Russell Brand - Shame

Be careful what you wish for. Russell Brand's current stand-up run is essential viewing for any stand-up comic who envies the massive exposure the self-styled dandy has received as the host of Big Brother's Big Mouth.

Sure, he's selling tickets by the hundred and fending off over-enthusiastic female fans, but on the evidence of Friday night's performance his pact with the devil of celebrity may have involved strangling his stand-up career in its infancy.

Comedy illiterate Neanderthals may only make up a small minority of Brand new-found audience, but as any comedy-goers knows, it only takes one heckler to destroy a stand-up gig.

Here, at least a dozen 'fans' interpreted every pause for comic effect as a cue to shout out insults, obscenities and sexual propositions, and while Brand is by no means unable to cope with a bit of audience interaction, he was reduced to taking four attempts at the same punchline.

He valiantly soldiered on, promising (and surprisingly delivering) a question and answer session at the end of the show, but if he'd left the stage or called in security he would have had the sympathy of many.

So what of his material? When the audience allowed him to perform it we were treated to carefully structured (and occasionally wonderfully surreal) musings on everything from confrontations with testosterone-pumped 'cock men' to the Daily Star's definition of Tamara Beckwith as a 'plum-voiced fox'.

In total, we heard perhaps 30 minutes of material, plus the same amount of catchphrases, interruptions and Q&A. Perhaps Brand knew this would happen, and neglected to prepare a full hour, but as he points out his life has provided plenty of material for a show titled 'Shame', so this seems unlikely.

The tragedy is that Brand's new audience are more interested in hearing That Man Off The Telly talk about pulling down his trousers and pants than being treated to anything even slightly unfamiliar for their £13.50.