You all know about the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross
affair and so do I. I’m fed up hearing
about it and I hope you are too. If not
then you’re probably a tabloid reading benefit scoffer who really shouldn’t be
spending my hard earned tax money on DVD’s anyway, so bugger off. If you found that offensive then you’ve
probably not seen much of Russell Brand Live.
He’s not the world’s politest comedian and so it usually will come down
to if you find him really funny or not funny at all, I would take a guess and
say that not many people find him just ‘ok’.
Having said that I believe I do believe I fall into the small category
of people finding him just ok.
I first spotted Brand
mincing about on that show about Big Brother’s Big Mouth (please note that I
dislike Big Brother) and I wasn’t very impressed. It really did seem to be thirty minutes of
Brand saying the word ‘Willy’ and even though I am partial to a bit of smutty
humour; I really didn’t find anything to laugh about. For months afterwards I was quite sure that I
didn’t like Russell Brand and confused at so why people were saying that the
really did find him terribly funny. It
wasn’t until much later when I caught a portion of his Live Stand Up on TV that
I discovered he was funny, his material and delivery just worked as it should and
I was genuinely shocked. Since then I’ve
seen more of his live shows on DVD and was a regular listener to the Radio 2
podcast before it....er....disappeared.
I wouldn’t call myself an ultra Russell Brand fan though, I do think he’s
bit too silly at times (over acting it a bit) and I do loathe people who love themselves
to the Nth degree, at lease Brand is honest about it though – it’s worse when
celebrities pretend to be down to Earth and behind closed doors they get pampered
like buggery.
So let’s move onto Russell Brand’s Ponderland. A six episode series for Channel 4 where
Russell performs a semi self biographical show about his childhood, life and
general outlook on life. Each of the six thirty minute episodes (first
broadcast in 2007) is helpfully illustrated with clips of old documentaries from
the 1970’s and 1980’s as well as a few glimpses of Brand’s early acting career
(ITV’s The Bill) and some other general personal misdemeanours unfortunate
enough to be caught on tape.
In Ponderland series one Russell looks at the following
topics:
-
Childhood
-
Science
-
Crime
-
Sport
-
Love
-
Holidays
With each show being the same formula it seems silly to
explain all in great detail. Brand starts
off by introducing the show reminding us that he’s pondering a certain
topic. After hearing an example of how
this subject was a part of Russell’s life in some way he goes on to explain his
feeling about it, we then are treated to some unusual clips dug up from weird film
archive in the depths of TV hell. Russell
satirises these clips to illustrate his point very well but these is a vague
sense of Dennis Norden about the whole affair, I keep expecting Brand to be
holding an empty clipboard whilst he’s reciting his witty drivel. After the commercial break Russell returns to
the subject in very much the same way as he handled the first, there is a
feeling that his is summing up or winding to a point which he actually does
right at the end. Brand asks and
proceeds to tell us what we’ve learnt over the short spell under his guidance,
truthfully it’s not much; mainly about Russell himself but it’s worth bearing
in mind that there is a bit of Russell Brand in everyone (and I’m not talking
about his sexual exploits here) so perhaps we are learning something about
ourselves in a whacked out kind of way.
Russell delivers each episode in his stand-up method which
does make the show feel exciting and somewhat off the wall, however it is odd that
he is addressing and reacting to a studio audience but only looking at the
camera/viewer. I personally would’ve
liked it if he brought the audience into the proceedings a little more as it’s
their laughter that we hear in the background.
I suppose that’s the problem, a TV show trying to feel like a piece of
stand up can never really achieve the real feeling of being at a comedy gig, I’m
sure owners of pretty much any stand-up DVD who happened to be at the actual recording
(or were at a previous date in the tour) can attest to change in atmosphere
from a venue to your living room.
We shouldn’t forget that Russell Brand’s Ponderland (as with
most of Brand’s comedy material) is co-written by his long term writing partner
Matt Morgan and that Russell Brand is a performer as well as an actor. We’re not seeing real deep honest insight
into Russell Brand here even if his acting skill suggests so. It’s indeed a funny, revealing and insightful
peek into his brain but overall it is still a performance by an over the top
comedy performer.
The DVD has a small selection of extras; eight warm up snippets
filmed whilst Brand was preparing the material for the TV show, the presence of
his writing notes and relaxed dress sense is a nice insight into the reality of
how TV show’s beginnings. The ‘Outtakes’
or deleted scenes are much more entertaining as they’re usually of material too
rude for original broadcast.
I really enjoyed the
series and would recommend the DVD to anyone who like me, missed the series
when it was originally shown. I’m not
sure if the hour or so of total unseen footage is worth the cost if you’ve seen
them all before unless you really did enjoy the show. Probably a great Christmas Pressie for any die-hard
Brand fans, if they haven’t bought it already.
Typically I’ve missed the start of Ponderland series two on
Channel 4 this month so will inevitably have to catch up with it on DVD when they
decide to release it next year, Easter time I suspect.