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Dec. 19, 2025 - On Brand
02:14:09
Russell's Last Chat With Charlie w/Will Weldon

Will and Al examine Russell's final conversation with Charlie Kirk, as well as his response to Charlie's death. It's uh... not good.Listen to Will's show I Hate Bill Maher! - https://pod.link/1746469734Support On Brand on Patreon! - https://patreon.com/OnBrand

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Time Text
This is propaganda live.
I only suggest Russell Brand is a famous rapist.
This is just remembering.
You can just go hold on.
But they said that.
They said that.
I became a Christian preempting that charges would appear from deep history.
I went to one white pie.
What?
What are you talking about?
I'm a migrant right now in the United States.
In fact, I would call myself an exile, a political exile.
Lying probably true.
Inevitably, I lie Santa.
I feel that Christ may have had a better vision.
I'm the main problem.
I'm the main problem.
Let's go full screen on Russell.
This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one Russell Brand.
I'm Alworth.
And every show I go through an episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand in order to dissect and debunk it.
This week I am thrilled to be joined once more by comedian, actor, and host of the I Hate Bill Maher podcast, Will Weldon.
And we will be tackling Russell's last ever conversation with Charlie Kirk from August of this year.
But before we get there, if anyone wants to support the show financially by becoming an Awakening Wonder, head to patreon.com slash on brand and sign up.
And you will have my eternal gratitude, as well as being able to access additional content and a completely ad-free version of this here show.
Some wonderful wonders have signed up lately, including the Hey Elliott podcast, Nick Farr, Robbie Wilkinson, and Juan Bernal.
Thank you all so very much for becoming Awakening Wonders.
And if I missed anyone's shout outs, please drop me an email at the onbrandpod at gmail.com and I will get to it.
Patreon kind of sucks for keeping on top of that stuff.
So let me know.
And well, before that, let's get into this week's show.
Will Weldon, welcome back to the show and thank you so much for returning.
Oh, sure.
Yeah, you know, look, thanks for having me.
I don't know.
It's just because it's it's it's a thing I'm I'm stumbling through currently.
Just something happened last night where I was just like, what do I actually have to add to these kinds of things?
You know?
You play a clip of one of the most fucked up guys in the world and then it cuts back to me and I'm like, that's a fucked up guy.
Well, I don't know.
It's just that panic sets in.
A panic sets in the night before you're sort of brought on to riff about one of humanity's worst and most insane individuals.
And you're like, oh, fuck, what if I don't have anything to add to this conversation?
Well, just the horror.
You know, expressing your horror is sufficient because, like, yes, you know, entertainment and everything like that, but you're also an audience conduit in that you'll be seeing this for the first time, you know, and you can express how you're feeling about it, which is pretty much uniformly going to be terrible.
But, you know, that's of some value.
You know, I'm going to take a different approach.
I'm going to try to defend him the entire episode.
I think that's the approach I'm going to take.
I'm going to be the pro-brand voice this episode.
I tell you what, I will see how long you can keep that up.
And I'm willing to bet as soon as you know who it is he's talking to, you're going to tap out of that one.
But we'll see.
Otherwise, have you been?
I'm assuming life is good.
Everything's all right.
Oh, yeah, sure.
Everything.
Yeah.
The world's great.
Everybody's great.
Fantastic.
Oh, and just to check, my pronouns are still they, them, and yours continue to be he, him, if I recall correctly, Will.
Yeah, sure.
Go nuts.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Close enough?
I had long hair as a long hair as a very thin young man.
So she, her also at this point, does not bother me either.
Because you walk around like that in a small town with your, you go visit your parents in the small town they live in.
You just get used to it, you know?
But listen, they see you from the back and you're like, well, you know, you know, and maybe you like it a little bit, you know, and then the attention feels good.
And maybe, maybe you roll along with it a little bit, and maybe you go into the bathroom.
And I'm going to cut off that story there.
Really, more, it was, I would more have the reaction of being like, sort of thing of being like, hi, I do kind of feel bad.
I don't think I have the build.
At that time, I don't think I had the build that a lot of women were looking for, you know?
It was sort of that hybrid between like I wasn't even like, I wasn't even broad enough where you could be like, oh, well, I'll be, I'll be fucking muscle woman, but I also wasn't like boyish enough that they could be like, oh, like supermodel boy.
So I, I just, anytime I get like she, her, I turn around.
I'm like, no, I'm just, I'm just a man with an unfortunate build.
I'm not a woman with an unfortunate build.
I'm vaguely way fish and have long hair.
You know, yes.
No, I'm a man with the shape that I don't think anybody is particularly interested in having.
So here I am.
Well, get yourself on Grinder and I think you'll have some people change your opinion.
Not anymore.
I've, I'm for it.
I have saw, I have genuinely suffered twink death.
I have come to terms with the fact that I have gone through twink death.
Yeah, you do age out of it.
Yeah, that is a thing.
That is a thing.
Whereas like bears, that's eternal, you know?
Like, you just, you just stay that thing.
Whereas, like, I don't know, I think you'd be like an otter now, something like that, which I've never liked that term.
That one's always thrown me.
Yeah, I'm not even, I'm Otter.
I've Otter, I'm like, I don't know the origin.
I don't want to know the origin.
I just, you know, it's, I mean, but look, you know, we're about to have a baby.
I can look as I, I have a nine, nine to 12-month window where I can look as bad as I want, and nobody's going to fucking say a thing to me.
Longer than that, honestly.
You can really milk it.
I recommend it.
Just look like shit.
You don't have to change out of sweatpants for the next four years.
Minimum.
I was working out two days ago.
I was working out and I was like, who am I kidding here?
Who am I trying to fool that I'm going to be keeping this up in two weeks?
That's why you've got to get it out.
You've got to get it all in now.
It's like storing up acorns, you know?
Oh, yeah, that's definitely how it works.
It's not a prison I'm trapped in for the rest of my life.
It's as bad as brushing my teeth.
I got to do this.
I got to do this until I die.
This is horseshoe.
All right.
So let's get into it.
Now, Will, you have no idea what it is we'll be discussing today, which is, which is fun for me.
I always like it when that happens.
I don't like this lead up.
This weird glee.
This glee you're expressing as you're like, oh, you won't have problems expressing rage when you see what I'm.
Like, are you going to, are you going to like, are you going to like do finish a puzzle box and then like I will be sent to hell by a bunch of cenobites?
Like, what do you, what is this?
What is what bullets are in the chamber of this gun you have pointed out?
Well, well, so like because I was away a little while, I have like a whole treasure trove of terrible, terrible content to cover.
And I was like, okay, I need to address some of this at some point.
And so I was thinking like, well, what would be appropriate, you know, for you coming back on?
And I remember the last time we spoke, I'd come onto your show to talk about Billy Joel.
And I made a crack about Charlie Kirk being too juicy.
And before you'd even had a chance to edit it, Charlie Kirk got himself killed and proved me correct in a multitude of ways.
Now, I had to edit that part out.
Now, a month prior to Charlie getting clipped, he had sat down in conversation with Russell at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit before Russell went on to give a speech to what can only be described as 7,000 members of America's version of the Hitler youth.
So today, we're going to cross this off my terrible to-do list and take a look at the last conversation Russell ever had with Charlie Kirk, as well as his response to Charlie's death.
Your audience is about to witness a man be as delicate as possible about what he is going to say because I am so not interested in getting the wrath of American immigration services thrown on me.
So yeah, this will be the most careful episode of On Brand ever.
I will not be careful.
I am relatively safe.
While I disagree with the man, I respect his right to say it.
Free speech.
That's what he stood for.
Do you know what's been fucking baffling, dude, is like the international response to Charlie Kirk getting killed.
Like what we like, just last week, there was a Rangers game in Glasgow, right?
Football game.
And then there was a fucking banner put down saying we'll like never forget Charlie Cook.
And I'm like, what?
Fucking what?
Firstly, what relevance does that have to football, you lunatics?
But secondly, like, why are we doing that here?
Like, there were so many people over here that were like, oh, Charlie Kirk.
I'm like, you don't know who he is.
He was a fucking Nazi.
What are you doing?
Just the immediate scrubbing of his reputation.
It was truly remarkable to see.
I mean, I am going to knock on every door in the state of California leading up to 2028 and just say like, hey, listen, I will bully your children on the internet if you vote for Gavin Newsom in the Democratic primary.
I will harass you to no end.
I mean, we haven't even started.
It's just the Gavin Newsom podcast, when he had him on, just a thing where he was like, Charlie, what are your tips for the Democratic primary getting back on track?
And it's like, I have never seen anything stupider or more insane than going up to your political enemy and going, hey, I bet you will in good faith give us some tips about how to start beating you.
Like, what is this idea of politics in this country where one party is like, the amount of shit this country talks about China and China, oh, the repressive government of China, when the Democratic Party, all they want is a mono-party.
All they want in this country is one single political party that encompasses.
They're like, oh, we're a big tent.
I don't remember who made the joke.
I just saw on like Blue Sky.
But it's the thing with Gavin Newsom where he's always like, it's a big tent.
It's a big tent.
We support a lot of different beliefs.
It's a big tent.
As long as we all, you know, it's a big tent where everyone in it believes in, and then it just says, add single belief here later.
It's like, yeah, what is this Big Ten?
What are the parameters for the Ten?
Other than, I guess, hating the left wing of the Democratic Party.
I was going to say, it's just hating leftists and not liking trans people.
I think that's pretty much it.
And they're like, yep, big tent.
So the first clip, I should mention for context.
So as soon as Russell sat down, he and Charlie were immediately yelled at by a guy dressed in an alligator outfit calling himself the Guantanamo Gator.
This was seemingly a left-wing troll by the name of Roadsteamer who puts on a sort of wrestling outfit and yells strange things at people like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.
So I'm kind of fine with it.
But it's also not interesting enough to warrant discussing beyond the fact that Russell briefly mentions it in the first clip where the interview begins.
Russell, great to see you.
Thanks for being here.
It's so lovely to see you.
So I have so much to talk about here.
Are you carrying around a Bible?
That's my Bible in one year for my daily readings.
And I thought it was very appeasite that today we've transitioned out of Acts and into Romans 1 because on our previous conversation, which was in Milwaukee at the RNC, you said to me that Romans is the Christian constitution.
This is from my friend Jay John.
I like it.
It's Old and New Testament.
It's very easy to carry around and read.
These are just some of my notes in preparation for the interview.
Note one, ensure Guantanamo Gator present in front row.
This will distract Charlie.
No, there's just like lots of actually notes about Rome itself and Carabaggio and stuff like that.
What a rich.
I carry two Bibles, which I recognize is quite cumbersome, but I've not been Christian very long.
So what do you expect?
This guy was funny at one point.
Like I know lots of people who were like, yeah, I saw him.
It was a pretty good show.
He like, you know, he's kind of stupid, but it's a good energy.
Yeah, my question would be what year?
You know, when a number of decades ago.
Probably at least, like at least 15 years ago.
It would have been right when he got to America, like when he did Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
It is crazy to think about a thing with Russell Brand where it's like, oh, I've never been aware of Russell Brand.
At any point have I been aware of Russell Brand where he was not already a horrific sex criminal.
You don't even have a thing with like Polanski where I have sort of got a thing in my head where I'm like, well, watch Early Polanski because for whatever reason, it just doesn't bother me the same way.
But like Russell Brand, it's like, as soon as he got successful, he was a bad guy.
Like he was just doing that shit the whole time.
Oh, yeah.
The second he had the opportunity, he leapt right in there.
So you're like, well, yep, I give you, yeah, none of that.
None of that is acceptable in any way.
This Christian shit, like American conservatives are so pathetic.
They're so fucking embarrassing to accept this fraud.
This fraud.
Like, even if I were the most horrific person with the most disgusting beliefs, I would never debase myself by accepting this guy into my orbit.
It's like when Glenn Beck, when Trump first got elected and Glenn Beck was like, I'm anti-Trump, and he did the special with Samantha B.
I remember being like, you people are fucking losers for one, believing this and two, even if it was true, being fine with it.
Like, if a guy, if a guy like beat up my sister a bunch of times and then like a year later, he was like, oh, I also hate your neighbor.
I would not be like, oh, cool.
Come on in.
We're friends.
Come on in.
Let's have a beer.
Have some fucking dignity.
The amount of shit this guy has talked about this people over his career.
And then he gives the most unconvincing conversion.
I've never been less convinced by anything in my entire life.
Like, this is less convincing than the acting classes I was taking, where almost immediately some of the TAs were like, we've been taking the classes for eight years, and we're still only like a two out of five at this method.
And I was just like, okay, well, I'm not, I'm not doing another number because I see what's going on here.
Like, This is, this is the, this is the most desperate man at his last shot at not having to go work at like a coffee shop or, or I don't even know who would have him?
Who would have him other than these people?
I mean, the thing, the worst part is like he's got enough money where he doesn't have to work.
He doesn't have to, he's a multi, multi, multi-millionaire.
He doesn't have to do anything.
