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Brick Wall Comedy

Brandemic

Russell Brand

Rumble · 2023 · 64 min

A self-distributed sermon on pandemic policies and media madness.

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Russell Brand spent the years following his departure from mainstream entertainment building an online empire of anti-establishment podcasts and wellness content. In 2023, he packaged that worldview into a self-distributed stand-up special designed to bypass conventional media platforms entirely. Recorded before a live crowd of his devoted supporters, the set takes aim at the absurdities of pandemic protocols, government lockdowns, and corporate media control.\n\nRather than looking for a traditional streaming home, the special debuted on Locals and Rumble in March 2023, marking the platforms’ first foray into pay-per-view comedy. Brand works the stage with his trademark frantic physicality and grandiloquent vocabulary, mocking the collective madness of the early 2020s while offering self-deprecating detours into his past struggles with addiction.\n\nOnly a few months after its release, Brand’s stand-up career would come to a sudden halt following a joint investigation by British media outlets that surfaced serious allegations of sexual assault, leading to postponed tours and monetization bans. Consequently, this hour serves as a final time capsule of his transition from Hollywood star to digital-age anti-establishment figurehead.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Australia's lockdown policies

    Quips that Australia 'started off as a penal colony, finished up as a penal colony.'

  2. Lab leak theory and pandemic origins

    Comically remarks on the odds of a global viral pandemic originating right near a laboratory conducting gain-of-function research on viruses.

  3. Pandemic rules and political hypocrisy

    Delivers a rat-a-tat breakdown of contradictory pandemic do's and don'ts while skewering British politicians who partied while imposing strict rules on citizens.

  4. Treatment of essential healthcare workers and the homeless

    Highlights the hypocrisy of public praise for pandemic 'carers' that never came with pay raises, and housing the homeless only to kick them back to the curb once infection rates dropped.

  5. Strangers helping an injured person on a British street

    Uses a whimsical and self-deprecating story about bystanders intervening to help someone in need to argue that ordinary people naturally do the right thing when left to their own devices.

  6. Bedtime battles with young children

    Compares his four- and five-year-old children's resistance to bedtime to ISIS.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, manic, satirical, populist, and surprisingly sweet.
On stage
Fast-talking, quicksilver-tongued, manic, and populist with flashes of whimsical self-deprecation, occasional jigs, and funny faces, balancing political mockery with messages of sweetness and unity.
Pace
Extremely fast, high-energy rat-a-tat delivery where he nearly runs out of breath, occasionally broken by quiet, seated tonal shifts.
About
COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, Government hypocrisy and political overreach, Media manipulation and corporate deception, Freedom, unity, and sanity, Populism and power to the people, Parenting

What the critics said

Praised by conservative and alternative media critics for Brand's signature verbal agility, manic delivery, and pointed critique of pandemic-era government hypocrisy, though noted that his relentless high-energy style can prove exhausting over an hour.

In the room: Captured in a bare-boned setting in Liverpool, shifting between high-energy manic routines and intimate, seated reflections.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: letterboxd.com, russellbrand.locals.com, germany.timesofnews.com, standupd.com, hollywoodintoto.com, en.wikipedia.org, telegraph.co.uk.

Backstory

Filmed in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on government lockdown policies, public health rules, political hypocrisy, and corporate media manipulation.

Details

Released
Runtime
64 min
Where
Rumble
Topics
Before
Re:Birth (2018)

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