Pondering Brand
Russell Brand just makes me laugh, I don’t think he can help it, and I can’t help laughing along.
He first graced our british screens on MTV, stalking clubbers for the dancefloor chart, then he did some oddball um…. could you call them documentaries..?.. I dunno… shows for UK Play called Re:Brand. But like most folk I first saw him as the presenter of Big Brothers Big Mouth (originally EForum) and he instantly became the best part of the whole big brother franchise, and quite often the only reason to carry on watching big brother at all.
To me he’s a traditional great british eccentric, who with a quick wit can turn nothing into everything.
He’s become too big for Big Mouth, and to be frank hasn’t quite found the right TV vehicle since, the closest has been Ponderland where he basically made jokes from random video clips. Best has been a one-off however, where he toured Jack Caddyshack’s (forgotten his name, he wrote “on the road”) america with his mate Matt Morgon.
The lack of a stable TV formula doesn’t matter however because during his stint on Big Mouth he started a weekly saturday night radio show on BBC 6Music and has been doing it ever since (now on Radio 2 instead). Its always my highlight of the week, entertainment wise. There’s also a podcast of it available but i find that it’s so chopped up that it loses its spontaneity.
I also love his cultural references, ranging from old children’s shows (”I’ll get it duckypoos”) to Morrissey (his cat is named after him) and Arrested Development (he’s recently started to pull up his top and declare “take a good look because its the last time you’ll see them!”).
His Autobiography is worth reading too. Thing is he’s now being accused of having too much exposure, but they can piss off ‘cos I can’t get enough of him. In an ideal world he’d be given a 24 hour station where he can jabber on about any old crap all day and night.