He is among the 0.01% richest people on the planet.
He doesn't have to do shit.
Like he could just leave.
He could just stop.
But he needs the attention.
He needs people to look at him and say that he's great.
Yeah, he's got like a compound.
He could just go away and just live in peace, dog-toothing his children.
Like, he could just do that.
But instead, it's like it is.
It also is like this guy is asking for it.
If this guy had just gone away, there would have been such a there would have been so much less pressure on the British justice system to bring this guy to justice.
Like there just would have been.
But he is like, he's like rubbing people's noses in it.
So of course they're going to demand for consequences for this guy.
It's so easy to be rich.
It's so easy to be rich and go away.
And then people are just like, oh yeah, whatever.
But he could.
Everybody's got to have a fucking comeback.
Like, man, I'll say if I was this rich and I got fucking me too'd or whatever, I'd be like, on some level, I'm relieved because I can just go away now and live my life.
Yeah.
100%.
You know, you'd be you'd be fucking Louis C.K. in a cabin in the woods.
You know, that's that's where you'd go with it.
You're like, so I mean, he technically hasn't fucked off enough, anywhere near enough, but you know, still.
But yeah, yeah, no, he, he, the, the only, the only time Russell has ever felt happy, um, and he said as much in his autobiography, um, was when he started performing on stage.
And that is, that is the only time, that is the only thing that fucking drives him.
That and drugs, but you know, he's, he's not done that for a while.
So, so, you know, he's just got the performance left.
Um, and if he's stripped of that, then he might as well probably die.
Um, it's like, brother, like, even then, though, it's like, I, I, it's like, you know, it, it's, even that is not real, though, because it slips away so quick.
It's the, the feeling of like killing goes away so fast.
It's like sand in your hands.
That in this, it's, I mean, it's like he's, you know, still got addict brain.
He still is, it's just like, it's just attention now instead of doing drugs.
He just loves fucking attention.
And it's like, brother, talk to a professional and just learn to love your wife and children.
Genuinely, like, the things that this guy will do to avoid therapy, it's getting to really new levels, new levels every single week.
And also, like, not for nothing.
He sat there with two Bibles.
I have met my fair share of Christians, both old and new.
I don't think I've ever seen one carrying two Bibles around with them before.
Yes.
Why?
Is it like, what do you have?
Is it like a guy has two monitors and it's like, well, the one I use for streaming and then the other one I, you know, that's my screen.
What is two?
What do you need two for?
Yeah, yeah.
Like, and here's the thing.
Even if he wanted them with him while he was there at this event, why bring them with you onto the stage?
You know, like you bring them down and plop them down in front of Charlie Kirk.
And at the time of this interview, he'd officially been Christian for more than a year and a half, as well as having unofficially leaned in the direction of Christianity since 2017.
So when I see his two Bibles, all I see is a pair of props he's able to lean on, like a shittier, less interesting version of Carrot Top.
You know, that's all he is.
He's like, oh, I've got these.
Look.
Jesus Christ.
Yeah, I wonder.
It's like, this is like that thing that it's like people will accuse gay people who have just come out where it's like, oh, you're freshly out.
It's like all you want to talk about because you can finally talk about it openly.
Is it like, is it supposed to be the version of that, but for like Christendom or something?
Like, he definitely did that for a while.
Like, it's gotten less less in general since, well, for a little bit, but like the first kind of six months after everything, that was any interview he did, the only thing that would be discussed is Christ.
And I'm like, oh my God, okay.
Well, I know I'm not going to cover it.
Okay, that's something.
Like, I don't have to cover this because it's just you waffling about Jesus for an hour with someone.
I'm like, yeah, who gives a shit?
It's so low energy, man.
That's the other thing, too.
This guy, this guy used to walk 14 miles during a show, pacing all over the stage.
And it's just like, it's like, imagine if like Pete Holmes got really slow and deliberate.
I mean, watch anybody, watch a fucking ad for Magic Mind.
And that's Pete Holmes advertising Magic Mind is what Russell Brand is like talking about Christ.
You're just like, oh my God.
You don't even have the energy anymore.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's um it's it's a problem.
Like he used to get the same way about Eastern philosophy and like meditation and stuff, and now he's just he's just pivoted it onto Jesus stuff.
I'm like, oh my god.
Oh, and I shouldn't let it slide, but yeah, he did indeed show up to this interview with notes on the city of Rome itself and the work of Caravaggio.
It's not relevant in basically any way.
It's just that Russell's a pretentious twat.
That's the only reason he showed up with those.
What a fucking dickhead this guy is.
Yeah, Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
No, he made sure that he worked that in there at some point as well.
We're not going to cover it.
He was just talking about how Caravaggio is his favorite painter and everything.
I'm like, okay.
And how like, I think the reason he got into Caravaggio was supposedly Francis Ford Copperly like kind of mirrored a lot of the lighting in Caravaggio's paintings when doing the Godfather.
And he fucking loves The Godfather.
I'm like, okay, God, be more generic.
Please.
Be more generic, middle-aged white guy, please.
Fuck me.
Anyway, so from here, Charlie has a question about other religions that Russell may have flirted with over the years.
I'm sure you tried Buddhism or did you experiment with Eastern stuff?
What made Christianity different?
The reason I was repulsed by Christianity initially was because I thought this is the religion of like, you know, like any ordinary American or my grandmother or my wife is accessible to everyone.
I must have something a little more esoteric, a little rarer, a little more hardware.
A little more Gnostic.
A little more Gnostic and a little less conformist.
I felt that, you know, Christianity, and maybe there's an argument that could be had about whether institutional Christianity is used as a kind of panacea to prevent people being the radical revolutionaries that I believe our Lord would have us to be.
And Things like Buddhism and Sufism, not that I'm claiming to have had a deep understanding of these faiths, just an autodidactic perusal of the books of Sufism and Hinduism and Buddhism and philosophy.
Although there were many, many truths that were discovered in them texts, at the center of those truths, Charlie, there I was still trapped in self.
Tired of government-run, overpriced healthcare plans?
Well, it's time to take control.
These guys just fucking love a hard ad pivot, you know?
Just jam it right in there.
Did he just get out of bed before advertising this?
Look at him.
He looks horrible.
His hair's all flat.
It looks like he was sleeping on this side of his head, just got up.
Oh, I'm completely.
He's, oh, God, we have like a similar, our facial hair grows in similarly.
I'm looking forward to your pivot to the right wing, Will.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be fun.
There's a void now.
You've got to fill it.
Yeah, but I'm, I'm gonna hold on to my, yeah, but I'm, I'm gonna be more revolutionary and I'm gonna become like a, I'm gonna, I'm gonna become like a Sunni Muslim or something.
I'm gonna become a Bathist and call for the reinstatement of Saddam Hussein.
Uh, you know, it would be more interesting.
And then when you die, your wife can try and fuck whatever vice president is there then, you know?
Hey, listen, I don't know what you're talking about, and I refuse to engage it.
It does feel like, it does feel a little bit like Charlie Kirk.
Because I'll say this, whatever problems you have with Charlie Kirk, I believe Charlie Kirk is smarter than Russell Brand.
And it does feel a little bit like Charlie Kirk is maybe making fun of Russell Brand a little bit by being like, you were probably into Eastern religions, Buddhism, you know, that kind of stuff.
And it's like, it's like, yeah, man, you look like a, you look like an asshole.
We all know.
The second you look at this guy, you know, like, oh my God, how many different types of prayer beads does this fucking freak have at home?
Oh, he loves prayer beads.
Yeah.
Russell Brand is like, it looks like he's like wasting away as well.
His beard kind of covers it up, but he looks incredibly like gaunt and hollowed out as well.
Yeah, yeah, it's true.
He's not a healthy looking man.
But I don't know how Florida's treating him.
I don't know whether that's got anything to do with it.
I'm not sure.
All these guys, it's like that video of RFK doing chin-ups, just like watching it, just like looking at him.
Like, just look at this guy's head.
You think a head like this is going to make anybody healthy again?
Like a head is not meant to be that shape.
That's the head of like decades of testosterone abuse.
Like, I know, I know somebody who's really into like holistic stuff and homeopathic medicine.
Yeah, a bit of the crunchy, crunchy granola type.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know somebody, and they'll be like, oh, you know, I feel so much better.
I started doing this and I feel so much better.
And it's like, I know you are going to call tomorrow talking about how bad you feel.
I know that this is not true.
Yep.
Yep.
And then we're on to the next thing that costs an extortionate amount of money.
And it's a never-ending cycle.
I'm sure Russell Brand, he's selling nootropics, right?
We'll get to that.
Okay, great.
Yeah, sorry.
Okay, guys.
We hate it.
I hate it when my guests step on.
I don't hate it, but I know.
I know the feeling of being like, oh, no, no, no, not yet.
Normally I'd answer that directly, but there's been a development that we will get to in that particular line of things.
Christ.
So from that clip, Russell wanted to be edgy and different, and that's apparently the only reason he ever experimented with other religions and Eastern philosophies in general, which, you know, completely tracks with who he is as a person.
So I believe that.
Like the one instance where I saw Russell was in 2012.
Like I saw him live.
It was in 2012 when he was pursuing like the Buddhism shtick, or at least presenting himself as someone who was pursuing Buddhism.
And I watched him compare a conversation with the Dalai Lama.
Yeah, that was a thing.
I will add that this was a free chat at the Manchester Arena that the Dalai Lama put on for under 25.
So I didn't fucking pay anything for it.
So I was like, well, fuck it.
Why not?
And I had no idea that Russell would be there because his name wasn't on the ticket or anything.
He was clearly like a somewhat last-minute booking.
And so it was quite the surprise.
Dane Cook drops in at the improv.
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
Yeah.
Yeah, kind of, but weirder because you've got the son shagger of the year at the time married to Katy Perry coming out to host the event, you know, with one of the world's most famous spiritual leaders.
I was like, what the fuck is going on here?
Why are you here?
Of all people?
It was, it was bizarre.
Yeah.
I'll say, if I was China, I would also ban Russell Brand from entering my country as well.
But just because he's fucking annoying.
Yeah, I was going to say, like, the Dalai Lama, I mean, he's relatively harmless.
Like, you can let him in.
He's just a fucking old, he's 90.
What's he going to do?
Let him.
He's fine.
Whereas Russell, yeah, keep that man away.
Keep that man away from everything.
Everyone and everything.
He can stay in Florida with Ron DeSantis.
Oh, Jesus.
In any case, let's hear how Russell's perspective on Buddhism has evolved.
When I surrendered, kind of voluntarily yet exhausted to the man Christ, the flesh Christ, I realized, oh, I wanted to be Jesus.
I wanted to be the center, the son of God, the apex.
Yeah, I can't do miracles.
I'm not willing to be crucified.
Now, since it's surrendering to him, accepting him, bowing at the foot of his cross, on my knees, shoulder to shoulder with any one of you that accepts Jesus alongside me, I feel relieved.
I feel unburdened.
I feel empowered.
And I realized that the person that I used to be was not an error or a mistake, but part of the unfolding way, as the early Christians called it.
And I find it interesting that a lot of these ideas that I investigated, dear Charlie, like Taoism, say, have embedded in them even semantically notions that can be discovered in Christianity.
And when His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, gave his recent 90th birthday speech, as I sort of read, at least, you know, he posted on social media, I read through that, Charlie, and I noted that most of his significant points about Buddhism, I could, even with just the year in scripture, match with something from the gospel.
Every aspect was like, this is all in Christ.
This is all available to us in Jesus.
There is no need for anything other than Jesus Christ.
There is no need for anything but Jesus.
Uh-huh.
This is like listening to Grandpa Simpson.
This fucking guy is medically unable to get to the fucking point.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
That, that, uh, and believe me, I have trimmed these clips down.
Believe me.
I ramble.
I ramble all the time.
I don't shut the fuck up.
I'm always talking.
And I, I cannot believe, I cannot believe the way this guy bloviates.
It is like, he, it is like he, like, he, he, is, what is he filibustering?
There's nothing to filibuster.
He could just come out and be like, yeah, I was on a bad path and now I know Christ is king.
And he'd get the pop.
And the pop would have been bigger because he wouldn't have exhausted the crowd by trying to follow along with whatever the fuck he's getting.
Yeah.
And the symbology of Taoism.
I realized, perhaps the symbology of, I realized that at the bottom of my mind the entire time, there was sort of a subconscious streak.
There was, you know, this thing is I considered Taoism.
Perhaps I really, I couldn't, I couldn't acknowledge, but some part of me in the peripheral vision of my beliefs, I saw the hand of Christ, you know, Christ reaching, and there was a spark.
I will blow up this building if you do not get to the point of what you're trying to say.
I have a bomb strapped to my chest.
I will blow up this exhibition center if you do not just spit out what you are trying to get to, man.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
No, I feel like there should be a new rule kind of instituted around Russell in interviews where people should only be allowed to ask him closed questions.
So yes or no, you know, just like one or the other.
And he'll still waffle afterwards, but at least you get to the answer straight away.
