The spirit of the people of this country is heartening
IT’S A BRAND NEW WORLD AS RUSSELL BRAND CHATS TO MARION McMULLEN ABOUT TOURING AND TALKING
How did you manage when lockdowns came into force?
I’ve got two children, 11 cats and two dogs. They are amazing, but it means there is a lot to do. The most basic cleaning up jobs covered a fair amount of my time.
I’m lucky that I have a bunch of practices I do to tackle mental health like meditation and prayer and support groups and people with drug and alcohol issues and because I’m hooked into all of those practices it means when things go wrong, and often things go wrong, I’m fortunate enough to have means to address them.
Does doing your YouTube channel and podcast Under The Skin help?
The YouTube channel has been a right little godsend. That channel has 5.1 million subscribers and we get millions of views every week and we talk about stuff I believe is important whether it is political or social issues or mental health and personal awakening. That’s another thing that has been hugely positive during this admittedly difficult time.
The quantum physicist Carlo Rovelli says that at the most fundamental level of reality everything is relational, nothing exists except how it exists in relationship to something else, and our own Jarvis
Cocker says without people you are nothing.
What did you miss most?
I think being able to walk into a supermarket without those weird two metre apart queues wearing masks. Just being able to congregate.
Initially as well, when it wasn’t possible for support groups to meet up, I missed that.
I’m lucky to belong to some pretty good support communities and so I really missed them.
You won the Great British Celebrity Bake Off. Have you carried on baking at home?
I bake all the time. I was as furious as everyone when I couldn’t get flour at the beginning of lockdown.
I’ve become a vegan so I bake all sorts of things and there are some good vegan things out there – rigatonis and lasagnes and moussakas.
I don’t go near those hobs. I’m in the oven and that’s were I do my best work. The veganism for me is basically about compassion for our fellow creatures, but when it comes to something like snails I’ve seen them about and it is not something I want to put in my mouth.
What has it been like to finally tour again?
I’m enjoying it so much, it’s fantastic, it’s amazing to be in a room with people again. It’s amazing to feel people having a laugh and there is sort of a sense of liberation and people being able to process the madness of the last couple of years.
It’s brilliant. I love it. There’s nothing like it. I’m really grateful that I get to do my job and be with people and muck around and have a laugh.
It’s beautiful. The spirit of the people of this country is very encouraging and heartening to be around.
I do these surveys were audiences put down their most embarrassing moments in lockdown and the most embarrassing thing a family member did. One person’s dad got Covid and came around to the house to tell them all in person that he had it.
And more people than you’d like to imagine use underwear as temporary masks when going in a supermarket, yeah, it’s really common.
Have the biscuits been a success?
The audiences love them. The Hare Krishna bring biscuits and put them on every chair, individually wrapped I hasten to say, just putting them out from a packet would be unsanitary and these biscuits bring, I would say, a sublime presence.
People love them although I’ll be honest some are suspicious of them.
I think people just find it surprising that they are being given a biscuit as a gift.
Do your children understand what you do for a living?
When we were in Manchester at the Apollo they came out on the stage before the show when I was doing a rehearsal and they had a go on the microphones and stuff. (Laughs) I tell them I talk to people and, I tell you now, I don’t think they are particularly impressed.
They’ve watched Despicable Me and Hop and Trolls and the kids films that I’ve done and I tell you again... not impressed. They don’t care.
(My Children) have watched the kids films that I’ve done... not impressed. They don’t care
What are your future plans?
I’d like to do the tour in other countries if that’s possible and permissible, I’ll carry on doing my YouTube channel because I love it.
We do a video every day and I do my podcast Under The Skin and I just want to continue to make this kind of content.
I’m interested more and more in doing projects about what people can do to improve their mental health like breath exercises and meditation and stuff. That’s my focus.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Don’t drink and take drugs, one day at a time, learn how to mediate, try to be of service, don’t think about what people want all of the time... so many things.
I need a lot of good advice. ■ Go to russellbrand.com for Russell Brand’s Live Experience 33 tour details, YouTube channel and the Under The Skin podcast