Re:Birth
Netflix · 2018 · 63 min
The hyperactive activist grows up and confronts his own ridiculousness.
Russell Brand spends much of this hour looking at footage of himself on a giant screen and cringing. It is a necessary exercise. After half a decade spent attempting to spark a global revolution from his kitchen, a period that culminated in highly publicized media clashes and a YouTube channel that alienated much of his mainstream audience, he returns to the stage with a daughter, a mortgage, and a desperate need to explain how he got here.
Filmed at the Hackney Empire in East London in April 2018, the set is structured around the birth of his first child and the sudden, humbling transition into suburban domesticity. Brand uses his newfound status as a father to contextualize his past excesses. The funniest routine of the night is a self-effacing post-mortem of his activist phase, specifically a story about visiting an underpaid NHS worker to discuss poverty, only to leave her house with a gift of food she could barely afford, loaded into the back of his chauffeur-driven limousine.
Between theatrical descriptions of childbirth, he breaks up the grandstanding by wandering into the crowd to read embarrassing audience questionnaires, physically climbing over theater seats and sitting on the laps of startled ticket holders.
The set list
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Graphic reflection on the labor and childbirth of his daughter Mabel.
Frames the birthing experience as a collision of the divine and the ordinary, delivered with spoken-word rhythm and squeamish anatomical details.
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Dissecting his past political media appearances, including his Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman and a Downing Street gentrification march.
Uses slow-motion video replays to mercilessly deconstruct his own savior complex, ego, and embarrassing moments.
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A visit to the vet where his dog is prescribed numerous medications including Tramadol.
Hops around comparing himself to Gollum in H. Samuel and anthropomorphizes different medications meeting inside the body.
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Visiting an underpaid NHS worker who could not afford food, only to leave with her food in his chauffeur-driven limousine.
A self-effacing critique highlighting how his genuine activist intentions often resulted in absurd, out-of-touch situations.
How it plays
- Tone
- Witty, irreverent, self-deprecating, graphic, and reflective.
- On stage
- Charismatic, erudite, flamboyant popinjay with Essex cheeky-chappiness; displays self-effacing awareness of his own vanity, narcissism, and ridiculousness while channeling the energy of a Victorian sideshow barker.
- Pace
- Livewire, loquacious delivery with physical kineticism, capable of frothing into a lather with spoken-word cadence, yet comparatively calmer and less bombastic than his earlier touring personas.
- About
- Fatherhood and childbirth, Sobriety, monogamy, and domesticity, Ego, vanity, and narcissism, Media scrutiny and political activism, Spiritual consciousness
What the critics said
Critics welcomed Brand's return to stand-up comedy, praising his self-mocking deconstruction of his own political era, verbal agility, and vulnerability, though noting familiar narcissistic tendencies and divisive, graphic birth descriptions.
In the room: Receptive and amused by his audience-interactive segments and sharp self-deprecation, though noticeably squirming during vivid childbirth routines.
Backstory
Following intense public controversy, a stint as a self-styled political tastemaker, and media clashes, Brand transitioned to a quiet life in Henley-on-Thames after marrying Laura Gallacher and fathering his daughter Mabel in late 2016.
Details
More from Russell Brand
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Brandemic
Rumble
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