SPECIAL: Bongino x Russell Brand

Dan Bongino
Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.

Hey, welcome back to the Dan Bongino show. We are live at the RNC. I've got a co host and really an amazing guest. So let me just give you a heads up first. MyPillow have it at dollar 25 extravaganza sale on some of their amazing products. You can check out the deals@mypillow.com. dot make sure you use promo code. Dan, great company. Paid for the show. Really appreciate it, folks. So today we're here at the RNC and I've obviously known about Russell Brand forever.

We were just having a conversation. You never supposed to have conversations off the air because have it on the air, whatever. But it's important. I said to him, Russell, you should be really proud of yourself. He said, most people in their lives, not you out there in the audience, not men as an insult or anything like that to be derogatory. But most people get one act. They do whatever that is. You may be the best writer, the best poet, you may be the best sanitation worker, man. Listen, everybody in this world adds value and makes the world a better place.

Almost nobody gets two acts. Almost nobody. Nobody gets three hacks. And I said to Russell, I think you and I share a lot in common because you were a world class comedian known all over the world. You were an actor in some of the most epic movies ever, forgetting Sarah Marshall. I said, people must still to this day.

Now you're one of the world's top podcasters on Rumble and elsewhere. And you're in your third act doing it. It's just amazing. So again, I've got Evita with me right here from early Edition. With Evita. We're both gonna be hitting Russell with some questions. He's been kind enough to join us for about a half an hour. Russell, how does that make you feel though, having been in all these spaces? I can see you're kind of thinking about that now that I should save your answer for the this is your third act, man. That never happens.

Russell Brand
When being at somewhere like the RNc, even though it's entirely novel to me, there are things that are familiar too.

For example, when you're inside the entertainment industry and you go to award ceremonies, there's a particular atmosphere and a sense of hierarchy and power and trends. There are certain patterns, it seems, that move through life.

Interested, Dan? And when we were speaking earlier on air, how you have deployed your abilities in various areas also still, I suppose at the root of it, you feel like there is some essential thing in you that's looking to express itself because of the way that things are politically right now. Over the course of today, while I've been talking to people that are obviously strongly associated with the right, who are figures of the right, you know, from my country, Nigel Farage or Marjorie Taylor Greene. And Nigel's slightly different. Cause I've known him for a long time, and I've had sort of actual confrontations, verbal confrontations with him on air. But Marjorie Taylor Greene, I've only sort of seen her and how she's sort of condemned and treated in ordinary media. And she's one of those people where I looked at her and thought, I can tell she's all right. I can tell she's a person that I recognize. I know that type of woman from England, like, women that are, like, not gonna take any shit. And I like that. But I know that sort of because there are still legacy media outlets that sort of, I feel their encroachment and their tendrils. I've been attacked by them so many, many times. I've moved through that world. And it's difficult to sort of feel like you owe any kind of loyalty or fealty to organizations and institutions that have such.

It seems to me, at least, what I've experienced, abominable values. When I first saw.

Came out, when I first saw that.

Dan Bongino
I did this interview, you almost did, but in a real way, not like in some artificial way, you know, it.

Russell Brand
Was, firstly, I did an interview on the BBC in the UK, probably over ten years ago now, with a guy called Jeremy Paxman, who was the sort of defining pundit stroke anchor in UK news. He was the guy that would take politicians to task and ask them the difficult question and be bullish and abrasive with them. And I had an interview with him once where I said I didn't believe. I said, I don't believe in either party. I wouldn't vote for any of them. And no one that I grew up with votes for people either, because we don't believe in politics. Think whoever you vote for, you get the same sort of thing. They're all corrupted and owned by the same.

By the same set of interests and systems. There was this moment where, like, some people within liberal media had sort of been kind of excited about me for various reasons, whether it was to do with the entertainment industry. But I noticed how quickly they sort of turned on me when I spoke to. When I became sort of openly anti establishment. And the people that were worst were not the right wing media in my country. That's organizations like the Telegraph, say, for example. But the ones that meant to be, like liberal and liberalism, the way they present it, is meant to be about equality and civil rights and kindness and love, values that you might find in spirituality or religion. And obviously now I would see it from a perspective of Christianity. They were the people that seemed to take the most delight in being cruel and being mean. But just so that it's not, like just about myself. Cause I obviously talk about myself a lot.

