Entertainment

Russell Brand brings Messiah Complex to Manchester – his biggest and most controversial tour yet

By Amelia Goswell

Marmite comedian Russell Brand has launched his first ever world tour announcing two dates at Manchester’s O2 Apollo this October.

The tour, modestly entitled Messiah Complex, kicked off in June in the US and will stop by Manchester on Wednesday October 9 and Thursday October 10.

The show uses humour to explain the Messiah Complex, a mental disorder where the sufferer thinks they are destined to become a saviour, dissecting well-known political and religious figures.

Brand told the Independent: “Did Jesus have it? What about Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Hitler? All these men have shaped our lives and influenced the way we think. Their images are used to represent ideas that often do not relate to them at all.

“The show looks at the importance of heroes in this age of atheistic disposability. Plus there’s sex. Obviously.”

Brand hit the headlines this week when he was allegedly ejected from the GQ Men of the Year aftershow for publically slamming Hugo Boss over their links to the Nazis in the 1930s. 

Unsurprisingly, several dates have had to be cancelled in the Middle Eastern leg of the tour, after the star was told that some venues, including those in Abu Dhabi and Lebanon, could ‘no longer guarantee his safety’ due to controversial material.

Brand added: “I dedicate this Messiah Complex tour to the four men that are its subject, Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Jesus, I know this is what they would have wanted. If this is the end of the world I’m going to go out laughing with an erection.”

Whatever it’s about, the tour is certainly going to be one of a kind: get your tickets at ticketmaster.co.uk for £27.50.

Picture courtesy of Eva Rinaldi, with thanks.

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