Russell Brand sizes up PM for marriage. No joke
Russell Brand says heâs going to âtry and gay marryâ Prime Minister Tony Abbott when he arrives in Australia in October to perform his politically-charged stand-up show.
The marriage proposal will not concern the Australian PM, who on Sunday joined with Opposition leader Bill Shorten to dismiss the idea of a referendum on same-sex marriage in Australia, after Ireland voted in favour of amending the countryâs constitution on the issue.
While Brand may not achieve his amorous aims on his upcoming tour, targeting a national leader is not a new tactic for the comic.
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Brand has built a reputation for chasing after politicians who, in his view, do not rail against wealth inequality and big business.
He told News Corp his work has âhad a pretty positive effectâ. British PM David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have felt his satirical wrath.
Australia and its Prime Minister are his next targets.
âIt seems Australia has a certain political will at the moment,â Brand said. âThis is not an attempt to condemn Australia, I love Australia.âÂ
And the local story which has caught his eye recently?
âIn reference to Australia is that those (Johnny Deppâs) dogs were being flown back to America at great expense, while human beings are being kept in those crazy detention camps and being deterred from getting on boats or actually dying on boats while trying to get to Australia.â
The reformed drug and sex addict is concerned at how most of the worldâs money and power is held by the richest conglomerates and heâs angry when governments fail to redress the imbalance.
He says when he brings his show to Australia he will recalibrate it to discuss and critique Australian political issues.
While local politicians are unlikely to take Brandâs entertaining attacks too seriously, that is unlikely to see him take a backward step.
Hereâs what you can expect from his shows.
He wants a revolution
His activism came to public attention in October 2013 via a BBC Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman that went viral when he called for a revolution.
âThereâs gonna be a revolution, itâs totally going to happen,â Brand said. âI ainât got even a flicker of doubt.â
He expanded on the revolutionary wish in an essay for the New Statesmanâs ârevolutionâ edition which he also guest edited.
Since then Brand has spent a lot of energy spreading political opinion with YouTube series The Trews, a book called Revolution and a documentary that premieres in Australia on June 11 called The Emperorâs New Clothes.
He despises banks
Talking to the BBC in 2013, Brand said bankers who got âloads of bonuses and loads of moneyâ are âcriminalsâ and their âtransgressionsâ should be punished.
âBankers made hundreds of billions in the run-up to the crash,â Brand says in the trailer for The Emperorâs New Clothes.
âThen all of us gave them hundreds of millions to pay off their debts ⌠so WE were in debt.
âDid the bankers pay back their huge bonuses? No, they carried on making more money.â
Tony Abbott copped Brandâs wrath before
In two separate broadcasts of his YouTube program The Trews, Brand attacked the Australian Prime Minister for his immigration policy and his linking of the Sydney siege to terrorism.
About the PMâs asylum seeker stance, he asked: âTony, why are there even white people in Australia? How did white people get to Australia?â
Brand then said Mr Abbott should have addressed Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis as âa mentally-ill criminal with a long history of mental illness, criminal behaviour and lots of evidence of instabilityâ.
âTerrorism is typically conducted in order to meet an objective. This guy, when he was asked what he wanted, he asked for a flag and a chat on the phone with Tony Abbott. No specific agenda, no specific objective,â Brand said.
He had Ed Miliband in his kitchen
In the final stages of Ed Milibandâs doomed 2015 UK Election campaign, the Labor leader found himself in Brandâs kitchen for an interview.
Could you imagine Bill Shorten or Tony Abbott appearing in Shaun Micallef or Josh Thomasâ kitchen a week out from an election?
Miliband was attacked by UK newspapers The Daily Mail and The Telegraph for the âsecretâ and âlate nightâ meeting.
The meeting did Miliband no good. Brand chose to vote for the Greens in the election, even though heâd said for most of the campaign heâd not vote at all.
Russell Brand is a âtotal fraudâ
But there are people who say they see through Brandâs vision and the ideas that he espouses.
Media personality Piers Morgan said:Â âBrandâs been exposed as a total fraud, someone whose âRevolutionâ was built purely on a plinth of self-publicity designed to make him even more famous and wealthy.
âThereâs nothing quite as ridiculous as famous people trapped in hypocritical headlamps.â
British Prime Minister David Cameron weighed into the debate too, saying: âPolitics and life and elections and jobs and the economy, itâs not a joke; Russell Brandâs a joke ⌠This is not funny. I havenât got time to hang about with Russell Brand.â
Was it Russell Brand wot lost it for Ed?
â Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 7, 2015
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