And then it's like, okay, you fucking ramble on and I'll move to the next question.
Yeah, you ask him a yes or no, and he's like, but I recognize even through saying a no, you can still feel the outreach of Christ as this is the floor.
He has sometimes done that.
Oh my God.
It's the floor of my plan.
I'm hoping it would at least minimize it to a degree.
But yeah, so everything that's within Buddhism can be found within Christianity, apparently.
There is no need for anything but Jesus.
Famously, all Christians believe in reincarnation rather than any sort of afterlife like heaven or hell.
Russell Brand, does he have a denomination of Christianity?
No, he still hasn't picked one.
I'm assuming it's evangelical, but has he ever said, like...
He still hasn't picked one.
Technically, I'm fucking kidding.
I'm 99% sure.
Because he was baptized by Bear Grylls and a priest whose name we do not know.
But there was a priest on that riverbank, and Bear Grylls is Anglican.
A lot of Anglican churches around here and around where Russell was baptized in the Thames in Oxfordshire.
I am 99% sure that he was baptized by an Anglican and therefore is technically Anglican.
But he's never officially announced anything at all to anyone.
And he's flirted with Catholicism and all these different things, but he doesn't want to have to pick a lane because he knows that a good chunk of his audience would suddenly hate him.
Yeah, he's well, he's denounced too much polytheism at this point to be able to embrace Catholicism.
So this is true.
I grew up Catholic and it's just a thing.
I used to volunteer with a group.
We would walk women into women's health clinics past the protesters.
And the best part of your day would be when the evangelicals and the Catholics started getting into fights with each other and they would briefly leave the patients alone because they were too busy arguing.
But my neighborhood, I live in like not as much, it's getting pretty gentrified, but like this part of town is like pretty Latino.
And there will be billboards that will go up that will be like, Christ is like, are you blaspheming question mark?
God is not a Trinity exclamation mark.
And it's like, oh boy, the anti-Catholic evangelicals have moved to town.
They get so bitchy towards each other.
It could be so fun.
It's great.
Obviously, Russell's take here on Buddhism is profoundly stupid on a number of levels.
And when I was listening to him, I was reminded of a review of his 2014 book, Revolution.
Nick Cohen at The Observer described it as, quote, atrocious, long-winded, confused, and smug, filled with references to books brand as half-read and thinkers he has half understood, unquote.
And yeah, 11 years later, very little has changed.
Yeah.
God.
I will say in this next clip, Russell does somewhat backtrack on the idea that all religions are actually just one religion, but only so he can tell Charlie Kirk how truly exceptional Christianity is compared to the rest of them.
Of course.
Though that's not before we get some powerful comedy about the lozenges that Charlie Kirk has provided.
So, you know.
Fuck.
Actually, amazing.
It's delicious.
It's tasty, right?
Charlie, no wonder you can speak for 14 hours.
No wonder you can get Gavin Gruesome Newsome to admit that there are different genders.
Fuck him.
You're powered by lozenges.
That's right.
It doesn't make any sense.
He's the only one ever to mention the lozenges.
No one else has ever met.
I would expect nothing less.
Oh, and it's perfect because he's clinking it.
He's clinking his teeth into the microphone.
What you're saying?
Oh, yeah, no, all we're told all religions are the same.
What is the differentiator that you want the rest of the world to know?
Can't be that good each other.
Jesus, Christ, about self.
You mentioned, I mean, for example, Buddhism, correct me if I'm wrong, Russell, is a very self-centric religion.
Yeah.
It is.
I mean, is this, sorry, you know, sometimes when you're a professional comedian, you realize that you do things that are funny.
Well, you're not trying to be funny.
This is one of them.
I'm not even actually trying to be funny.
For me, it seems normal that you would take the lozenge in and out like a cigarette.
Well, Charlie, your father and I, we used to lozenge together at Harvard.
George Bush and I were in the Skull and Bones Club.
We would lozenge together at Bohemian Grove.
Then who's that under the privet?
It's Alex Jones.
After my mollocrobes was Jones.
After my mollocrobes was he.
No, I mean, yeah, like Buddhism is self-centered.
Buddhism is self-centered.
If you, like, I reckon the reason, the thing that I resisted about Jesus was the very thing that I needed to yield and surrender to.
I didn't, like, I was messianically infatuated with myself as the kind of center of the world.
And the culture also gives you that offering.
It's appealing that your personal identity can be the altar of false idolatry, i.e. your sexuality, your race or your gender.
All of those things are glorious creations of our Lord.
But when you make them the focus of your spiritual attention, of your devotion, they can't hold it.
So this is one of Russell's big talking points over the last six months.
How supposedly anyone who isn't Christian, and particularly those who are secular, in fact, worship at the altar of identity in terms of sexuality and race and gender, as though being a straight, white, cisgendered Christian man isn't an identity in of itself.
Like Russell and his compatriots just fucking love to take a heaping shit on anyone different to them discussing race or gender or sexuality without acknowledging the fact that their identity as straight white cisgendered men is something they are weirdly fucking intense about.
Like you can't whinge at me about identity politics and then loudly proclaim how important it is that everyone's straight and white, you know?
It is, and it is a god-tier identity as well.
It is like at this moment in time, being like, oh, everybody's always talking about sports and how great their team is.
It disgusts me as a Lakers fan.
And it's like, okay, hold on.
Wait a second.
Or, I don't know, bloody arsenal.
I don't know who's good.
I don't know who's good at footy right now.
Neither do I, to be honest.
It's also the idea of like to hear this guy be like a thing of like, oh yeah, Buddhism is all about the I. Buddhism is all about the individual.
It's all about me.
That's obviously very funny.
And then it's also funny to hear that rejected by a man who has a Cal Ripken-like streak of using the words I or me in every consecutive sentence he says.
Yeah.
No, it's the fucking cheek of trying to tie that idea of like identity politics and stuff into Buddhism.
Like, like fucking Charlie Kirk said that Buddhism is a selfish religion and Russell agreed.
And like the entire basis of the Eightfold Path is one of wisdom, enlightenment, karma, and then reincarnation to the eventual attainment of nirvana that is specifically through good works and skillful deeds and charity.
In other words, altruism and selflessness.
That's the whole root of the thing.
Buddhism is specifically an unselfish religion in its design.
And even then, even then, I'll say it's like, there is also no such thing as morally a specifically or always like religion is just religion.
Religion is whatever the religious person makes of it.
Like it's like, you know, in Malaysia, there are self-identified Buddhists who are rampaging through the countryside doing, like, who have rampaged through Malaysia doing a genocide.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Like, just because the religion's all right doesn't mean the people are okay, you know?
And it's the same thing.
It's like in North America, it is such a common thing where like, you know, some of the most like giving and charitable communities in North America are like Sikh communities.
And there are Sikh temples where they do so much community outreach.
But I also, you know, when I was living in Calgary, I had a Sikh neighbor who was the biggest asshole I'd ever met in my entire life, was just always complaining to my parents.
He would like call the police if somebody parked.
In Calgary, they have this weird belief that the curb in front of your home is your parking space.
Oh, no, no, that applies over here as well.
Everyone seems to think that they own the fucking street.
And it's like, no, no, that's not yours.
Yes.
But so he would always call the police if like one of my aunts or uncles parked in front of his house when they came to see us.
That guy was the biggest prick in the world.
So like it's just, it's like, and listen to the, it's like on top of how bad of a speaker this guy is, it is just this whole thing of like, you know, only Christ.
It's like, well, once you realize that that calling, it's always Christ's voice.
It's just like, it's like, if, if Christ really speaks the way Russell Brand says and the calling feels the way it does, I understand why somebody would surrender to Christianity because like it's torture, this, this mind-numbing drivel.
It's the same way I understand how, you know, Patty Hearst was like tortured into, you know, joining the like the group that kidnapped her.
Like anybody's mind can, you can break anybody eventually.
And if Christ will take place, you know, if Christ truly is the kind of terrorist that Russell Brand, the kind of psychic terrorist Russell Brand portrays him in, I'd become a Christian if I had to endure what this guy is describing, the way he is describing it.
100% anything to get them to leave me alone.
Yeah, yeah, that's why he says, give myself up to Christ.
You know, it's like, oh my God, all right, fine.
Fuck it.
You know, Christ is unbearable if this.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's why he said, you know, like only partially willingly, you know, it's like, well, yeah.
Yeah.
Clearly, you're having a terrible time.
I should have, yeah.
Only partially willingly.
Yes.
I see Russell Brand and Christ have some things in common and their attitudes towards himself.
Oh, that's very blasphemous, Will.
Very blasphemous indeed.
I should ask, as you're a comedian, did you enjoy the lozenge bit, Russell, Russell's comedy jobs?
Fuck, man.
These guys who just assume they can, like.
And it also, the other thing, too, about it is like it is.
More than an attempt at being funny.
It is an attempt at virtue signaling to his audience by touching on all of the specific right-wing, like Bohemian Grove, George H.W., the fucking skull and bones.
Oh, the specific reference to the time Alex Jones has been invited.
Like, he's been to Bohemian Grove.
It's like robes was what he was saying.
Robes of morals.
I at first thought I was like, what the fuck is a mollock robe?
I was like, what's one of those?
I was like, oh, it's two sounds like words.
Yeah, it sounds like a type of microbe.
Yeah.
Just like, yeah, demon worshiping.
And I mean, look, earlier I made a fucking Hellraiser joke.
And I guess on some level, I don't know.
No.
You know what?
I reject.
I reject my own hedge.
I am making a cultural reference that is dated in a way I find charming and that I also think is back in fashion.
And, you know, I spend, you know, my wife is queer.
I spend a lot of time around gay people of all stripes and Hellraiser is gay culture.
So it's just in my brain.
Yeah, you know what?
It's back.
Gay people love Hellraiser again.
They're big.
They're 10 million decenobites.
Yeah.
Oh, God.
Whereas this is just, it's just lazy, you know, it's just little, it's little Easter eggs.
This is, this is fucking, he does MCU shit.
He does MCU.
He wants the fucking hogs in the audience to clap because, oh, God, the fucking, the Black Knight sword got referenced at the end of the movie.
And then you hear Blade's voice off screen.
That's what fucking Mollex robes are.
These guys are just as big losers as people who cheered at the end of fucking Endgame.
That's the same guy.
They just are.
100%.
And community.
And yet they are the first people to complain about virtue signaling.
I'm like, all right, fucking, you know, shut the fuck up.
Fucking Alex Jones at Bohemian Grove.
Oh, my God.
Shut up.
Absurd.
So from here, Russell says something that's apparently worthy of another applause, Breg.
But it seems to me that the way of the cross, the way of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, is a way of bypassing and navigating your way through the terrible trenches of bewilderment strewn by a culture that wants you ignorant, bewildered, and delirious.
You need only glance at the Parisian Olympics to be aware that what they want to do is surpass and supplant the values of Christ with the values of a culture that want you sick, ill, and weak.
There is an attack on all categories that empower people, whether that's the category of woman or the category of man.
These are empowering and holy roles that we might play.
I note since living in Florida that there's an attack on excellence, on expertise, on competence and capability.
They don't want men and women that are awakened and armed and capable of taking care of themselves.
They want us all like hopeless blobs and parasites hooked onto their system of ignorance that tells you there is no God and then tells you that it is the very God that it denies the existence of.
Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, wanting complete control through surveillance and data capture and observation and ultimately wants you to submit to its false idols, its false idols.
Lozenge.
Okay.
So he's noted since living in Florida that there's an attack on excellence and expertise and competence.
Now, the way you could take that is that nobody in Florida has any expertise or competence.
But they don't want men and women that are awakened and armed and capable of taking care of themselves.
This is just repackaged anti-DEI shit, coupled with some pro-Second Amendment sentiments and a bit of anti-welfare stuff thrown in for good measure.
Like he dances around it with pretty words, but he's basically saying that, hey, I don't like trans people.
Everyone should have guns.
White people are pretty great.
And we should get rid of the social safety net because I'm among the richest people on the planet.
So why would we need that anyway?
You know?
And I will say this about Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson has identified a mostly consistent worldview that I think is a part of the reason he is so successfully because it really looked, it was like when Tucker Carlson got fired off Fox and was just stuck on Twitter, it really seemed like this guy's, it's done.
This guy's donezo.
Like this guy couldn't be more irrelevant.
But he has successfully stumbled onto his sort of right wing, his far right with touches of left-wing populism.
So his like, this, this thing of where it's like, he isn't necessarily opposed to certain aspects of the social safety net.
He is good at talking about economic issues.
And that's why I think he has hit the bottom and started to rise back up again past Russell Brand so quickly.
Because Russell Brand, it's like there's no through line.
And it'd be so easy to clip so much of what Russell Brand has said and be like, look at this pagan freak who's trying to infiltrate our Christian community.
Or like, oh, this guy wants to take away your social security.
Because like, truly, in America, it doesn't matter how fucking right-wing you are.
If you are old, you are not okay with them fucking around with social security.
It is like.
Florida would fucking revolt against Russell Brand.
That's for sure, you know?