I had the realization with Marjorie, like, before I met her, if Marjorie Taylor Greene, if it suited them, when she was, like, bringing down Anthony Fauci, they would go, look at this woman and how she handles the patriarchy. This is a feminist icon. But because they sort of don't like the stuff she says or the class she's from and the way that she talks, they're like, ugh, if they could, they would just call her a bitch or a whore. But then, no, they're not allowed to use those words.

Dan Bongino
But that's what they're thinking.

Russell Brand
That's what they're thinking. And I actually think that that's sort of what they believe. And so as I've moved through these various worlds, in a way, I've been doing the same thing. In fact, I don't know that I ever would have even become a stand up comedian if had I been introduced to the possibility that you could get involved in evangelism or preaching or talking to congregations. But the culture that I come from, people don't tell you openly God is real. There is a way that you could. There are tools. There is access. There is a system of belief that can help you navigate these spaces. That's why I became speaking just for myself. But I think it's pretty common. Become a drug addict and an alcoholic is because, is this it? Is this it? Am I supposed to stay alive and experience this? What is the meaning? What is the value? And then pursuing fame and becoming famous and sleeping around and doing drugs and having access to fame and money. Is this it? Is this it? All of them?

Dan Bongino
Do you find, like, it's an endless search for dopamine, sex, drugs? Like, if this is it, I might as well have a good time, right? I mean, just get the dopamine high.

Russell Brand
Well, I don't actually think that it was just accepting dopamine and pleasure. I think it was the pursuit, the feverish pursuit of something beautiful and something real. And it's only now, you know, as a father of three kids at this point in my life that I'm beginning to get a real sense of what it is, even though I've also been in recovery for 21 years. So I'm a slow learner. I think I learn slow. I think fast, but I learn slow. Like when I got clean from drugs and alcohol, I started to sense, oh, it's about spirituality and stop being so self centered and selfish and pursuing stuff. But it's only since Christianity that I'm starting to realize how fundamental the letting go of selfishness is and how, how difficult that can be without guidance.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
I want to ask you about your conversion, because you've been talking about it all week, that we are in a spiritual war. Dan, you talk about this on your show all the time, too. You're seeing things like transhumanism. You're carrying your rosary beads with you right now. And how is that going to, I think, affect the right, because we're seeing competing interests. Right. We're seeing, you know, the.

We're seeing really a revival in Christianity at the same time, but at the RNC, we're also seeing this idea that we're going to be a big tent. So how do you, how do you think we should grapple with that and who we are as a. As a movement?

Russell Brand
Well, I don't know about the right at all, but what I was sense is that Christianity, my humble contribution to it as another Christian, will be to communicate about what I've learned in a way that I hope might impact people differently.

Because I've come not only from a background in addiction, but also someone that's been infatuated with fame and also someone that's been very interested in new ageism and a variety of different religious ideas and rejected Christianity primarily because of its availability, ubiquity, and its simplicity. And like, oh, that's what my nan does. That's for grandmas. I'm not interested in this stuff.

And I sort of somehow thought I'd already read the Bible. I'm always doing that. I do that with everything. If people asked what I thought of a film, even if I've not seen it, I'll sort of go, yeah, I'll give an opinion on the film, even if I've not seen it. It's a terrible trait. But when I actually read the Bible, it was like every single day I'm getting struck with extraordinary power and mystery that pertains to me and talks openly and continually about the necessity of overcoming self, which has always been the challenge. Not so much the pursuit of dopamine, but the belief that my personal pleasure and power was the apex of experience rather than. Happiness is a byproduct of purpose. Happiness is a byproduct of purpose. And I go in and out of it because I do purposeful things a bunch. You know, like you said, I've done a lot of things in different areas. It's not like I've been sat on my ass in a wheelbarrow smoking weed. I did do that, but I've done other things while you were doing that, I did some memos during that audition for cat food commercials. So, like, you know, so, I suppose. Yeah. How do I imagine that?

