Russell Brand fits FX with “Brand X”

For anyone who’s ever watched the news and wondered, “What would Russell Brand think of all this?,” FX has got your answer.

Brand X With Russell Brand will present the outrageous, unnervingly erudite Brit commenting on current events in front of a late-night audience. The six half-hour specials — Thursdays beginning June 28 at 11pm — will be taped just days in advance, allowing Brand’s perspective on topics ranging from politics to gossip as much immediacy as possible, and his interactions with the audience are being sold as an integral part of the entertainment value.

Much will be made of Brand’s status as a foreigner trying to make sense of American culture, but the wild-haired comic says he isn’t out to judge.

“It’s not like a finger-pointing exercise,” he says. “I’m in this extraordinary country of yours. I’m not from here, am I? I’m English. So, like, it is the perspective of an alien trying to understand this peculiar time, this peculiar country. What I think it’s a bit like is, remember Mork? … He had to understand he was an extraterrestrial. He was trying to, I think, get a green card, and essentially that’s what I’m doing.”

But when you’re covering current events, an occupational hazard could be having to talk about yourself, which Brand — whose recent divorce from singer Katy Perry has been frequent tabloid fodder — realizes all too well.

“I don’t want to further celebrate the overly elaborate brittle plastic structures of nonsense that are constantly fired into our minds to distract us from what’s really important,” he says. “So, like, if I had done something actually newsworthy, in some bizarre world, then I would cover it. But if it was just more lacquered nonsense designed to distract us from truth, then I would wisely ignore it.”

Photo: Courtesy of FX

2 Comments

  1. Was watching Ellen while writing a post on my blog and saw Russell Brand was with Ellen today. There is something about Russell that always interests me, for some funky reason. I didn’t get to see much but did catch Ellen saying that he was going to be on TV, but I didn’t catch when or what. Thank goodness for a quick Google search that brought me here. I am marking my calendar to make sure I don’t miss this Brand X With Russell Brand! Thanks for the info and the pics!
    Penny Satterwhite

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