And so this dumb shit isn't even smart enough to identify, identify key things in American life.
He's still stuck in an old mindset and so obsessed with talking so much that at the end of the day, you can clip him saying almost anything.
But like, he's stuck in this old mindset.
Guns, guns are over, man.
Guns won.
People don't talk about that shit anymore.
There's no talk of gun control in this country.
Nobody ever brings it up.
It's not a political issue.
It's over.
They won.
Guns just won in America.
And the fact that he is still stuck on this shows to me that like he can't even be bothered to do the cultural reading to know what is going on in America at this moment.
Oh, no.
He's incredibly lazy.
The reason he brings up guns these days is because he went to his face.
Look how he's sitting.
He's so fucking proud of himself.
He went to a shooting range with a Navy SEAL and had a good time.
And since then, he's been talking about guns.
He's just like Bill Maher.
Bill Maher fucking essentially did the exact same fucking thing.
He was like, somebody broke into his house and he became obsessed.
He apparently bought a gun and started going like, I realize I've come around on guns.
And then there was an epic.
He was during an ad for like, I don't know, that company that like finds him, that like headhunting company, I can't remember their name, during an ad hunt club random.
He was like, you know, he goes like, you know, but I had to get rid of my guns.
Maybe I shouldn't be saying that on my podcast.
And it's like, yeah, so somebody, one of the last few people who still cares about this guy was like, you can't have this gun.
You're going to end up, you're going to end up accidentally killing yourself, or some guy's going to take it from you and kill you with it.
Like, you've got to get rid of this.
Yes, yes.
You are not a responsible human being, like, enough to own a weapon of any kind.
I mean, I cannot picture it.
This fucking guy, you look at this guy.
This guy, I mean, Russell Brand just screams family annihilator.
Like, he just screams that he would.
There is nobody who makes very few people who make me more uncomfortable at the idea of them owning a gun than Russell Brand.
Do you know what?
One of the things, obviously, because he brought up Caravaggio and how Caravaggio was his favorite painter and everything.
And it forced me to just kind of do a little cursory look into Caravaggio.
And I saw that, like, oh, he was famously just like a massive piece of shit with a really bad temper who killed several people and was constantly flying into fits of rage.
I'm like, yeah, I can see why you identify with this guy.
I get it.
I can see it.
They even look slightly similar, actually.
If you look up a picture of Caravaggio, I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.
Yeah, it's like, I love Francis Bacon because I'm fucked up.
Like, yeah, it's always that simple.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So from all that, like, what I do find kind of funny is how, like, there is a specific segment of people who consider Russell to be really enlightened and progressive.
Like, they think he's still coming from the left in some ways, or even if he's not, like, fully from the left, like, he's, he's inclusive, at least.
In reality, like, he is spouting the exact same shit as the most hateful people on the alt-right.
He's just putting it in a way that's much more palatable to them.
It's why he's like a key figure among the Maha movement.
Because among the RFK junior supporters, there are a bunch of people who were really against Trump.
But thanks to people like Russell spouting the same conspiracy theories and talking points in a fluffier and more pseudo-philosophical way, those people eventually had no problem leaping on the Trump train.
You know, it's bullshit like that.
And they love famous people in Florida too.
Oh, yeah.
As well.
Oh, yeah.
Like, you know, I was like, how can these people accept these people?
But it is also like, the right is just so desperate in this country for famous people.
You know, it'd be a period of time where they'd be like, God bless you, Lorenzo Lamas.
You are a true patriot and a wonderful actor.
It's like, you could be Kevin Sorbo.
Kevin Sorbo is such a major figure for these people.
Yeah.
And it's like, come on, man.
Yeah, no, it was, it was not difficult for Russell to get where, you know, because he is famous.
You know, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, Alex Jones was fawning all over him.
You know, you're like, yeah, yeah.
You know, because he's more famous than any of them will ever be, most likely, you know?
So from here, Charlie asks what I do consider to be a truly dangerous question to someone who just a minute ago said he wanted to literally be Jesus.
So Russell, I'll kidding us.
When are you going to start a church?
Are you going to try to start a ministry?
I mean, the UK could use a revival.
I'm really trying to surrender to whatever he wants.
You know, I've always been talking my whole life, so like it would be immodest.
False modesty.
Without hyperbolic, Charlie.
You know, I'm aware.
I hear myself.
But when I'm not sucking on a sweet, sweet lozenge of the Lord.
But I do want to participate in his ministry and mission.
But because I have a tendency to appoint myself and anoint myself in certain roles, I want to be sure that it's the path he would have me walk.
And I have pretty serious challenges to surmount in the UK when it comes to my personal belief.
The entire government is going after Russell.
I hope you guys know that.
It's exhausting.
Yes.
Ah, good to see he's taking the charges against him seriously.
It's exhausting.
And yet again, like criminal charges being brought against you is not a government conspiracy.
It's that you seemingly have committed crimes.
The government doesn't need to get involved in any way.
I mean, technically, the police are part of the executive branch, but it's the judiciary that will be making the decision on Russell's fate ultimately.
And the charges stem from like the charges stem from the very public accusations that were made first.
Yeah.
Yep.
And there's a lot of evidence that is available to the public, you know, and it's pretty damning.
And just like, you know how you, you know how you drum up, like America, you can, you can look here and see this is how the state whips up malicious fake charges.
It's you go financial because it is actually very difficult to get someone to risk their well-being, reputation, their financial well-being, possibly spending time in jail.
It is very difficult to get a person to commit to false sexual assault accusations because there are serious, potentially serious ramifications if they are exposed.
And you can't trust that this, whoever might be in charge of the judiciary or the legal system at any point in time, you can't trust that they're always going to be in charge.
So like, that's a big commitment to ask.
It is very, very easy to just fake some papers.
Like that's, that's how you go after someone using the legal system is fucking drummed up fraud, financial, financial fraud, whatever.
The idea that you could get like a dozen, a dozen women to all stick to the same story.
It's yeah, yeah, and particularly from a period, I think it's between like 1998 and 2004 or something is the range.
I'm like, wouldn't you go for someone current?
You know, you would go for recent, recent, you know, if you were manufacturing things, you know, it would, it would make a lot more sense.
And yeah, and not just those women, the friends who are like, yeah, they told me, they told me it happened to them when it happened to them.
You also have to have these people who are continuing to insist that like they were told this 20, it would be.
It would take so.
It would be so unnecessarily difficult when you could just fake a mortgage fraud.
It would take so many.
There are documented text messages that came from Russell's phone about the crime he did.
And I'm like, from 20 years ago?
And I'm like, I'm sorry.
How do you fake that?
Come on.
Come on.
Or just like, like, Russell, brother, they just killed Fred Hampton.
They were threatened by Fred Hampton.
So they drugged him and shot him in his bed while he slept.
They don't have to go through all this work.
If truly, like, the deep state wants to get rid of you, they'll just fucking do it, man.
You would think, you would think.
Otherwise, I guess we're putting a pin in the Church of Russell Brand until after his criminal trial.
He didn't seem averse to the idea.
He said, like, oh, yeah, I'm just, I'm waiting to see if that's what the Lord wants me to do.
And I'm like, ah, no.
I've been kind of waiting on the inevitable Russell Brand cult.
And I think if he gets away with the charges against him, then it might be coming.
It also is, they were just talking about how Buddhism is the religion, the philosophy of the individual.
And this whole time, all he is talking about is God talking specifically to him.
It's never like, through God, I have realized I should want to better my community.
How can I serve my fellow Christians?
How can I give away my millions of dollars?
It's just like, listen, listen, nobody's more important to God than me, okay?
So I got to keep my schedule clear in case he wants me to do something because I know I'm going to be the first guy he looks to if he needs something done.
I will be called.
I'm first on that call sheet.
God damn.
He may not be starting a church just yet, but what I will say Russell has done within the last few weeks is he has started his own very line, very own line of supplements under the brand name Reborn Wellness.
So far, you can get beef tallow, creatine powder, colostrum powder, and methylene blue, all marked up and with Russell's logo on them.
He has previously been hawking other brands of this stuff for a while, but clearly someone, probably Alex Jones, clued him in on just how much money can be made in the right-wing supplement game.
So if you want to drink some dye or have some powdered beef products, then go to Russell's website, I guess.
Or maybe just don't.
What did surprise me is that unlike 99% of the things that Russell has sold on his show, the Reborn Wellness stuff is actually available in the UK.
So I could get some if I hated myself enough, you know?
Creatine powder when this guy's selling it more like creatine powder.
Excuse me.
More like cretin powder.
Excuse me.
More like cretin powder.
This supplement shit, this is all the fault of former Senator Orn Hatch from Utah, who was the chief figure in deregulating the supplement industry in America.
And in exchange, they like all moved to Utah.
Like we went to Whole Foods so we could get like low-dose aspirin.
We were out of low-dose aspirin.
We went to Whole Foods.
And you walk through and you're like, all right, they don't sell medicine here.
Anything?
Anything with like with like real, anything that has like real proven benefits can't be sold at Whole Foods.
Just this completely deregulated shit can be sold here.
And like, look, maybe this is a little problematic.
I'm speaking from a point of view of what I would assume would be this movement.
Is this shit not like completely feminized?
Like, is this not the type of stuff that we would have seen as like a woman's thing to do?
taking all these like pills and like weight loss stuff and like it's one of those things that i would say used to be like that i think and and kind of you know applied more again to like the wellness hippie hippie kind of types but But I don't know whether to only credit Alex Jones, but he's certainly been a driving force in like making them masculine and like making all these products like super manly and like get your fucking dick hard, you know, like all of this kind of stuff, you know,
and him constantly taking the things on air and drinking bone broth and whatever the fuck else while on air, you know, all of that stuff and selling, oh, the one that, the one that cracked me up the most, he had a brand of taint wipe that he was selling for a while that he was trying to market as like, you know, military great, you know, like, it's a wipe for your taint, Alex.
What do you taint wipe?
Yeah, you know, in case you get a little swampy down there, you know, you can't.
Oh, I see.
Oh, okay.
So it's like a wet wipe, you know?
I was just like, how far back is this guy wiping after he takes a shit?
God.
So, yeah.
Anyway, naturally, off the back of this whole conversation about government coming after him and everything, like Russell has to take it the next step further and regurgitate a few more conspiracy theories about the charges against him.
But so you're under attack from the UK government on, I think, completely fake stuff.
And that's what, by the way, that's what they do.
Russell, they're going after Russell because he was so effective and vocal during COVID.
And he was against the entire COVID narrative, right?
You were against lockdowns and you were against all that stuff.
And your law fair started simultaneously with all that.
Is that correct?
No, it was a little later, but I knew that it's been revealed that I was under observation from groups like Logically AI and CRISP, who are sort of online organizations that often work with either government agencies or government carve-outs.
You're aware of things like the Atlantic Group and various organizations that were funded by USAID or other CIA carve-out organizations.
Okay.
So the organizations that he's talking about are specifically organizations that track misinformation across the world.
And Russell popped up on their radar a couple of times because, well, he's completely full of shit and regularly spouts conspiracy theories.
In these instances, it was his anti-vax and pro-Russian stances, you know, in terms of Ukraine, that were making him of note.
And so through this line of thinking, Russell has managed to spin the entire thing into the CIA and MI5 have come to get me.
When actually all that ever happened was he'd been covered in a couple of articles because he was being a lying shithead.
And the charges against him for rape and sexual assault are an entirely separate matter.
And as you pointed out, like, I know the CIA is full of bumbling idiots and the MI5 have their own issues, but I feel like if those two organizations teamed up to come and get you, it would not be a protracted legal case with a 4% chance of success.
It would be the headline, Russell Brand found dead after falling from balcony, possible drug use involved, you know?
Yeah, like I think it was in Venice.
A CIA agent in Venezuela killed some fishermen because they spotted him and he was like on a covert op or something.
That sounds right.
Yep.
Yeah, it's just like, it's like, you know, and yeah, like the CIA has like done work through like fake NGOs and stuff.
But it's, it's, again, to me, the big thing is just like, nobody cares, man.
Like nobody cares enough to go after you for this.
Like, it isn't just, it's like, you're not even a big enough figure in your own movement to be this important.
That's what galls me.
That's what fucking gall.
It's like, it's like, I'm at a show here and some comic is like, yeah, I just have like a lot of heat on me right now.
And it's like, you just need three minutes.
No, you fucking don't.
Like they're, they're.
And the way I guess, so I guess the, the, the only objection the CIA, I imagine, would actually have to this guy would be the anti-the like pro-Russia stuff.
But otherwise, this guy is the CIA's fucking wet dream, man.
You could get this dumbass to say anything.
They'd fucking love that shit.
Say or do anything.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
He'd make a perfect asset.
Yeah.
Just for money.
You could just pay him to do anything.
I think he would.
These guys, these guys, it's like the idea of, yeah, like I like just mentioning Fred Hampton, the idea that these guys would think of themselves as like a Fred Hampton type is like so egregious to me.
