Russell Brand: Re:Birth review

While waiting for Russell Brand’s Re:Birth show to begin, the audience are shown a slideshow featuring snippets from his book Recovery. Choice quotes flash up on the screen attesting to the prevalence of addiction in society, and the importance of awareness and kindness in overcoming the “unhealthy habits and attachments” holding our lives together.

You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that Re:Birth was a show about Brand overcoming his well-documented addictions. In a way, it is. At several points, he tells entertaining anecdotes about his previous drug use and drops references to the importance of his spirituality.

Becoming a father and a husband, Brand has something of a new-found perspective on life

But it is also more all-encompassing than this. In the past two years, Brand has become a father and a husband, leaving behind the bright lights of the city for the leafy environs of Henley-on-Thames. With this change, he has something of a new-found perspective on life. In the entertaining two-and-a-half hour show that unfolds, the Essex boy takes us on a whirlwind tour covering everything from marriage to political activism to childbirth.

Brand is, unsurprisingly, at his strongest when talking about his favourite subject (himself). At several points in the show, he dissects his previous media appearances in painful if funny levels of detail. He calls his Channel 4 News interview on the gentrification of housing in East London the “stupidest thing that’s ever happened outside Downing Street”. With the help of video clips, he mocks the way in which he uses a fellow campaigner as a “human shield” in the face of questioning about his privilege.

He dissects his previous media appearances in painful if funny levels of detail

Skipping and thrusting his way across the stage, Brand is quick to poke fun at his champagne socialist image, for which he is often criticised in the press. In one skit, he talks about visiting a public sector worker reliant on foodbanks and complaining about being hungry. Leaving with a bag of soup in a chauffeur driven limousine, he quickly gets into a scuffle with a Daily Mail Reporter. It is testament to his immense charm that he makes what is a cringe-worthy anecdote into something genuinely funny.

In an otherwise entertaining show, there are a few dud moments. The obligatory audience interaction slot, in which audience members share their most embarrassing memories, drives home Brand’s central point that we are all strange beings. ‘Erogenous John’ and ‘Dennis-the-Menace Kurt Cobain’ are Coventry characters that the audience won’t be forgetting any time soon. But the audience interaction feels a tad laboured and is a distraction from the main event (talking about him).

When he talks about the birth of his daughter, it is almost as if we are watching a spoken word poet perform

Aside from this, Brand has succeeded in putting together what is a hugely entertaining show for fans and non-fans alike. Towards the end of show, when he talks about the birth of his daughter, it is almost as if we are watching a spoken word poet perform. Willed on by the audience, Brand speaks in staccato rhythm as he muses on life, the universe, and everything.

With his self-effacing skits and greater self-awareness, it appears as though Brand is a changed man. But for those worrying that the old him has disappeared entirely, fear not. As he admits only half-jokingly, he lives for the applause. With a show that is in equal parts touching and madcap, he certainly earns it.