Russell Brand
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| Born: | June 4, 1975 Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg Grays, Essex, England |
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| Occupation: | Stand-up comedian/television presenter
<tr><th style="text-align: right;">Website:</th><td>http://www.russellbrand.tv</td></tr> |
Russell Edward Brand (born June 4, 1975) is an English stand-up comedian and television presenter.
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[edit] Career
Brand's first significant stand-up appearance, was at the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year final in 2000. Although he did not finish in the top three, his performance attracted the attention of an agent, John Noel. Currently he performs his show shame to sell out audiences around the country drawing on embarrassing things that have happened to him. The tabloid press is also covered in the show.
Brand presented MTV UK's Dance Floor Chart, and was a frequent presenter of MTV Select. After initially being successful on MTV, Brand's antics resulted in his sacking from MTV on 12 September 2001 after arriving at work dressed as Osama bin Laden <ref>http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tm_objectid=17151454&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--russell-brand-s-sex-tips-name_page.html</ref>.
In 2004, he hosted E4's Big Brother's Efourum, a show in which celebrity guests and the public voiced their opinions on Big Brother 5. The following year during Big Brother 6, he presented Big Brother's Big Mouth, which had an almost identical format to Big Brother's eForum. On the first night on Big Brother 7, Big Brother's Big Mouth obtained ratings of over one and a half million viewers. On its final week, it was again the most watched programme of the week on E4 ahead of Lost with ratings at 1.4 million for the last show. <ref>http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?RequestTimeout=500&report=weeklytop30</ref> Brand is well known for his many catchphrases and anecdotes on the show. An example of this is an anecdote referring to "My ballbags..." which ends with the catchphrase "The swine(s)!". He also has some often-used phrases such as "Citin' (exciting) isn't it", "Hare Krishna", "Nice/good to be..." and "Regardez".
Brand was welcomed back into the MTV fold in spring 2006 when he began presenting chatshow 1 Leicester Square initially going out at 8pm Sunday's before being shifted to a post watershed time of 10pm on Monday's allowing a more adult theme to the show. Guests have included Tom Cruise, Uma Thurman and Boy George. A second series of 1 Leicester Square began in September 2006 on MTV UK.
On 23 February 2006, Brand hosted the 2006 NME Awards show. Upon reaching the stage to receive his award, Bob Geldof began his speech with "Russell Brand... what a cunt." which later prompted Brand to strike back with, "I actually think Geldof's the best person to speak about famine, seeing as he's been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for thirty years...".
Brand hosted a Sunday morning radio show on BBC 6 Music with Matt Morgan and Trevor Lock, which placed as high as number two in the iTunes most-subscribed podcast chart. In October 2006, BBC announced a 40% rise in listeners to BBC digital radio, they claimed this was largely attributed to host Russell Brand. According to Rajar, the station was attracting over 400,000 listeners. <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6086738.stm</ref> Brand has however landed a new show on BBC Radio 2, the UK's most popular radio station, which means he will no longer present his Sunday morning 6 Music show. Brand's new show started on 18 November in the 21:00 - 23:00 time slot.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6109170.stm</ref> The radio show often features a call from Noel Gallagher from Oasis.
After Big Brother 7 finished, Brand presented a debate show called Russell Brand's Got Issues, on digital channel E4. The viewing figures for the first episode were seen as disappointing, being beaten by nearly all of E4's main multi-channel rivals, despite a big publicity and promotional campaign for the show and achieving only 148,000 viewers on the opening night. A new format was needed. On the 9 November it was announced that Brand would host his own chat show called The Russell Brand Show. The first episode was broadcast at 23.05 on Friday 24 November on Channel 4.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6133116.stm</ref> It has also been anounced that Russell Brand will be starring in an ITV drama where he plays a recovering 'crack addict', dates are yet to be confirmed.<ref>http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tm_headline=russell-stars-in-sitcom&method=full&objectid=18095225&siteid=94762-name_page.html</ref>
Brand also appeared in a sketch and in a stand-up slot in the 2006 Secret Policeman's Ball.