I don't, I don't believe these guys have paid for, have, have given anyone a free breakfast in their entire lives.
Like, yeah, yeah.
No, no, it's, it's, it's, I'm, I'm too rich in white, so everyone's coming to get me.
And also, I think enough time has gone by.
I cannot, I don't know what to say about Charlie Kirk's hair.
You know, obviously we all know he is a huge head with a tiny little face in the middle of it.
But this thing where he has pushed it all into the middle and then like pushed it down, it's like having a faux hawk and then you put a bike helmet perfectly on top of it.
Yeah, like it feels like he like he's halfway going towards a pompadour kind of look, you know, like from Greece, you know, like a fucking greaser, except he doesn't do the final steps and just sits there and flops on his head.
You know, it's such a bizarre choice.
I think it's to try and make his face look less round and like taller, you know, but it just looks very strange.
The aesthetics on display here are absolutely psychotic from both of these guys.
Yeah, yeah, both unique individuals, unique snowflakes.
This is what we're going to go for.
You know, Charlie Kirk isn't as bad as like a Jordan Peterson, obviously, you know, who nobody is as bad as Jordan Peterson.
But like, there's just, there's, it's like, it's like bizarro world.
It's like a bizarro world idea of like being aesthetically pleasing is what goes on with these guys.
Like, you know, it's like you took an aesthetically pleasing look and then you threw it down the stairs headfirst.
And that is what, and these guys are what emerges from it.
And then stuffed it into an ill-fitting suit, you know, and then there we go.
There was a guy in the 90s.
I can't remember his name.
He's still around, but he had an infomercial where he, you could call and buy a book from him that was just listing of grants you could apply to the government to get.
And he wore a suit covered in dollar signs.
He'd be like, call this number so you can get my guide to getting money for free from the government.
And that's what these guys dress like now.
Yeah, yeah, I feel like Russell, Russell's kind of always, you know, he went through his goth phase when he first kind of started looking like a bit of a goth dandy kind of thing.
And then he just morphed into looking like a vaguely crunchy hippie who smells of wet dog.
And he's just kind of stuck with that ever since.
That's it.
It's worse now.
Before it was like, you know, Noel Fielding, you're like, well, these guys look so crazy.
It's a thing.
And it's like, well, whatever.
That's their look.
That's their thing.
Yeah, you're right.
That's perfect.
That is perfect.
Now he literally just looks like he smells like wet dog.
Like he looks like he keeps his dogs outside, except when it rains, he lets them come in the house.
I guess that wouldn't work.
I guess that wouldn't work in the UK.
But like, yeah, he looks, he looks like he smells.
He looks like he smells like piss is what he looks like.
Because I think it's like a Greg Giraldo described someone once.
Like, yeah, you're 100% correct.
He went from having an aesthetic, even if I thought it was stupid, it still was a whole look to now.
It's just like, yeah, you just, you look like, yeah, you, you look like a guy who intentionally smells, smells like a, like a body.
Whereas like Charlie Kirk, to me, looks like someone who can't figure out, you know, they're like, he's just gone through puberty and he can't figure out like what his style should be.
And so he's wearing a suit that's too small.
He's got hair that's too tall.
He can't quite like get the right like, he's trying to get there, but you know, he can't quite fit.
And obviously now he never will.
But you know, he couldn't walk.
I didn't say anything about that.
I didn't say anything about that.
Yeah.
Look, it's, you, you know, somebody struggles with the issue of small face.
And, you know, it's like, you know, just big head.
You know?
Yeah.
Small face, big head.
He's also like fucking seven feet tall.
He's a tall dude, you know?
Yeah.
Look, Mickey Dolan's made it work.
There's a way to make it work, you know?
I think you just find a thing and stick with it.
But the suit thing, the wearing suits that are too small, the thing that bled down from like Andrew Tate and all those guys, that is like, look, it's one thing when you, it's one thing when you're doing masculinity so performative, you just, you just look like a gay guy at a pool party.
It's one thing if that's what you're pulling off.
It's a whole other thing when you're built like Charlie Kirk and it's like, brother, your suit's just too small for me.
It just doesn't fit.
You are too gangly for this suit.
You need a tailor is what you need, sir.
That's what you need.
Like, like, buddy, you're not a kickboxer.
This is, you're not even pulling off a bad look.
It just, you just look like somebody.
Somebody's like, oh, I think this kid just hit a growth spurt and like hasn't bought a new suit yet or something.
See, I hate to shit on people's appearance, but sometimes it is fun.
That is the problem.
Clothes are a whole other thing.
If you're rich and your clothes look like shit, what's your fucking excuse?
Yeah, here's the thing.
If you've got as much money as these two guys, like, come on, you can afford to look decent.
Same with Bill Maher.
He always looks like shit.
Yeah, he dresses like a fucking teenager is his fucking problem.
He's always wearing like Supreme and shit.
He's like Dracula fucking dressed in Supreme, you know?
Yes.
What are you doing?
Yeah, my old landlord.
Yeah, there are times I'm like, he looks like a board ape yacht club PNG.
He just looks like one of the fucking crypto thing.
My old landlord used to always come to our apartment when I was living with two guys before I moved in with my wife.
He would come to our apartment and he'd be wearing shirts he clearly got for free on like a TV production.
Like they were like crew shirts.
If you're on crew, you just get free shirts from the show.
My fucking roommate, Diego, he, it would make him so fucking angry.
He'd be like, this guy owns, owns like five buildings.
He can't even show up in a shirt he had to pay money for when he's going to try to talk us into an illegal rent increase.
Like you've got to be fucking kidding me with this shit.
Yeah, it's galling.
If you have money and you, if you have money and you dress like shit, you're a disgrace.
Yeah, you may be sick of myself.
We're allowed to come for you at that point.
I think that's fair.
So from here, Russell segues into some of his anti-COVID stuff before slipping into one of his favorite bits from his new stand-up set.
So I will let you judge the comedy towards the end.
Also, I hope I was observing the unspoken narrative of COVID is this.
Check it out.
Life is so sacred and each of us so precious, the most vulnerable, no matter who you are or where you're from.
Life is a sacred gift from God.
Therefore, if there's a virus that's a threat to anybody, we must all be locked in our homes.
We must all wear masks.
We must all obey these edicts.
And if necessary, you must take these vaccines.
And if you don't, you are lacking in compassion.
You don't care about others.
The entire premise is erroneous because where else do we see our culture behaving as if life is sacred, as if we must sacrifice ourselves for one another?
Indeed, don't they mock those very values?
Don't they mock our savior?
Don't they mock our church?
Don't they laugh at the idea that there's something more valuable than the fulfillment of self and the adornment of self?
Anyway, so during COVID, I talked about it a lot, but I was pretty loquacious and pretty non-stop about it.
The videos were doing well.
I was enjoying it.
And I'm a kind of a naturally anti-establishment person, I suppose.
I didn't take the vaccine because I don't like being told what to do.
I didn't take it because they were telling me.
In fact, if they wanted me to take that vaccine, all they would have had to have done is leave a couple of syringes in my bedroom and tell me under no circumstances, do not touch that no matter what.
Doesn't matter who coughs or however quietly in whichever grocery store, don't take those.
Oh, you've already taken them.
Sir, I have taken 20 or 30 vaccines.
I don't like being told what to do.
Yeah, just kind of toss that off at the end there.
Yeah, he doesn't like being told what to do and yet openly supports the most authoritarian U.S. government of the last half century, sure thing.
Thoughts on the comedy bit?
Didn't he work for MTV in England or something?
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, no.
He worked for MTV for a bit.
Yeah, before, yeah, that was when he got fired for addressing his Osama bin London.
Yeah, I'm so anti-establishment.
I work for fucking network television.
I work for the BBC.
I work for the biggest corporations I can find.
No one's more anti-establishment than me.
The star of the Arthur remake.
Man.
Yeah, I worked for Viacom a bunch of times.
This, like, it just is, I don't know.
It just is.
I guess it just is.
I guess it just is.
And we're all stuck in it.
We're all trapped in it.
Because it just, it just is.
This is the easiest interview of Charlie Kirk's life.
I mean, this guy doesn't have to do the least amount of work this guy's ever done.
You just occasionally have to nudge him, you know?
And there you go.
You don't even have to ask questions.
You could just say a word and Russell will be off, you know, like he'll be off to the fucking races.
Yeah.
So I had kind of thought that Russell had mostly retired from comedy pretty much.
Because his last proper special was 2023, though it was based on his set from 2022, which was all COVID stuff and done very badly.
And then he was doing like a few tiny comedy gigs for free of less than 50 people at his old pub in Piss Hill before he fled to Florida.
And I sort of thought, you know, he'd be done because like, well, while he was in the UK, he was once able to perform to arenas of 20,000 people.
You know, he never quite hit that same level of popularity in the US by any metric.
And he certainly couldn't do that in the UK now either.
But nonetheless, he has been doing comedy gigs again.
He had one a few weeks ago in Texas, of all places, while he was there visiting Alex Jones and Del Big Tree.
And from the bits of the set I could find online, it was about as terrible as you'd expect with Michael.
Do you know what venue?
I can look it up.
I can't tell you specifically.
It wasn't the fucking comedy mothership, was it?
Was it in Austin?
It might have been.
It might have been.
That's Joe Rogan's club that like all of the most true.
I hadn't thought about it.
All of the worst guys from the comedy store moved out there with like the Kill Tony guys.
Yeah, that's right.
And they're having a terrible time, apparently.
Yeah, I saw that.
Yeah.
I will check back.
I will check back on that.
But like, so the comedy itself, it was terrible.
It was much more like making political points and like clapter than many actual jokes or comedy.
Sort of like, if you can imagine a really boring anti-vax version of George Carlin, who can't quite land the plane at any point, that's basically what it was.
And in fact, the thing I found funniest about it was that he did this gig in Texas.
But if you went to buy a ticket, the website gave a warning that if you attend this event, the bar will be closed at the request of the performer, meaning the bar would not open even to serve water or soft drinks.
What?
Yes, in Texas.
Why?
I think I would assume it's because, you know, Russell's an addict and everything and didn't want alcohol served, which I'm like, okay, fine.
You know, personally, I'm like, well, you know, people are much easier to make laugh when they're drunk.
But, you know, okay, okay, fine.
But like, at least let them serve water or fucking soft drinks.
But like, surely there have has been alcohol at previous, like, at previous jobs, like at arenas and stuff.
Like, you would think, I mean, this must be like a relatively recent, you know, thing of his.
I don't know when he started doing this.
But yeah, I was just fascinated.
Like, how pissed off would you be if you went to a fucking comedy gig from Russell Brand and you weren't allowed to make it better?
You can't even have water.
Dry mouth, you know?
Just they're like, oh, God, he keeps saying long words endlessly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, absolutely terrible.
I will check on what venue it was, though.
It may not.
You saw like snippets from the set, though?
Because that would be tougher because they make you do the bag.
They make you put your phone in the bag.
I think they were like intentional ones that Russell wanted to be able to put on socials.
So I think they were accepted.
But yeah, I'm not sure whether it was in Austin or not, but I will check on that.
Hello, everybody.
Future Al jumping in.
So I found the gig that Russell did again.
And it was Russell Brand.
A funny thing happened on my way to church with the thing being, I am a Christian.
I am a comedian.
I am interested in change.
I am interested in awakening.
Which, you know what?
If that doesn't sound like a comedy show, I don't know what does.
But either way, it was in Austin, Texas, but not at the mothership.
It was at the Vulcan Gas Company.
And it does, in fact, say at the artist's requests, the bar will remain closed and covered for the entirety of the event, including before, during, and after the show.
And as such, no beverages, including water, will be available for purchase or consumption within the venue, which is just delightful.
And if you're wondering about this place, the Vulcan gas company in Austin, Texas, you know, what are the kind of luminaries they may have there?
So the Kill Tony regulars, those are regulars there, as described, which, I mean, that's upsetting for everybody, especially them.
I hear they're having a terrible time.
And as well, Crystalia is going to be doing four dates there in March of this year.
Sorry, no, four shows across two days.
Oh, okay.
He's doing double headers at this place because he's able to get enough of an audience there, which doesn't shock me.
If Russell can do a gig there, so can Crystalia.
That makes perfect sense.
Anyway, there we go.
Back to the show.
I was talking to a researcher about this because he's been talking to comedians about political comedy.
And he was just talking about a right-wing internet comic.
He went to go see, and it was like- Matt Reif?
No.
I think ascribing any political belief system to Matt Reif would be generous.
He's a moneymaker.
That's all he cares about.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
His plastic surgeon is it's ironic that Matt Reif was one of the stars of Wild and Out, because that's also how you could describe the behavior of his plastic surgeon lately.
So it's a thing where it's like he was just talking about going to see this right-wing.
He was like an online comedian, and the show did not have a lot of laughs.
But at the end of the show, like the show was bad, but at the end of the show, he did a Q ⁇ A and the crowd was just like, thank you so much for doing this.
So it is like the thing, though, is like Russell Brand will probably be drawing okay, like good-sized crowds that won't care that he sucks because for all intents and purposes, it is, you know, a church or a community.
