An interview with Russell Brand

By Jerome Stuart Nichols | Life Editor
Added November 15, 2011 at 9:48 pm

British comedian Russell Brand will be taking the stage of the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center this Wednesday, November 16. Tickets for the show have been on sale since September and have been moving steadily ever since.

First introduced to American audiences in the 2008 comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” Russell Brand has made a name for himself with his raunchy humor and oddly infectious personality.

Since that breakthrough role, Brand, 36, has starred in several other box office hits and has played host on several award shows.

This week Brand will be bringing his unique form of comedy to the EMU Convocation Center as the first stop on his Keeping It Simple tour. Earlier today, we were able to talk with Brand for a few minutes to ask him about his tour, his life and what makes him so passionate about comedy.

The Eastern Echo: Other than the prospect of fornicating with Swoop, our eagle mascot, and producing devilish lizard offspring — what brings you to EMU?

Russell Brand: Well you’ve already eliminated my two primary reasons. I really get that Swoop, you see. I’m very interested in Swoop. I’m also very interested in that Dean Richardson. He’s like a star athlete at your college. I’ve never met one of them before.

Also, I want to know a bit more about American college culture. I know about it from movies like “The Social Network” or “Animal House.” You know, fraternities, sororities, jocks, nerds, breakfast club archetypes. I’ve heard about all of those things.

Also, I want to know how students are affected by genuine issues like tuition fees and student loans and what sort of impact that’s making.

I want to learn about the bizarre rituals that are required to belong to sororities and fraternities. I’d like the whole thing to resemble a sorority party. Do they have sorority parties?

EE: Yes.

RB: Can men go to them?

EE: Of course.

RB: Well then I would like it to be like that. I would like the whole gig to be like that. If by the end of it we haven’t come up with a million dollar Internet idea then the evening would have been a failure.

EE: I’ll see what we can do. We put the call for questions out on our Facebook page to see what our readers wanted to know. The first question is “How do you think British comedy differs from American comedy?”

RB: Well, the accent is very different.

EE: Is that it?

RB: That’s pretty much it really.

EE: Another reader wants to know what kind of shampoo you use.

RB: I use anything with coconut in it.

EE: Big fan of coconut?

RB: I’d use monkey fluids if I thought the monkey had been eating coconut. Perhaps you and I will meet each other and you’ll get a little waft of coconut going by.

EE: We have one last question. Amanda wants to know if you’d be ok with making her X-Rated
dreams come true.

RB: As long as they’re X-rated because they involve scenes of incredible violence, I’d be more than happy. But, if it’s x-rated because of, you know, sex stuff, it may be contrary to my marital vows. But during the show, I am officially, once again, unmarried. Married only, in fact, to the audience.

EE: What happens at the show stays at the show?

RB: Yeah. So, if her x-rated dreams involve very public ritual sex then, who knows.

Tickets for Russell Brand’s Keeping it Simple college tour are available through the EMU box office and at www.emutix.com