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