Russell Brand Neo-Situationist Revolutionary

I’ve long been of the opinion that had Lenny Bruce found his way to Paris and mated with a drunken Guy Debord then the resulting child reared in front of a flickering screen irraditing the infant’s brain with images of ‘Ripping Yarns’ and ‘Pete and Dud’ followed by ‘Black Adder’ and ‘Filthy, Rich and Catflap’ for dessert with Radio 4 on in the background and books on the English Radical Tradition lying around open on the floor – then that child would be Russell Brand the comedian. To prove my point have a look at this footage of him leading the audience from one of his shows onto Hastings Pier.

Update:
Chris from Dollyhead Books (who was at the Hastings gig) saw the video and has come up with the precedent that Russell mentions in the clip. Here’s what Chris said in his email:

“As far as the precedent for Russell’s walkabout after the gig (as he mentions on the YouTube clip)… I refer you to Andy Kaufman’s April 1979 Carnegie Hall “milk and cookies” show. The performance is most famous for Kaufman ending the show by actually taking the entire audience, in 35 buses, out for milk and cookies. He invited anyone interested to meet him on the Staten Island Ferry the next morning, where the show continued. I seem to recall somewhere that Steve Martin also used to end his shows like this in the 1970’s (it might have been mentioned in the John Belushi biog ‘Wired’)”

Thanks Chris.

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