It's like, it's just about having this community for these people now.
I'm going to go see this famous person say things I agree with, you know?
Yeah.
This guy who I agree with and my family fucking hates me, but Russell Brand cares about, which is, oh my God.
It was a dark, dark, a dark utterance on my part.
So next up, Charlie has some thoughts on freedom and Europe.
I do believe that submission to a higher good, I believe now, humility before honor.
Before the idea of surrender, and still, the idea of surrendering or accepting any human authority as supreme, I find it kind of repulsive.
And I believe that there are significant institutional, if not constitutional, changes coming to your country because I believe that there is an appetite for more freedom that is growing.
But freedom cannot exist without virtue.
And so freedom will come after, and it's happening right now.
People go to church and give their life to God.
You cannot have a free society if you do not have a society that values God.
That's why continental Europe is so unfree.
It's secular.
Yes, the famously unfree continent of Europe, where, might I add, the Catholic Church resides.
Yes, yes, that's what's happening there.
So even with his own parameters of freedom requiring Christianity, it's like, dude, you're talking about one of the main seats of Christianity for centuries.
What are you doing?
Like, I'm just, I'm baffled that Charlie Kirk's head didn't explode before someone did it for him because how can you possibly square the ideas of personal freedom with the notion that everyone must be Christian in order to be free?
Like the cognitive dissonance must have been a constant migraine for this guy.
Now, my stream did drop out for a second while you were saying something about Charlie Kirk, but we don't have to go back.
We don't have to go back.
Should I repeat it?
I lost my connection.
I lost my connection.
It's totally fine, though.
We don't need to.
I can write it in the chat for you and you can.
No, Okay, okay.
I don't know.
The episode's running long.
I don't want to take any more time with anybody.
It's like England, a Christian nation.
It's like, you know, all the fucking Scandinavians, you know, they love to refer to themselves as like cultural Christians.
Like, it's all, it's, yeah.
Charlie Kirk, you know, it's funny watching two guys who don't believe it projecting that in different ways.
Like you can see the cynical, with Charlie Kirk, you can see it's just cynical.
It's cynical business.
Yeah.
And I also, I don't, I, I don't even necessarily believe that he is not a Christian, but like all this shit is just like, I don't believe he believes the specifics of what he talks about.
No, Russell Brand, I don't believe, I don't believe has any connection in any way to Christianity whatsoever.
I just don't accept it at all.
I'm not reading anywhere.
I believe that he does like he does like Christianity and because he's been going towards it for so fucking long.
Like he, even before he came out as Christian, when he was still pretending not to be one, he was defending Christianity against Richard Dawkins in a conversation.
And that was a fucking terrible time for so many reasons.
So I believe the Christianity side of it.
I just don't believe he understands any of what Christianity is.
You know, I think he's just got these versions of things.
He's got his Bible in a year and he's got his little version of the Bible that he was given by his mate, JJ on, you know, and he's he's going through like prayer stuff on Hallow, you know, the Mark Wahlberg app.
You know, and yeah, I don't think he actually understands any of it.
So from here, funnily enough, Charlie asks Russell to look up a Bible verse.
Well, rather, Charlie mentions a Bible verse and Russell looks it up.
And in doing so, Russell then starts to get a little bit personal.
First of all, there's a great verse that I think you'll love, Romans 12:2, which is, do not conform to the ways of this world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Fact check me if I got it right.
Romans 12.
I'm fact-checking, yeah.
I'm just the believer's constitution.
I consider you a kind of living Bible.
I'm not quite a living Bible, but I do take that seriously.
So, Romans 12:20 is one of my favorite verses because you talked about your mindset.
So, that's Romans right there.
I think, yeah, 12-2.
Well, that was 11, but Romans 11 is also very important about us being grafted on top of the.
I don't know if it's okay for me to tease you about your what I would consider enjoyable Asperger's.
Oh, thank you.
It's fine.
Because when I see all your lozenges lined up and everything, I teased you about it once before, and I thought, don't be mean because of people with Asperger's and all of that.
My son, I feel like he might be a little bit autistic, actually, as it turns out.
But like, that's 11.
That's also a good tool.
12-2.
We got to get to that.
It's very like sort of, I would say, you're like right-wing rainman.
Okay, I'll take it.
Right-wing rainman, Russell Brand.
Put that on the website.
That's the title.
Yeah.
Do people say Aspergers?
No, it's a very dated term now.
No, I know, but like, would you guys have said it as pergers over there?
Oh, yeah, it was no, it was no, very few people in this country would call it Aspergers.
Yeah, yeah, no, no, no.
It was always Asperger's over here, which, you know, does sound better.
But yeah, nobody says that anymore, obviously, because as a diagnosis, it's been folded into ASD in general.
So Russell actually has quite a long history of mocking Charlie Kirk for apparently seeming autistic.
The worst example I saw was when he was in conversation with Charlie at the RNC in 2024, alongside Dan Bongino and Nigel Farage.
Imagine that for some.
And all of them were chiming in and making fun of Charlie for seeming autistic.
It was like it was a pretty brutal showing, like positioning Charlie as the weakest of the pack.
I was like, oh no.
There's Lord of the Flyers shit going down.
Also, I don't know, man.
Not a lot reads to me.
I'm not picking up a lot of autism off of Charlie Kirk.
No, I don't get it much from Charlie either.
And you know what?
I'm going to say something controversial here as to like someone who I do get some autism vibes from.
And I say this as a person with it, you know, and is fucking RFK Jr.
Like, I get major, in my head, every time I see him, like, railing against autism, I'm like, oh, yeah, if an autistic person just hated themselves enough, they could eventually become that.
He's like the autistic version of the old closet case stereotype of like the like past pastor raging against homosexual degeneracy.
And then he gets busted spending a weekend smoking meth with like a gay escort in a motel.
Yeah, or in a bathroom stall at the Dallas airport.
Yeah, yep.
Yeah.
And the kicker for me from all of that is supposedly Russell's son is showing signs of autism, which is like Russell's sons at the time of this is like less than two.
So if he is showing signs of autism, then it will be like quite extreme, you know, like non-verbal kinds, if that is the case.
Though Asperger's specifically, that's supposed to be like much more of a social one in general.
And like you wouldn't be able to kind of get a diagnosis for that really like before the age of like five or six.
Yeah, what's going on?
What kind of a baby has like social cues it can't read?
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
And, you know, there are some cases, you know, with like some specific types of nonverbal autism that are kind of more profound where like it is noticeable.
Like it has that.
But I feel like, I don't know, I feel like he was just talking off the cuff at that point.
I think he's just like, my son seems weird and I don't know what to do about it.
And like, I feel bad for the kid because Russell has shown pretty naked contempt for autistic people the entire time I've been covering him.
Like the whole time he has just been making fun and shitting up, despite he himself having ADHD, by the way.
And so like, I've got to sympathize with the kid because like imagine just being the only male child of Russell Brand.
And if the kid does end up with autism as well.
Oh my God.
You're just, he's going to have a rough time, man, you know?
Yeah.
And it is, I mean, it's easy.
I have at through, I have been like extremely good socially through like broad swaths of my life.
I don't know.
Sometimes it feels like the switch just gets turned off.
I don't know what happens.
But like, and when you are like a very charismatic figure, it can be really easy to bully people who aren't.
Like you have to make a real conscious decision.
Like, I got to not like pick on this person.
He's just like shy.
Like it's cruel.
I'm just being cruel because other people are laughing.
Like I can't behave this way.
Yeah, I feel like it's something you age out of, like, for the most part.
You know, like it, like, you know, like, it's kind of like.
I can't wait for that age to hit me because I still have the impulse.
Oh, God.
I will note as well that Russell is using what appears to be a modernized, simplified version of the Bible.
So when he went to look up that somewhat poetic quote from Romans that Charlie Kirk rattled off, the version in Russell's Bible was, don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
And I'm like, that's all small words, isn't it?
That's all there is no poetry in that at all.
And it's all just little words that Russell can get.
It's also, as another sidebar, it is tough.
I mean, when your death is so public and so extreme, everything you say seems so low.
Everything you said before then seems so loaded with like meaning and force.
Everything everyone says to you, it's like impossible not to read so much into it.
And it's just like, I can't, like, I can't do that.
I really cannot do that.
I definitely cannot do that.
But yeah, just like so many comments said, it's just like, you want to be like, oh my God.
And then six weeks later, it's like, right.
It's a pretty, it's a pretty like crazy earth-shattering moment.
So everything, you know, it's like, oh, my God, it's so crazy that, you know, JFK was wearing a hat and then three months later he was shot in the head.
It's like, it's not, it only seems that way in retrospect.
Yeah, that's just, you know, how we how we deal with death as a society.
That's, that's a human problem is what that is.
Look, I keep digressing.
This is where two and a half hours.
I don't know how much.
Yeah, we've still, we've still got more clips.
So so now we get to the vital question of whether Russell's life is better since becoming Christian.
And we learned something very telling about him.
Russell, your show is called Stay Free.
Yes, I'm Rumble.
Are you, do you believe you are freer and more joyful since giving your life to Jesus?
Oh man, there's no question.
Even with the really difficult things that happened, like being told that our baby might be born dead, being offered late-term abortion, him being born and requiring surgery when he was 12 weeks old, turning into the glorious little boy that he is now.
The reputational attacks, the exhaustion, the confronting with the things that I have done wrong in my life.
I've never been so free.
In obedience and surrender to him, there is personal, perfect freedom.
There is no freedom out there.
There's no freedom in hedonism, in Epicureanism, in the constant devouring of concupians and endless pleasures.
There's no freedom there.
It's an illusion, but it's a powerful illusion.
I'm not suggesting I couldn't fall for it again a thousand times.
I have to stay very close to Christ Jesus.
And to do that, I need Christians everywhere around me.
And perhaps that's what fuels my evangelism.
So Russell is a Christian evangelist because he feels he must surround himself with Christians permanently all the time.
Otherwise, he will immediately go back to living a life of hedonism and sleeping with any woman who comes near him.
I'm like, yep, that makes sense.
If he could have just been normal about it and not an absolute predator, like serial sexual predator, it's like, that would have been fine.
I just spit something out of my mouth right on camera.
So that's definitely going to stay in.
And I hate that.
And I'm going to be thinking about it for like three months after this.
I'm going to be like taking care of a newborn baby.
I'm going to be like, I fucking spit right on camera.
I'll tell you what.
I'll put a little black box over it whenever you're going to do that.
You could have a good time.
So nobody, I'll do it.
I'll do it just for you.
I chew my lips and sometimes skin fucks out of my mouth.
It's disgusting.
My wife hates it.
Rubbing leaves, chewing skin, sweating.
The chewing skins.
Not washing your hair.
Well, the hair looks good.
Okay, of all the things, the hair looks good and the tree is healthy again.
So 50% of the things you just listed are good.
I'm not saying it doesn't work, right?
Yeah, leaving an atomic test level shadow on whatever sheets I sleep in for a month for longer than like a week is bad, admittedly.
Yeah, like not ideal, but you know.
He could have just lived.
It's okay.
It's okay to be a hedonist.
Like it is okay.
You can ethically live like a piece of shit where people are just like, like there are people where you, there are people you affectionately refer to as a scumbag.
And there are people you, as a warning to others, often women, refer to as a scumbag.
And unfortunately, the people sometimes go back and forth over the line.
Like, look, you can just be a Lothario your whole life and people will make fun of you, but that's fine.
There's that version of it.
And in my head, there is also Frank Reynolds from It's Always Sunny.
You know, I'm like, you know, endearing piece of shit.
But it just like, yeah, it's this guy is, you know, and I, I know now about his horrific upbringing.
It is just like, you know, it's like, it feels like this guy never really had a chance.
And yet, even with that knowledge, he still made every bad decision he could have so far beyond that.
So far beyond the excusable realm of like, you know, it's like you look at a guy like Rob Delaney.
Rob Delaney's one of the nicest guys.
I knew him when he was still living here and do shows with him and stuff.
And like, you know, you find out that he was such a bad alcoholic, he fucking drove drunk and crashed into a bank and, you know, was lucky enough.
And it's the kind of thing where it's like, he could have killed somebody and he was just lucky enough that he never did.
But it's like the kind of thing it's like, yeah, theoretically he could have killed somebody.
But like after that point, he's never been anything but like the nicest, most compassionate guy.
And at the same time, he has the classic thing of so many addicts with Dart.
Like when you talk to them, you can see it and you can like see it.
You can see it with them that they are always making that like they just, there just is that struggle to be like, I have to make the effort.
And like Russell Brand is so far beyond the point of that.
And also, he also looks like he is wrestling with something clearly at all times.
While he's speaking, he looks, there is so much more darkness in his eyes now than at the peak of his fame, but it seems like it's in a bad way where it's a guy who's like, I'm just going to let this consume me in an entirely different way.
Yeah, he's having to like actually face the demons now rather than go for a ride with them.
