Russell Brand, Mr Gee

There aren't enough poets that open for international media trouble makers in large Sydney venues. Mr Gee was a fucking charm as such an opener for Russell Brand — even managing a love poem that was bad arse. More, please.

Brand took the stage shortly after following house music of a Smiths Best Of, with a compilation of media to lead him in. Brand's relationship to the media is one he acknowledges can be strained (he admits making money from the hand you spend lots of time biting can be tough), but he's more than happy to poke the bear. Some of the most interesting (and funny) stuff of the night was his dissecting of the now infamous Newsnight interview where he proclaimed he didn't vote, and also managed to thoroughly confuse the BBC's Jeremy Paxman. As well as choosing key parts of the interview to replay and unpack, Brand also gave a round of up recent hysterical headlines he'd inspired. Both egotistical and ridiculous, he made his point about being taken out of context and led us through the process of becoming soundbite bait — all the time hinting at the need to pretend as the personality each outlet expects.

The lesson in self PR and social revolution was sold by shamelessly flirting with the crowd, hugging various willing audience members and making well intentioned threats to others (save for the particularly drunk, of which there were more than you'd expect and who were more vocal than you'd think possible by mid evening). Using the C-bomb to describe Rupert Murdoch and Hitler was perhaps a little too obvious, but after some harder conceptual stuff it was the lefty comedian equivalent of a band playing their hit single. There were also plenty of blowjob jokes too, just for those who like his old stuff better than his new stuff.