Backstage with Russell Brand
After the York leg of his tour, Natalie Carroll gets the flamboyant comedian talking about overcoming his drug and alcohol addictions, skinny jeans and being ‘sex mad’.
“’Citing to be in York”, announces Russell Brand as he swaggers into the room. “You’re all flooded, did you swim here?” In person, Brand is a striking figure. The stacked heels, impossibly tight trousers, and alarmingly unkempt hair are all present, as is his unique brand of charisma that seems to make him so popular with the ladies. “Lunatics, all of them!” he cries, as he escapes from the autograph hunters waiting outside for him. As he settles down, he seems keener to talk about the floods in York than his career. “I can’t believe it,” he announces, “it’s coming up the roads and everything!” After a brief discussion of how the water is, indeed, coming up the roads, he begins to talk to me about his rather convoluted and interrupted rise to fame.
A recovering drug addict and alcoholic, Brand has a past that is eventful to say the least. “I was expelled from school three or four times growing up,” he admits. His rebellion did not stop there either. After a council grant helped him get into Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, he spent his time chatting up women and was eventually thrown out for drug taking. “I was under a drug-brella,” he jokes, “I was arrested maybe eleven times…it’s ever such a laugh, for a while!” As much as Brand may joke about his addiction, it led to the loss of his MTV presenting job in 2001, when he turned up to work the day after September 11 dressed as Osama Bin Laden. He was then fired from a series of media jobs, and it was not until 2003 that he finally left rehab and began to relaunch his career. Now, the comedian is proud to have been “clean and sober for almost four years.” As we talk, he swigs from a water bottle and jokes about having to put the cap on properly each time – “It’s sort of OCD, isn’t it?”
I’m an androgenous sort of fella. My clothes are ever so restrictive. My goolies are permanently popped between my legs.
Despite no longer being under the influence of any kind of stimulant, Brand is an impressively lively and sometimes boisterous character. “It’s sometimes difficult, sometimes sad,” he confesses, “but I prefer life with all its clarity. And I do have more energy now.” He will certainly need the extra energy as his career continues to grow, a fact made evident as he recounts his highlights of the past year.
“I loved appearing on Jonathan Ross,” he says, “and it was an eventful year for awards.” When asked about his accolades, Brand reels them off enthusiastically, as if he has done so many times before: “The British Comedy Award’s ‘Newcomer of the Year’, GQ’s ‘Most Stylish Man of the Year’, Time Out’s ‘Comedian of the Year’, Loaded’s ‘Funniest Man of the Year’, The Mirror’s ‘Funniest Man of the Year’ and The Sun’s ‘Shagger of the Year!’”. He currently presents Big Brother’s Big Mouth, fronts his own Channel 4 programme, The Russell Brand Show, and even has his own slot on Radio 2. Alongside all of this, he has recently toured the country with his stand-up act, released a DVD, and starred in salacious tabloid stories aplenty.
In relation to his ‘Shagger of the Year’ award, Brand explains “Its not like they send someone round to test you, it’s about stories that they generate!” Nonetheless, Brand is the first to concur with ex-girlfriend Becki Seddiki’s claims that he has an extreme sexual appetite. “Guilty as charged,” he admits, “I’m sex obsessed.” He was famously photographed coming out of Kate Moss’s home last April, but is reluctant to discuss anything involving this particular exploit. More recently, his holiday activities with a young woman in Mauritius featured in a variety of tabloid gossip pages. The discussion this time was centred not around his companion, but his appearance, which is something Brand is far more willing to expand upon. “I think I looked like a great train robber”, he says, “If I’d known they were taking photographs, I would have made more of an effort!”
However Brand may wish to describe himself, the persona he has assumed certainly works well on television. His excitable nature and flair for dramatics come across very strongly, as shown in Big Brother’s Big Mouth. “I really like live television. I embrace it, I find it exhilarating,” he explains. “It has an authenticity that you can’t recreate in an edit, and anything can happen.” As for Big Brother itself, Brand considers it to be “a great leveller. Ultimately it’s about humanity, about our ability to get on. And it provides us with a common set of neighbours that we can talk about, it gives us all a shared set of peers.” This is perhaps an interesting perspective from a man who himself features so much in the tabloids.
Picking up a newspaper, he proceeds to demonstrate that he doesn’t take any of it very seriously. “Half of what’s printed is entirely made up, it’s only in the mind of the journalist”, he pronounces. “I’m fascinated by tabloid culture. Out of sheer narcissism it’s interesting to see yourself abstracted from yourself.” And of course, it’s not only the tabloid papers that are fascinated by Russell Brand. Newspapers such as The Observer and The Independent have run features on him of late, reflecting the current intense level of interest in the modern indie man who has taken Britain by storm. Brand even writes his own column for The Guardian. It is not however, as one might expect, a satirical look at society or even a diary of his continually active professional life. It is a football column, bringing us onto another of his favourite subjects.
A West Ham season ticket holder, he has recently started his own campaign to “enliven the terraces with new adaptations of modern songs,” notably encouraging all of Upton Park to sing Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’. “I pushed way too hard”, he smiles, “I’m trying to disassociate myself from it.” Leaving embarrassing terrace chants aside, his fame has brought other substantial downsides when he goes to watch his team. “All of a sudden I became notorious. I used to be able to go to the toilet untroubled and unruffled. Now the toilets are full of terrifying men!” What offends Brand most are the accusations of fellow season ticket holders that ‘You never used to come here!’ “I’m always telling them ‘It’s because you didn’t recognise me, I didn’t have a famous hairdo!’”
This famous hairdo, combined with Brand’s uniform of tight clothing, has led to speculation about his sexuality in the past. He declares himself to be “entirely heterosexual”, but concurs that when it comes to clothing and behaviour, “I’m an androgenous sort of a fella really.” His appearance provokes almost as much discussion as his love life. Carol Vorderman recently described him as “a swearing, strange person, not a hermaphrodite, but one of those you’re not quite sure what he is.” Remarks such as these apparently leave Brand unpeturbed. Jonathan Ross believes him to have a “great look, kind of rock and roll” which Brand is quite happy to accept. When pressed, he surveys his attire and pronounces it to be “like a Dickensian gent, or perhaps an S&M Willy Wonka.” Is it uncomfortable on stage, I wonder? “They’re ever so restrictive. My goolies are permanently popped between my legs!”
If this is the case, Brand never allows himself to show it during his show. He saunters quite comfortably across the stage, jumps down into the audience to talk to those seated near the front, and even mimics himself ‘shimmying’ across a dance floor during an animated attack on an inaccurate tabloid report. His stand-up is surprisingly clever, particularly his frequent moments of improvisation. He is eloquent and intelligent, and a large proportion of his comedy is based around mocking himself. “My life is a series of embarrassing incidents,” he tells his audience, “which are strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents. I feel safe here, don’t make me go back out to the embarrassing place!” As tempting as it is to try and keep the comedian for just a little longer, Brand claims he must return to London for filming. “Lovely to meet you,” he smiles, and with a pirouette and a flourish he disappears through the door.
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