Ponderland

Introduction

Russell Brand appears to be one of those names that elicits two reactions from people who have seen him in action; you either love him or hate him, there appears to be no in-between. I'd kind of avoided him, and generally still do actually, but he was thrust much more forcibly into the limelight recently over the RossBrandgate affair where rude messages were left on Manuel's answering machine that were picked up by Andrew Sachs.

Still, whilst Brand resigned from his radio show, he had the fortunate timing of this DVD release of his latest TV series Ponderland, whereupon the cheeky rapscallion 'ponders' on various topics across 6 rather short episodes.

Childhood - where Russell ponders on the colour of dad willies and public information films

Crime - Russell compliments ex-con Lenny McLean, paying tribute to his 'ardness and his successful literary career

Science - the protocol of 'chip and pin'

Sport - the world's strongest men and a church organist who wants to be a wrestler

Love - how dropping a glove in the right company can be much more successful than reciting bad poetry

Holidays - how the English holiday either in England or 'abroad'

Extras

Gig Extras - warm up shows from the Chelsea Theatre in 2007 which is essentially the same material that made it into the finished shows but much rougher.

Studio Outtakes - stuff that wasn't broadcast presumably.

Overall

Good grief, I know now why I never really made an effort to check out Russell Brand before. It must be one of those sixth sense things, although I'm not sure I can actually see dead people yet. Brand's whole routine seems to be a mix of impressions of Dot Cotton, Terry Jones in drag and a sarcastic Homer Simpson. Not only that but his material is so thin that he feels that he has to repeat things several times just in case no one was listening, getting louder as he does so.

What annoys me more than anything is that this is another opportunity to pilfer old TV footage and build routines around it, something that Harry Hill does much better and acknowledges it for what it is. Brand seems to think that he can just show us stuff and pretend he found it whilst researching whatever topic he's wittering on about. Sadly some of the footage provides more laughs than Brand's scripts.

I know I'm not Brand's demographic in the slightest and that's he supposedly some kind of ultimate rock 'n roll comedian, but I just find him extremely unfunny. Occasionally, and it definitely was, a wry smile might just break out but on the whole I was just bored stiff by the whole thing.