Russell Brand is Doin' Life
December 5th 2007 23:07
I made quite the trip for this gig.
The support Mr Gee, who works well on the radio, was... dire. I mean, really quite painful for me. I can usually summon the energy for a polite laugh but I didn't even really know where to do even that. He barely had any material and what he did have was not explored in even an unoriginal way. I felt, at times, he was literally saying things like "Isn't Christmas expensive?" and then moving straight on to the classic "When Russell comes out you should take your tops off and he'll be like 'Oh shit'". That was genuinely the entirety of the sentence.
His poems were good and I was relieved that they were embraced by the otherwise obnoxious audience. I have never known so many people to be as late, to talk through so much of an act (in a theatre! not a comedy night in a pub!) and generally go in and out of the auditorium. To be fair, he didn't let the constant noise throw him but, as lovely and a nice a guy as he seemed, he was one of the worst I have seen. Ever.
This 25 minutes of comedy gold was proceeded by what can only be described as a 35 minute interval - in that it lasted 35 minutes. This made the evening totally unbalanced. I am not a fan of 25 minutes support-interval-main show at the best of times because it feels just as you have settled in it's back into the bar, but if you present an audience with a 35 minute interval it completely undermines the point of a warm up. Even a good warm up would have lost the audience during a 35 minute break.
Russell came to save the day to a rapturous applause and suddenly the atmosphere sparked. He did some fun banter and his signature 'walk around the theatre' which is a cheap tactic but nevertheless effective. It gets the crowd baying. Then he decided it was apt to ring Noel Gallagher. Fair enough, it was Manchester. But the phone call was irrelevant and lacked any particular jokes and it felt like just another cheap tactic. I was surprised, however, that the audience generally didn't buy into this one and didn't lap it up as anticipated. It was, in no way, met with silence but it didn't quite hit the spot.
He tried his hardest to milk some comedy out of the local paper which, again, didn't quite work but it was a fair effort. Probably best to have a quick scan beforehand though, just in case, rather than come to the comedy cul-de-sac realisation onstage. I have respect for spontaneity but there's nothing wrong with a smidge of prep!
As happened the last time I saw him, I enjoyed the informality of the chat and his eloquence in ad libbing which works on the radio but once he launches into his prepared show I was left cold and confused. His previous show relied on the shock of sexual content and this one seemed to survive solely on two stories regarding celebrity. That weren't even funny. Told well, granted, but they were lazy and lacking substance.
I don't dislike Russell Brand. In fact, I like his stage presence and he commands my attention - the show flew by! - but he seems to be articulately gifted for impro while his planned routines, much like Ross Noble (for me) lack originality and... funniness. (Although Ross Noble's don't lack originality, quite the opposite, I just don't think they are as funny. So, in hindsight, a poorly thought out simile.)
Exiting the theatre, feeling like a miserable and critical old git, I was heartened to hear a number of people discussing their disappointment in the show and in him. Huzzah! I am not alone! I am not being a snob! It just wasn't that good! I can sleep easy in the knowledge that I am not quite a comedy curmudgeon.
Good news for me! Less so for Russell Brand.
I'm sure he'll live. Just.
The support Mr Gee, who works well on the radio, was... dire. I mean, really quite painful for me. I can usually summon the energy for a polite laugh but I didn't even really know where to do even that. He barely had any material and what he did have was not explored in even an unoriginal way. I felt, at times, he was literally saying things like "Isn't Christmas expensive?" and then moving straight on to the classic "When Russell comes out you should take your tops off and he'll be like 'Oh shit'". That was genuinely the entirety of the sentence.
This 25 minutes of comedy gold was proceeded by what can only be described as a 35 minute interval - in that it lasted 35 minutes. This made the evening totally unbalanced. I am not a fan of 25 minutes support-interval-main show at the best of times because it feels just as you have settled in it's back into the bar, but if you present an audience with a 35 minute interval it completely undermines the point of a warm up. Even a good warm up would have lost the audience during a 35 minute break.
Russell came to save the day to a rapturous applause and suddenly the atmosphere sparked. He did some fun banter and his signature 'walk around the theatre' which is a cheap tactic but nevertheless effective. It gets the crowd baying. Then he decided it was apt to ring Noel Gallagher. Fair enough, it was Manchester. But the phone call was irrelevant and lacked any particular jokes and it felt like just another cheap tactic. I was surprised, however, that the audience generally didn't buy into this one and didn't lap it up as anticipated. It was, in no way, met with silence but it didn't quite hit the spot.
He tried his hardest to milk some comedy out of the local paper which, again, didn't quite work but it was a fair effort. Probably best to have a quick scan beforehand though, just in case, rather than come to the comedy cul-de-sac realisation onstage. I have respect for spontaneity but there's nothing wrong with a smidge of prep!
As happened the last time I saw him, I enjoyed the informality of the chat and his eloquence in ad libbing which works on the radio but once he launches into his prepared show I was left cold and confused. His previous show relied on the shock of sexual content and this one seemed to survive solely on two stories regarding celebrity. That weren't even funny. Told well, granted, but they were lazy and lacking substance.
I don't dislike Russell Brand. In fact, I like his stage presence and he commands my attention - the show flew by! - but he seems to be articulately gifted for impro while his planned routines, much like Ross Noble (for me) lack originality and... funniness. (Although Ross Noble's don't lack originality, quite the opposite, I just don't think they are as funny. So, in hindsight, a poorly thought out simile.)
Exiting the theatre, feeling like a miserable and critical old git, I was heartened to hear a number of people discussing their disappointment in the show and in him. Huzzah! I am not alone! I am not being a snob! It just wasn't that good! I can sleep easy in the knowledge that I am not quite a comedy curmudgeon.
Good news for me! Less so for Russell Brand.
I'm sure he'll live. Just.
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Comment by Anonymous
I read something last week in which Russell Brand described that he had once 'pissed in a bottle' while onstage so as not to ruin his momentum.
At the Manchester gig he made a big to-do about how he needed a wee but didn't want to interrupt the momentum and so he snuck to the wings, still with microphone, in order to relieve himself in his bottle - which, I might add, had way too much water in it to also accommodate a urinary release.
I would be interested to know if this routine is actually part of the show? I am inclined to think yes.
If it was genuine, however, it can certainly sit alongside my arguments for sensible interval scheduling.