COMEDY REVIEW: Russell Brand @ The Borgata, 8/13

A.D. Amorosi saw Russell Brand at the Borgata Saturday night, and he wasn't impressed ...

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COMEDY REVIEW: Russell Brand @ The Borgata, 8/13

POSTED: Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Comedy

Brand performing at the Borgata (Scott Weiner 2011)

I knew going into the Borgata on Saturday night that Russell Brand had a long and risible career in standup comedy. His effectiveness as an actor in films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek (but not so much in Arthur) comes down to his turn-on-a-dime mania as a comedian, to say nothing of his lanky swaggering rock-star stance. Plus, I’d seen his standup specials Russell Brand: Doin' Life, Russell Brand in New York, and Scandalous, where the comic moves like Jagger and talks like an ex-coke addict. The point is: I knew what to expect.

I was just hoping for a little bit more.

The druggy lothario-turned-sober comedian talked quickly for 90 minutes (exactly, I could see his self timer) without a punch-lined joke or written-down idea to speak of. The ramble Brand’s got had much to do about masturbation, consequences, marrying a pop singer, New Jersey's reality television brands and the (not) funny differences in American and English terminology. Cheeky bugger. Don’t get me wrong. Brand wasn’t bad or as annoying as Robin Williams. I simply wanted him to veer from the non-scripted script of his so-called ribald and psychedelic life into something as wild as he appears and as wisely thoughtful as his books make him out to be.

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