And like this, this perspective of him desperately clinging to Christianity, otherwise he'll be a piece of shit continually completely tracks.
Because in the recent conversation he had with Alex Jones, Russell was asked specifically whether like sex was better with just one woman, you know, continually.
And he made some very strong points about how difficult it was for him to be sexually monogamous, how difficult it is to be married, how he doesn't watch porn, doesn't masturbate, and how actually death would be a relief to him.
You know, I was like, well, okay.
Like, yeah, your life sounds terrible.
I'm not going to say it doesn't.
I listen.
You know, I will confess, I also, someone who is not thrilled with the idea of monogamy.
And like, you know, when like points are easier in our marriage, it is certainly the thing my wife has always been like, listen, you know, we'll talk about it.
You know, to put it, to put it in a much more concise way, to put it in a much more concise way than Russell Brand ever does, I've been a bit of a pussy freak throughout my life.
I can't help it.
I've just enjoyed it.
It's the kind of thing.
It's like, a big part of it, I like getting to know new people.
I'm like a weirdo in that I have enjoyed getting to know new people in all sorts of various forms.
And it's like, and like, I hear a lot of people talk about their marriages.
And I'm like, oh, that does sound bad.
But it's also like, it doesn't have to be that way.
Like, my wife and I are very good about there are certain, and it doesn't even have to be a marriage.
I have friends in long-term relationships who will complain about certain things about their partners.
And it's like, that's never going to change.
They're never going to change that.
You just have to be okay with it.
And there are things my wife and I both do that very easily we could be annoyed by.
But we also know it's just like, what would be the point of that?
Like, it would make our marriage unbear if I made the decision, my, my wife takes her socks off and then just leaves them.
And sometimes without even knowing it, she'll like stuff it under the couch cushions or something.
And it's like, it's like, why does, why does she do that?
Neither one of us have any clue.
So when I find him, I just laugh.
I love to take the garbage out and then completely forget to put the bag in the bin.
I do it almost every single time I take the garbage out.
I would love to not do it.
I try so hard not to do that.
And like, that is the classic kind of thing you would hear someone complain about their spouse doing.
But it's like, she just laughs at me and goes, hey, you forgot the bag.
And I'm like, oh, fuck.
And then I like complain for five minutes about myself.
And the flip side of that is like, and then because of that, being married to my wife has made my life not just better, like in the sort of spiritual of like, I have all this love in my life, but also in the practical way of my, like, my life is so much easier with my wife.
So like this guy, all the things he's talking about, none of them have to be that way.
You don't have to have the kind of marriage that I'm sure makes him so fucking miserable.
You do have to be a good parent to your children.
The types of parents are much more limited.
And unfortunately for this man, you do have to be one of the good ones.
I'm not sure he's one of the good ones.
I wager no.
The thing, I don't know.
Russell's marriage is kind of fascinating.
Because just from an outside perspective, you're like, oh, you have forced this woman into exile in Florida with your children.
Is she also from the UK?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very, very, yeah.
My neighbors are moving furniture.
Sorry.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, she's the daughter of a famous English golfer.
So like, yeah, you know, raised Catholic, plenty of money, all that stuff.
And yeah, has very much stuck with him through all of this.
And I feel like with all of these issues, as you say, like there are some things that you just learn to live with and hopefully find endearing.
And there are other things, you know, communication is the main thing, right?
And Russell strikes me as someone who is terrified to have open and honest communication with his wife.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That feels like a good read of the situation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so he's there just like, oh, fuck, it's going to be like this forever.
Oh, no.
You know, and yep, yep, yep, it is.
Until she inevitably leaves you.
Very famously, I think during the 1998 NBA season, Phil Jackson told Dennis Rodman, you can just go to Vegas for a week.
And Dennis Rodman just went to Vegas for a week, missed some games, went nuts in Vegas, and he came back and he was, he had leveled off a little bit.
It's like you just have to find ways to work with people or each other in the case of a marriage.
And yeah, like the communique, that feels like a great read.
We're like, this guy would never, ever, ever.
And also never going to talk to his wife.
How much worse would you feel if you heard your partner on a podcast and they went, I long for the sweet, cold embrace of death because of my domestic living situation.
How much worse would that feel than if they were just like, I was wondering if we could explore alternative types of the sexual part of our relationship, if we could begin that conversation.
I know which one I would feel worse about.
Yeah, yeah.
It was unreal to listen to.
He's there being pressed by Alex Jones about this.
It's like, oh, how much better is it with one woman, though?
I think it just gets better and better.
And he's like, I struggle, you know, because of the way I've lived and everything, I struggle to go forward with sex and love in a monogamous way.
You know, it's hard being in a marriage, isn't it?
It's really hard.
Oh, no.
Why are you having that conversation with Alex Jones?
Have that conversation with your wife.
Yes, with an intermediary.
Yes, yes.
With a licensed intermediary.
By Christ, a relationship counselor, someone.
Oh, good lord.
Life is hard.
I've actually found being married to be pretty easy.
I thought it was like, if, you know, it's supposed to be pretty decent.
Like, that's the whole point of it.
Yeah, well, yeah.
I thought that was the idea was that, you know, you find someone you like and, you know, everything's good.
That's there are lots of ways to get a tax break.
You know, you could find another one if that's the situation.
Yeah, right.
Oh, dear.
Anyway, from here, Charlie, Charlie gets to his perspective on the charges being brought against Russell.
And yeah, he does have an interesting take.
And so, yeah, Russell, what has worked for you?
Every believer is different.
Is it Christian music?
Is it reading the Bible?
Is it going to church?
What keeps you close to Jesus?
Because you're right, you're constantly attacked.
By the way, Satan, I believe, has singled you out for quite a while.
And you better believe the enemy's not happy that now you're proclaiming Jesus in front of millions of people.
And, you know, we as believers believe Satan is real.
Satan is active.
Satan attacks.
Satan targets.
Satan is literally in Hebrews.
Satan means the prosecutor, the deceiver.
So all of what you are going through in the United Kingdom is a satanic attack.
To try to say, oh, Russell, remember that thing that happened 10 years ago?
Try to have you feel guilty and ashamed.
Remember, Satan throughout the scriptures would constantly always whisper, whether it be in the garden or elsewhere, about, oh, you need to be held back by what you once did, but Christ sets you free.
And in just that one clip, you can really see the appeal of Christianity for Russell.
Like, wait, hang on.
Despite all these terrible things I've done and crimes I almost certainly have committed, if I just give myself over to Jesus, then I'm all good.
Like, to earnest Christians, the whole repentance thing is supposed to be quite a big deal.
But it's hard not to see people like Russell treating it as some kind of cheat code that absolves them of all the shitty things they've done, you know?
Yeah, and that's a pretty key step, the confessing your sins and asking for forgiveness.
Like, I was thinking, you know, I feel like it's never, if, if one of these guys just went, you know what?
I did it.
I hurt a lot of women in the ways they are describing.
And I can't ever make it up to them.
And I am eternally sorry.
And I suppose I'm just going to have to accept the consequences for what I've done.
It's just like, what would we as a society do?
Yeah.
I have no clue how people would.
I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be surprised if that was such a shocking moment that people just went, oh, okay.
Well, thank you for your candor.
Like, what do we do?
Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, the example I would raise, obviously, it was a while ago, but like, Louis C.K. kind of did that.
Like, where when everything was reported, you know, he came out and was like, Yeah, I did that.
Yeah, that was that was bad.
Yeah, it doesn't really match up with the statements.
Some of us in the New York Times story, though, there are stories of like one woman was like, He called me and apologized for like grabbing me and shoving me into a broom closet with him.
And I said that wasn't me.
And he went, Oh, goodbye.
And I was like, Oh, that'd be the scariest phone call you'd ever gotten in your entire life.
Yep.
I think actually a good example.
I don't know if you Dan Harmon and Dan Harmon.
I don't think there was any sexual misconduct.
It was just like he was just like treated, treated his past girlfriends really badly.
And he was like a really horrible boss.
He's a bit of a dick.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And he was like, specific people posting about it.
And he was just like, yeah, my behavior was unacceptable.
And like, I'm really sorry I treated you that way.
And I think about it all the time.
And I'm like, ashamed.
I remember, I think the person was just like, you know what?
Thank you so much.
And obviously, being a serial rapist is much, much, much worse.
I was going to say, yeah, this is a question of scale, I suppose.
But it is, it is crazy how much a sincere, how far a sincere apology to the wronged person, like people really do just want to be heard, or a big, or a big part of it is they would like to be heard.
And if you can make them feel not in a way where like, you know, AOC, everybody gets mad at AOC because she, you know, voted present on a bill to send more money to Israel.
And she'll be like, I see you.
I hear you.
And it's like, no, you don't.
Like, this doesn't count.
But when someone is sincerely like, oh my God, I can't believe I did that to you.
And I'm so sorry.
And if you want to know what was going on, we can talk about it.
Or if you just want me to say I'm sorry and then fuck off and leave you alone, I can do that.
It's always kind of like, well, I don't know, don't beat yourself up about it.
Like you, it's so uncommon that you almost start to feel bad that someone took your concern seriously.
Yeah, you see, you start to empathize with them.
I'm sure I'm a bad, I'm sure I'm a bad person too.
So I don't know, I don't know.
Don't apologize.
Nobody's nerfed, you know?
Yeah, nobody's nerfed in Australia.
Yeah.
Yes.
But so according to Charlie, because Russell's a Christian now and everything, like Russell being on trial for crimes, well, that's actually literal Satan at work trying to take him down.
Apparently, the big red guy can't think of anything better than like to get Russell than the somewhat inept English justice system.
You know, that's the best he's got.
Charlie's version of Satan is much less scary and a bit sad and bureaucratic.
You know, like hell is just all admin work really these days.
You know, it's like it's just Satan sat behind a desk, like, oh, I gotta crunch these numbers.
Oh, like, Jesus.
Yeah.
I always love like, I love when Satan is just like a guy.
Yes, yeah, yes.
Satan is real.
I'm like, oh, it's just a, it's just, I, I, the thing is, because I watched it from too young, young an age, I always just picture the Satan from South Park, you know, like in the relationship with Saddam Hussein, you know, you know, or the, I think, the first season he books a boxing match with somebody to collect all their winnings because, uh, yeah, yeah, he like rigged it and bet against himself and won all their money.
Yeah, wasn't that the one against Jesus?
Yeah, it was against Jesus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, okay.
So, so that was the last clip that we're going to cover of Charlie and Russell's last conversation.
And now we're going to go to Russell talking to Dave Rubin, right?
Because they, yeah, sorry.
They have a terrible podcast together called Actual Friends.
Are you fucking kidding me?
It's them and two right-wing women as well, and they all have terrible conversations.
They're very boring.
They're very, very boring people.
But so we're going to get Russell talking to Dave Rubin in the aftermath of Charlie getting shot.
Now, crucially, this is from fire with me right now.
You're really playing with fire with me right now.
Crucially, this is from that in-between period where it had been confirmed that Charlie had been shot, but not that he was dead, right?
Now, I've been doing this show for two and a half years, thereabouts, examining all of the weirdos and loonies and grifters in this space, which is to say I've seen a lot.
So when I say that the clip we're about to watch is one of the more fucked up things I've seen, I truly mean it.
Is there anything?
Is there, do we have any new news since?
Yeah.
Yeah, the guys are going to text me and you something, Russell.
We'll just, we'll just watch it on the fly and then we'll decide how we want to.
I saw the video of him being shot.
It's disturbing, man.
Obviously.
Yeah.
All right.
They're going to send us something here.
Oh, so oh, God.
All right.
Eve.
Yeah, me may not be coming back from that.
All right.
Russell, I think this is what we're going to do.
We're going to stop now.
I think that was cathartic to some extent.
What?
What?
Okay.
Let's end the show here.
We don't have to edit anything out.
It's all good.
Let's leave it there for now.
And let's just put this up as raw it is as it is.
We can even put it up today if we want.
And let's just leave it there.
Hold on a minute.
Let me pray.
Let me pray.
Yeah.
Bloody hell.
I mean, yeah, yeah, performatively praying on camera.
That'll fix it.
So, in case that isn't clear to anyone listening, Dave Rubin and Russell both got sent what I believe to be a video of the shooting, possibly from a different angle.
I don't know.
While they were mid-conversation.
Yeah, yeah.
While they were mid-conversation.
And Russell's gut response was the incredibly callous, he may not be coming back from that.
As Charlie Kirk's life literally hung in the balance at that very moment.
I'm like, ah, he's like that guy.
Do you remember that clip of the guy who posted the TikTok where he was like, Charlie Kirk's just been shot?
Charlie Kirk's just been shot.
We're all fleeing, everybody.
We're at Utah campus.
We're at Utah campus.
And then he like plugs, he's like, follow, like, follow and subscribe to his account.
Well, everyone around him is screaming and running in terror.
It's and then people get photos afterwards of that guy went and stole t-shirts off of the table that was next to Charlie Kirk.
He like stole like free TV USA shirts off of it.
Of course he did.
