Story – Robert McKee's Creative Storytelling Magazine Issue 005 – Drew Carey | Page 14

MCKEE INTERVIEWS RUSSELL BRAND women send you photographs (this is when I was a single man, before I had the great gift of love). It’s always nice when women send you a rude photograph like of their boobs or whatever. But how do you respond to that as a man? Your only option is to send a photograph of your penis, but then what choice? If you send it flaccid, it’s too pathetic, like a Smurf ’s hat, and it looks kind of like how Groucho Marx looks ill. You can’t send that to someone. If you send them an erection, it’s too, “ROAR!” It’s too much of a powerful message. Look at our culture. In New York City, we’re surrounded by emblems of the phallus. It’s inescapable in our culture—the phallus worship—but I suppose the phallus itself is contradictory. It knows two states. It is proud, it is thrusting, it is bold, and then it is limp and impotent and hopeless. Usually it makes those decisions itself. RM: [laughs] Let’s, let’s see if we can find a subject that’s not funny. Nationalities, cultures— is there any line that you would draw around those? RB: No. I’ve been touring at the moment. I did a show in Istanbul, in Iceland in Reykjavík, and in Belfast. I was in all sorts of places, and I was doing comedy about common sexuality and Christ in Belfast. I do a mime about anal sex and Jesus. When I finished the bit in Belfast and they laughed, I said, “Oh, thank you. I felt scared doing this in Belfast.” Then they laughed again. When I was in Istanbul, I was talking like it was a Muslim audience, but they loved it. But, you know what, I was doing some stuff… told me not to do that, but they stood up and cheered. They were like, “Yeah!” I was taken aback. This is why I love live performance, because you never know what’s going to happen. The audience got on its feet. RM: Wait, they loved it? RB: For me. They hate their leader; they hate him. RB: They loved it. It was interesting, Bob, because I do stuff, su