[edit] Appearance and manner
Brand dresses in a flamboyant bohemian fashion describing himself as looking like an "S&M Willy Wonka" on the 12 May, 2006 edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross <ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRZt7MH4l2k</ref>, later commenting that his ideal look would be a 'Victorian Pimp'. On the 28/12/2005 Russell filled in as a replacement presenter for Nemone on BBC 6 Music alongside Karl Pilkington. On this show he said that his style was influenced by Carl Barât of Libertines fame. Brand's current style consists of eyeliner, tight jeans and long, shaggy hair. He is a big fan of The Smiths and their ex-frontman Morrissey, and has a cat of the same name. He has stated on his BBC 6 Music radio show that he would like the song Asleep played at his funeral. A lot of Brand's shows require audience participation and he regularly drapes himself over seated audience members.
[edit] Awards
His flamboyant, sometimes controversial style of humour can split opinion; however, he was named best Stand Up by Time Out Magazine in the Time Out Live awards in 2006, <ref>http://www.timeout.com/features/liveawards/winners.php?cat=comedy</ref>, and the eight-night run of his stand-up show Shame at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival was the first show to sell out for that year <ref>http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/June06/brnad286601.php</ref> although he was forced to cancel some shows due to severe laryngitis. <ref>http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/aug06/silenced248805.php</ref>
Brand's appearance has also won him acclaim from men's magazine GQ. He was named GQ's Most Stylish Man of the Year at the GQ Men and Women of the Year Awards. <ref>http://www.vogue.co.uk/vogue_daily/story/story.asp?stid=38290</ref>
Most recently, he won an award for 'Funniest Man' at the Loaded Lafta Awards. <ref>Russell gets Loaded - ITV News</ref>
[edit] Personal life
A self-confessed "woman adorer", he describes himself as having a "kind of roaring heterosexuality" <ref>Arts.Guardian.co.uk.</ref> and has also admitted to frequenting Soho brothels to have sex with prostitutes while still battling with his drug addictions.<ref>The Telegraph.</ref> In October 2006 The Sun's Victoria Newton nicknamed him 'The Legendary Swordsman' for his alleged womanising activities.
In 2006 the Daily Star published an article claiming that Bob Geldof has forbidden his daughter Peaches to go to Ibiza in case Russell were to follow her. Rod Stewart publicly chided the television presenter Russell Brand at the GQ Awards for saying he'd slept with Stewart's daughter Kimberly Stewart. Collecting an award for outstanding achievement, Stewart challenged Brand to swear an oath that this really had happened - and warned Brand that if he couldn't swear that it was true, he shouldn't make such claims. To date, Brand hasn't made any further claims on this matter.
He is also a fan of English Premiership Football team West Ham United and writes a football column every Saturday in The Guardian. Recently he has begun a campaign to formulate a football chant based on the song Uptown Girl by Billy Joel.<ref>[1]</ref> He has also protested about the lack of standing room at Upton Park. <ref>[2]</ref>
[edit] Heroin addiction
Brand is a former heroin addict and has had numerous run-ins with the law, having been arrested eleven times,<ref>The Observer at the Guardian.</ref> and was expelled from the Italia Conti Academy when he was younger. During the time of his addiction he was known for his debauchery, notable examples being his ejection from The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh for abusive behaviour.<ref>Arts.Guardian.co.uk.</ref> However, he has been free from heroin addiction since 2003, and is now a patron of the addiction charity Focus 12. His abandonment of drugs and alcohol was supposedly instigated by John Noel, Russell's manager.<ref>[3].</ref>
He hosted a forum show about drugs for Channel 4 in 2006, which had a similar format to that of Big Brother's Big Mouth, and his stage show Better Now drew extensively on his experiences with addiction. <ref>http://www.chortle.co.uk/edfest2004/russellbrand.html</ref>
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Radio credits
- BBC 6 Music Sundays 10am-1pm, March 2006 - November 2006
- BBC Radio 2 Saturdays 9-11pm, from November 2006
[edit] Television credits
- RE:Brand - 2001 UK Play
- Big Brother's Big Mouth - June 2004- E4/Channel 4
- 1 Leicester Square
- Russell Brand's Got Issues - September 2006-October 2006 E4
- The Russell Brand Show - November 2006- Channel 4
[edit] Stand-up credits
- Better Now
- Shame
- Maxwell's Full Mooners
[edit] References
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