Oh, what a piece of shit.
It's so, it's so incredibly dystopian.
Like Charlie Kirk was an astonishing piece of shit, and the world is a better place without that version of him in it.
But I do feel an honest sympathy towards Dave Rubin and sort of Russell in the sense that like it was their friend or friend, acquaintance, or colleague that got shot while at work.
Like on a human level, that's got to suck.
Like I don't know too much about Dave Rubin's relationship with Charlie, but Russell had many hours-long conversations with Charlie, both digitally and in person.
Sorry, I froze there.
I froze there while you were describing Charlie Kirk and his qualities.
Oh, that's fine.
We can keep going.
We can keep going.
That's fine.
That keeps happening.
Yeah, So, so Russell had many hours-long conversations with Charlie, and yet does not appear to give the slightest shit that in Russell's words, he may not be coming back from that.
Um, and then off the back of it, like, where my sympathy wanes for Dave Rubin is that this broadcast was happening at all, because it was essentially a my friend just got shot live reaction video to try and capitalize off of the shooting, which is exemplified by the need to get it out quickly to the point where he says, Oh, let's put it up today as it is, we don't have to edit anything out because you got to strike while the iron's hot, I guess.
Um, you know, it's like, okay, sympathy is done now, Dave.
Jesus Christ.
It's it reminds me of on real time right after Charlie Kirk got shot.
They did a long segment on it.
Charlie or Ben Shapiro's on the panel.
Of course.
And he's like, you know, I watched this guy grow up since he was a kid.
I've watched this guy grow up since he was a kid.
And, you know, it's so disgusting.
And he's like acting so upset.
And then Bill Maher's like, you know, I hate.
Sorry, this is going to be the worst segue of all time.
But here are, it was like something like, here are, you know, here are Google searches that were a bad idea.
And then they go to like a mid-show comedy bit.
And it's like cutting over to Ben Shapiro, like laughing at these jokes.
John Hastings was on that episode.
We were talking.
It was like the most robocop shit of all time.
Like it was just like you waited in the middle of Ben Shapiro and it being a thing where like, oh, Ben, your emotion level has reached 10, which means you've got to sing the Friday Night Fart Song.
Like it was the least human shit I have ever seen.
And watching it and like a moment like this and then being like, of course we're going to get this up ASAP.
I thought it was a stream.
I didn't know that this was pre-recorded.
It's the kind of thing where I see it and I go, the people who made fun of Charlie Kirk after he died, that is a more human, they are behaving in a more human way than shit like this, which is there's, it's not, it's completely unreal.
There is no real emotion or thought or response.
It is like just the impulse to monetize a guy's death as quickly as possible with the thinking that you will make as much money as possible.
Well, immediately.
And then you saw like, you know, the fucking funeral that was basically a WWE event, you know, like it was, it was insane.
You know, everyone just like the sharks just fucking went in.
And I'm like, how is it I feel more empathy for this piece of shit than you guys do?
You know, like, how, how is that possible?
How is it I feel more respect for this person's death than you?
Like, gosh.
If I were one of these guys, I might have a moment where I'd be like, am I going to get fucking killed?
Like, it's funny you should say that, Will.
Because we're going to come to the last couple of clips, which is Russell's response video to finding out that Charlie was in fact dead and did, in fact, not come back from that.
And in this video, Russell will also be outdoors and shirtless.
We're living in this kind of compounded momentum of online hate.
What I mean by that is that there's so much incendi invective and that person should be killed.
F around and find out.
So how would you feel if they were bombing Mexico or bombing Scotland?
Constant comparisons.
Constant escalating, compounding, competing vitriol that, in the end, an almost natural expression and graduation of it is violence and murder.
What I also feel moved by is that Charlie Kirk's a Christian.
He believes in the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
He believes that Christ Jesus died for you and for me.
He believes that Christ Jesus has no favorites.
He understands or understood that we're all gonna die.
And if we turn away from sin, we may be redeemed and we may rise again with Jesus.
And I tell you, man, with this fracturing fragment in culture right now, with people just almost competing to say the smartest thing, the most sanctimonious thing, the most sentimental thing, it might be time for us to really consider some different ideas.
And by different ideas, I mean ideas that we discarded.
Ideas like the supreme thing you can do is sacrifice yourself for what you believe in.
You know, Charlie Kirk, I'll tell you this, he believed in what he said.
And I think Charlie Kirk, if he'd known that saying what he believed in would lead to his murder, even though he was a father of two young children and a husband, I think he still would have done it.
I disagree.
Yeah, yeah.
I feel like had someone told him, hey, Charlie, if you go do one of your little debates at this college campus, you'll get shot, he'd have probably reconsidered like any reasonable person would, you know?
Like, if I were to be booked for a thing and I was just going to be there talking about my values and beliefs, and someone was like, hey, Al, if you go do that, someone's going to shoot at you.
Then I'd be like, well, I guess I'm not going there then.
Like, I have a child.
Look at this grinning idiot.
He's smiling a lot when he considering this guy he knows just got killed.
He's smiling an awful lot throughout this video.
It is perfect as well that he has, there's a private property sign up in the background.
It's like, yep.
What's more important to these guys than private property and perform?
Like we must, you know, demonstrate the most important things you can do is sacrifice for your faith.
It's like, well, go, then go plead guilty, you asshole.
Yeah, right.
You can go to jail for your cause then.
That was weird to me because, like, on the one hand, like, Russell is clearly concerned for his own safety, being like, hey, everyone, this whole thing seems to be escalating quite a bit.
Maybe we should consider some other ideas here.
And then he kind of flips it to like ideas how, like the supreme thing you can do is sacrifice yourself for what you believe in, which almost makes it sound like he's advocating for escalation and for more people to get shot.
And I'm like what?
I don't think that's what you were trying to do here.
Funny that I don't think that was correct.
Um, and finally uh, in this video responding to the killing of Charlie Kirk Russell properly raises his ultimate concern here, which is himself face-to-face conversations, even difficult ones, are necessary and certainly favorable to ongoing polarization, particularly when that Polarization leads to out-and-out murder.
As a Christian, I pray for my brother Charlie Kirk, and I pray for Erica and his family.
And I pray for other people in this space like me, because the fact is, there ain't loads of people in this space, you know, like of people that are online, mouthy people on the left or right.
You know, one thing I'll be thinking of: I'll be thinking of how can I communicate with people that I disagree with lovingly and compassionately and intelligently.
The way Charlie Kirk talked to me when I was at the beginning of becoming a Christian, when he told me that Romans is the Christian constitution, and maybe that's a constitution that we should all look at.
A constitution that focuses on our status as adopted sons of the Most High, not material beings vying with one another just to be right online.
I won't do my show today, but you know, we'll come back in a couple of days or whatever.
Or whatever, he says, massive grin on his face.
To translate here, what he's saying in that clip is: there aren't many of us loudmouthed pundits here on the right.
I don't want to get killed, so I'll be thinking about how I can communicate in such a way that will minimize the odds of me getting shot at.
Oh, yes, and R.I.P. Charlie, prayers to the family.
I won't be doing my show today because I'll be grinning shirtless in my backyard instead.
Yeah, I'll still be posting, though.
Yes, I won't be doing my technical show, but you better believe I will be posting all day.
Yes, yes.
I will be retweeting, you know, fucking various things about Charlie Cook.
Good lord.
How was that for you, Will?
How did you find the foray back into Russell's world?
You know, it's he's just he is.
I've never, you know, I grew up Catholic.
I would periodically be forced to go to Catholic Mass on Sundays.
I have never, ever, ever heard Christianity talked about so boringly in my entire life.
Catholic grade, all grades of school, Catholic school.
And like, you know, even the even the deacon we had for religion class, who in retrospect may have been a closeted homosexual because he sometimes told us about how if he could go back in time, he wouldn't marry his wife or have his children.
He would instead become a priest.
You know, I look at even when he showed us the incredibly racist anti-Muslim video not long after 9-11 about how Muslims hate Jews.
I still would say that was at least more compelling in a horrific way than Russell Brand's attempts to talk about Christianity.
Just, you know, he just, he still just sounds like a guy trying to give a book report on a book he has not read.
Even though I do believe he's read enough of it to pick up the words, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's certainly read enough of his, you know, small-worded Bible, you know, to be able to get it.
But like, it's funny because like he is incredibly boring whenever he starts talking about religious stuff.
And yet he has this whole thing about how Christianity in England is too stuffy and boring and they've got it right in America because it's, you know, more upbeat and evangelical and everything else.
And I'm like, and you are yet still so fucking dull.
Like, how do you do it?
I don't understand.
Yeah, he would like commit suicide if he set foot in a like a black church.
Like, he wouldn't be able to handle the energy and charisma on display.
It would like destroy, it would shatter him.
Yeah, he would explode.
He would explode.
And maybe that would also be a relief to him.
According to him, it would be.
Yes, yeah, apparently.
Apparently.
Oh, fuck.
Well, thank you so much for coming on, Will.
Everyone should go check out I Hate Bill Maher, the podcast.
Are there any other plugs you have?
No, that's it.
I'm really trying not to get sick before my baby is fully immunized.
So I'm not going anywhere doing much right now.
So yes, it's just I hate Bill Maher.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, Al, you've been on it a few times.
Appreciate it.
I have.
Yeah, yeah.
If you want more of me, I'm on there too.
January, I'm trying to go on paternity leave.
I have not put together the backlog of episodes like I needed to, and I'm running out of time.
And I'm not feeling particularly inspired at the moment to record them.
So I maybe should have done them a lot earlier.
But just on the regular feed, it's going to be guest hosts.
John's going to be doing one of them.
Vera Drew, who made People's Joker, she's going to be doing one of them.
Ella Dawson's going to be doing one of them.
I think Eliza Skinner is going to be doing one of them.
But yeah, that'll be all January, and then I'm back in February.
Nice, nice.
Well, take it from me.
I was away for a while.
And, you know, if your audience are decent folk like mine were, then you'll be fine.
Like, all of my lot were incredibly supportive.
And I'm sure they were, and you're literally bringing a human into the world.
So, you know, you have to do all of that.
You know?
Yeah, I just, I can't be thinking about, I can't be thinking about old episodes of politically incorrect while I'm only two week old.
It's the same way.
It's the same way I think I used to think about it's like, it's like, even if you are into like really like violent sex, I feel like if you're trying to get pregnant, you got to like ease off of that.
Yeah, it does stink a little bit.
There's something that feels too wrong.
Yeah, if you're, if you're shoving like a barbed dildo into like your partner's ass while he's like calming in you, and then that's that's how the baby's the conception story.
I feel like the baby's gonna grow up evil, right?
Like you're gonna have like an evil to bring.
That's how the omen started, right?
That's what happened.
Yeah, they didn't show that part, but we all know what happened.
We all know that's what happened.
The fucking lead actor got barbed wire, shoved off his ass, and was really into it.
And that's how we got fucking Damien, right?
I will say, though, actually, the film, The First Omen, I don't know if you've seen it.
It's actually.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
No, it's one of my favorite horror movies.
I'll say, the ending, I hate.
The ending is such MCU bullshit.
But other than the very ending, which just sets up to exist to set up a sequel in Extended Universe.
But yeah, The First Omen, here's an unrelated plug.
I will say I know that kind of thing, the prequel fucking 50 years later, and I really love the Omen.
That shit is almost always bad.
I don't like any of the Halloween sequels.
I think they also stink.
But man, I really loved The First Omen.
Yeah, absolutely.
Me too.
And I kind of love all of them.
Like, I think there is a diminishing kind of quality, but like, I even enjoyed the third one where the kids like fucking president or whatever.
I was like, this is interesting at least.
That's like the one, that's the one where they, there's like a montage of them like murdering babies because they're like trying to find the Christ to kill him.
Just like Herod.
It's like so crazy that that would just it was probably like almost a dire like almost a straight up direct to VHS movie.
And they're like, oh yeah, we got to have the montage.
We're going to really go hard on this.
But yes, certainly, certainly, while you're cradling a newborn child, you don't want to be thinking of Bill Maher at any point.
So, yeah, definitely some time away.
Yeah, I don't want to be holding my newborn worried that in 18 years this guy's going to still be around trying to date her.
Like, I just don't want that to be going through my mind.
I mean, how old is he?
Like, 70?
69?
Yeah, soon.
Oh, he might still be around.
He might still be trying to go for it in his 80s.
I mean, it wouldn't.
He sounds horrible.
Yes, yes.
Oh, God.
Anyway, I will let you go.
But thank you so much for coming on, Will.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
And that's the show, everybody.
Please go and check out the I Hate Bill Maher podcast.
It's a terrific time.
And obviously, I'm on a couple of episodes.
If you ever need more of me in your life, links will, of course, be in the description.
And, you know, Will will be supporting a whole new human soon.
So, you know, needs all the support that's available.
It takes a village and all that stuff.
On brand, we'll be back soon.
But in the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other.
Thank you very much.
I love you.
Bye.
All right.
I'm going to finish now because I'm hungry and I want to eat something.
All right.
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