SotA Anthology 2015-16
movements from his arms and shaking of
his head at times. His facial expressions
are also very animated, with his eyebrows
in particular moving all the time when
recreating stories and impersonating
others. When impersonating Jordin Sparks
Brand’s expressions change, raising his
eyebrows to form an obnoxious frown, and
he stands on one side of his hip to convey
a teenage girl’s posture. The overall gaze
of his performance is eye contact with his
general audience, a way of enticing to the
audience even more.
Appearance is a very important topic with
regards to Brand, an eccentric character
which is evident not only through his stand
up but also in his quirky appearance. Brand
has a bold, backcombed hair style for which
his is very recognisable, along with his
make up, which consists of dark eyeliner, a
feature not so common among other male
comedians. His clothing also slightly differs
from the norm. Brand doesn’t wear a formal
suit like a lot of other British comedians but
wears a black shirt which is undone so that
his chest is on full display, with many long
necklaces that hang low past his shirt. The
appearance of Brand is not very formal,
perhaps so that audience members can
relate to him more as a person as he is
wearing a more casual look rather than a
very formal one. His quirks, ranging from
eyeliner to very big hair, all add to Brand’s
performance and big and bold persona.
Evaluation
Overall, I believe that Russell Brand is a very
successful comedian. His vocal content
is full of entertaining stories, recreating
situations in a very humorous way. Not
only is the vocal content of his performance
very clever and amusing, but beyond this
his body language and expressions are
what, in my opinion, makes his acts very
entertaining. I chose Brand as my case
study as I thought that his eccentric way
of telling jokes are successful due to his
dramatised and flamboyant ways in terms of
gestures and vocal content. Some specific
voice qualities make the performance even
more effective by using a wide pitch range
and varied intonation, ensuring that his
jokes are never dry and repetitive. I think
that his accent, especially when imitating
the voices of others, is a strong point in
Brand’s act, as it feels as if you are actually
there at that time recreating the scene
with him. He takes on the voices of others
to a great extent, changing his pitch and
body language to fit the character he is
impersonating. I think that he also moves on
from one topic to another in a very smooth
manner without the audience even noticing,
something that not all comedians can do as
well. Moreover, Brand is renowned for being
a comedian who can be fairly controversial
at times, which adds excitement to his
comedy as you never know what he might
say next. His sole purpose in this act is to
create an entertaining performance for the
whole audience and to make them laugh
throughout. I believe that overall Brand is
successful in achieving this outcome.
References
Altendorf, U. (2003) Estuary English:
levelling at the interface of RP and South
Eastern British English. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Hughes, A., Trudgill, P., and Watt, D.
(2012) English accents and dialects: an
introduction to social and regional varieties
of English in the British Isles. London:
Hodder Education.
Van Leeuwen, T. (1999) Speech, music,
sound. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.