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.”
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SubscribeIf this article was published in September this year why are so many comments from a year ago? In any case it’s good to see so many defenders of Brand on here. Like others I see him not only as bad boy turned good but also as someone with unexpected depth and humanity. For whatever reason he’s doing it, his podcast raises many important issues and is speaking to a lot of people in this time of turmoil and tyranny.
Brand is an irritating head-case. He used to be popular with luvvies when he was in his right-on phase. Now he’s popular with right-wingers when he’s in his tin-hat phase. Either way, he’ll cleave to extremes to court your knee-jerk approval. Doesn’t strike me as a rapist though; whiff of gold-diggery about the latest allegations imho
I read this piece way back when and thought it interesting indeed – it seemed to explain the void in the soul of the man. At the time, I wondered why the BBC and Channel 4 enabled him to do his vile stuff – the phone call to Andrew Sachs made me want to weep. But what disgusts me the most are the Unherd btl who support the scumbag. You are beneath contempt.
Gold in her really good article doesnt explore the conundrum: when Brand was his loathsome shagger boastful self, he was admired and feted. Now he has become a mini Trump,say, all his wrongs come out . Odd that.
Just could not finish the article
The opening paragraph is unreadable. And the rest is a nasty take down of the man. A terribly unfair hit piece that is so mean-spirited, I felt as though I needed a shower after reading it. I do not follow Brand (his socialism is embarrassing), but is he that terrible of a man?
We spend too much time analyzing the pied pipers and not enough time analyzing their followers, as if the elites just want to dismiss and ignore that the alienation out there is real. The pied pipers like Trump and Brand, who is much less dangerous and therefore insignificant are speaking to people who have little hope in the neo-liberal world order. The center can’t hold unless everyone, not just the top 20%, has an opportunity for a meaningful life.
Brand is right about voting, and Gold is a fool to think otherwise. Brand’s and Trump’s followers know that they are not ruled by their government but by the corporations that buy the government. It doesn’t matter that Brand or Trump won’t help them what matter is that the elites won’t either.
It is very sad to see how many Unherd readers writing here not only fail to despise this self-evident charlatan but even find qualities in him they approve and envy.
I listen to Brand on Rumble. I separate the schtick from the underlying message, which is not that easy to do, because like most gifted entertainers, he is very good at melding them together. He speaks like a man in recovery, which I don’t mind, and his worldview is of the moment. We are truly being gaslit from all directions. We are in fact living in the bizarro world of Orwell. Truth is treason in an empire of lies.