Russell Brand Signs Up To Netflix With ‘Re:Birth’ Comedy Special

Russell Brand is getting into bed with Netflix after the streaming service signed up his forthcoming comedy special Re:Birth. The Get Him To The Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall star is the latest British comedian to launch a comedy special with the SVOD service following deals with comedians including Jimmy Carr and Ricky Gervais.

Brand is recording two live Re:Birth shows at the Hackney Empire in London on April 18 and 19. It comes as the comedian, who previously hosted late-night FX talkshow Brand X, is in the middle of a 75-date live tour of the special, running through to November 2018.

In the show, Brand asks how people make sense of the “madness of our lives” once they become parents. “What am I going to tell my daughter about conformity and responsibility? What happens if she grows up to be like me? Or, worse, to date someone like me?” He also brings up issues as random as Tramadol for dogs, BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman, a fresh placenta and the Sistine Chapel.

Much of the material is in response to the birth of Brand’s daughter Mabel, who was born in November 2016, and comes as he married her mother Laura Gallacher last year.

“All the glamour of The Crown (and some of the controversy) with the suspense of Making A Murderer BUT with a happy ending,” he joked about the show on Twitter. “It’s 9 hours long. And the pyrotechnics are dazzling.”

Brand is represented by WME.