrlandointheWilderness · 20/09/2023 09:40

He was the main speaker at the greenbelt (arts/culture/religion) festival a few years ago. At the time I thought he was a bit of a cock but didn't mind him too much. He was an hour late, in one of the hottest days of the year and completely unapologetic. I lasted 10 minutes of his boring, boorish and jumped up speech. The big words he prides himself on using were nonsensical in the context he was putting them in and it was just arrogant gibberish.

OldPear · 20/09/2023 09:41

I’m the same as @xxSxxxxxxx above, saw him loads of times and loved the podcasts too, I’ve really enjoyed the recent ‘football is nice’ podcast. I’ve not liked the spiritual stuff, though many do it seems. My fav was always the off the cuff stuff he would do.

OnAFrolicOfMyOwn · 20/09/2023 09:42

No - I didn't know who he was until 'Sachsgate' and after that he was on my radar as a tosser, so I avoided anything he was in.

Bennyhillwasshite · 20/09/2023 09:46

Saw him in Brighton years ago, must have been 2007/2008 . I remember not finding him funny but the main memory was of him openly recruiting women in the audience to have sex with. All done under the guise of humour of course but it was cringey to watch and felt weird. Lots of women were keen though

CornishGem1975 · 20/09/2023 09:50

Yes have seen him twice about 10-12 years ago maybe. Genuinely funny. Definitely on the wrong side of 'right' but I tend to like comedy that is a bit dark or close to the bone.

Disclaimer: That doesn't mean I will defend him though.

2023dana · 20/09/2023 09:57

I went to see him around 2010, it was a book tour thing he was doing where he was being interviewed in small theatres up and down the country. We met him after and he hugged us (and everyone there I think). I remember watching him a lot on tv probably in the 2007/2008 era and his jokes were so crude but it was as if everyone just knew it was all a big joke so he got away with saying anything. The only thing I remember from seeing him live was that he was taking about when he ‘used’ to be a sex addict (think he was with Katy Perry by then) and he said at shows like that he’d previously have had sex with someone out the audience in the disabled toilet after the show

UselessGardener · 20/09/2023 10:03

Yep, twice. He was very funny.

There were always women lining up at the end (literally queuing) to sleep with him - it was really weird!

JudyGemstone · 20/09/2023 10:11

The clips used in the dispatches programme were very old and I don’t think he’s done material like that for a long time.

I saw him once and there was nothing gross like that in his act. I do think he’s a very funny person, especially his radio show with Matt Morgan like pp said.

he’s irreverent, arrogant and narcissistic for sure, but sharp and witty.

MeinKraft · 20/09/2023 10:17

MrsGalloway · 20/09/2023 08:38

I saw him around about 2006. I thought he was very funny. I also saw Jimmy Carr around the same time, also funny but objectively far more offensive.

Yes I saw Russell Brand and Jimmy Carr both around 2009/2010 and Carr was so so funny but so offensive. His stand up jokes are absolutely the darkest of all that type of comedian, there's nowhere he won't go.
Brand was funny too, I remember the venue had been half screened off though so I don't think as many tickets had been sold as they'd expected.

whataretheoptics · 20/09/2023 10:29

I saw him about 20 years ago (2003/4?) at the Edinburgh Festival! I was there for work, I´d never heard of him but a work colleague wanted to go so we went together.

He´d just come out of rehab and his routine was based around being a drug addict, and how he´d been kicked off presenting a breakfast TV show (I don´t know which one) for being off his head and turning up the day after the attacks on the Twin Towers to interview people dressed as an Islamic terrorist. I haven´t seen anything about this incident in the press so am starting to wonder if really happened! Anyway, he said it was what led him to go/be forced into rehab.

I don´t recall anything misogynistic or dodgy, as far as I remember his humour was all very self-deprecating and funny for that. It was a tiny audience in the basement of a bar I think - I guess I caught him at a career low, before proper fame, ´sex addiction´ and the massive ego.

Whyisitsosohard · 20/09/2023 10:39

Yes and I think he's a good comedian... obviously all comedy is subjective but I enjoyed his show. There's plenty of comedians with similar content but I actually enjoyed ponderland and some of his older stand up (shame). Easy with hindsight to say he was awful and the people watching him are idiots.

Whyisitsosohard · 20/09/2023 10:41

Yes and I think he's a good comedian... obviously all comedy is subjective but I enjoyed his show. There's plenty of comedians with similar content but I actually enjoyed ponderland and some of his older stand up (shame). Easy with hindsight to say he was awful and the people watching him are idiots.

Colourfulponderings · 20/09/2023 10:47

Yeah a few times, he was very funny. That’s the complex nature of human beings I guess, even abhorrent ones have some likeable qualities mixed in.

That’s why it’s so hard when you discover what some people are really like.

Accipritidae · 20/09/2023 10:47

Yeah, I've seen him at various charity events and thought he was extremely witty and charming, and I found him hugely sexually attractive. His work promoting recovery from addictions and his love of yoga also inspired me to help him raise money for his causes. I liked how unconventional and shocking he was. It's only fair to point out that I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and have been re-victimised multiple times throughout my life. You'd think this would sharpen one's radar, but each event seems only to make people more vulnerable to the next until you withdraw almost totally from social situations. (Edited because formatting keeps coming out weird and words missing)

Bubblebathpanda · 20/09/2023 10:52

I did many many years ago, I don’t think I knew who he was, it was a small-ish comedy club. All I remember is that his set was very bizarre and wordy rambling (as opposed to the sexual stuff I watched on the documentary) and that people were laughing in a “this is bonkers” kind of way?