Russell Brand tapping fans up for £50 is the desperate last stand of a scoundrel

He is, one presumes, a very wealthy man. So why is he asking people to shell out cash to hear what he’s got to say on Rumble, asks Sean O’Grady. And why are so many being taken in by it?

Russell Brand appearing on his Rumble channel on Monday evening (Alex Ross)

Given the apparent ban imposed on him by theatres and other venues, I think it’s probably safe to say that we’ve now seen Russell Brand’s last stand-up routine for a while; now it looks as though we are witnessing Brand’s last stand.

He’s long-since been “cancelled” by the mainstream channels, and, while tolerating his presence, YouTube have taken the view that he shouldn’t be allowed to monetise his activities on their platform. Elon Musk, capricious as ever, has decided to support Brand, despite, one suspects, not knowing that much about who the geezer is, let alone what he may have been up to.

Brand’s last stand is certainly a defiant one, if not flamboyant, as tends to be his way. The last refuge of a scoundrel in the social media age would seem to be Rumble, and from what I’ve seen, Brand is digging in there as eagerly as a front line of Russian infantry in Donbas faced with a high-intensity barrage by state-of-the-art rocketry. He has found a refuge, of sorts.