The point I would like to make of YouTube, if I may, is that perhaps, like, an authentic Christianity will pursue peace and authentic Christianity will pursue love. And in spite of the fact that outside of this extraordinary event, the legacy media will still be saying, JD Vance is a monster, Trump is a monster. You have to vote Biden, otherwise it's gonna be fascism. Trump will make himself dictator. There will be no more elections.

What is irrefutable is that the leaders of this political party are saying, we want to end war.

We care about ordinary Americans now, that being able to represent ordinary Americans above corporate interests, I will enjoy seeing how that plays out. And I remain skeptical about any political movement that operates within these institutions. Being able to enact those kind of policies, starting with getting out of foreign wars, seems like in itself, as we discussed before on my show, such an important thing that I can't believe that people can still be so celebratory of a hollowed out, facile, corrupt, military industrial complex sponsored, big pharma supporting Dem party while still claiming that the only demonization of Trump is, excuse me, that their ongoing demonization of Trump is the only tune they have to play.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
Well, I was gonna. So I talked about this on the early edition, this clip on Fox of JD Vance saying, you know, he's gonna have to hit Iran hard and all this. And it just felt very, I think, impulsive and aggressive. And it was. And I. So many people that I respect, like JD Vance. Dan, you have a lot of great things to say about him. Tucker Carlson has a lot of great things to say about him. I don't know, how do we, how, I guess, how do you guys feel about those comments about Iran and this need, I think, on, you know, and energy to say, no, we're not for forever wars. We're not interested in that as a party anymore. And then you see this from our VP candidate. I'm really interested in what you guys think about that.

Russell Brand
Dan, you should go first because I didn't actually see those comments. And even though I say that I will comment on things, even if I've.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
Not seen them, you gotta stop yourself.

Russell Brand
I'll be able to do it better if I've seen what you think first. Cause remember, you like to, with integrity and investigation, represent political perspectives responsibly.

Dan Bongino
I do. And I wanna marry up. What you said with her question. There is no. It is not a talking point to state that this military industrial complex is real. It's an axiomatic fact. You can call it whatever you want. Like I said, the deep state, the silly state, the complexity doesn't matter. There is profit to be made off war. I'm not an anti profit guy, Russell. I'm a capitalist. I'm all about it. And if people make money producing weapons, that'll keep everybody safe, that's great. But if your only motive is to keep a perpetual war state going precisely because of the profit motive involved, and people are being brought home in body bags because of it, I have a natural issue with it. I don't like easy categories. When people go, oh, that. Like he said, oh, he's an isolationist, he's a racist, he's a fascist one. They're nonsense, they're bullshit, they're tricks, and they're easy way outs for morons who don't want to do a deeper analysis.

Listen, the Iran question's a complicated one, but the Iranians, they literally chant death to America. You know, I mean, we had relatively stable relationship, a stable relationship with Russia before the Ukraine versus, and they have nuclear weapons. So it's a different scenario. But, you know, if we were to find out, I don't know what JD knows or doesn't. He hasn't got any briefings yet. But if we find out that there's some kind of dirty bomb plot in Iran to take out an american city, we're not going to wait for them to strike first. So it's a complicated question. And I mean, I don't mean to give a long winded answer, but it's a different scenario. And you're right, though. There are impulsive comments people make about this stuff that mean Russell and I chatted about it before to try to sound tough, like, I think we become risk averse, like Biden doesn't. He wants to do just enough in Ukraine to not look like he lost Ukraine without saying to people, guys, listen, we're running out of money. We're going bankrupt. We don't have the ability to defend every nation on earth. I'm sorry. Just like in the american revolution, we figured it out. You're going to have to figure this out on your own. And no one has the balls to say that.

There you go.

Russell Brand
Really good. And I also would like to add that America's incredible freight and heft and might, ought and could be deployed to bring about diplomatic solutions. And the fact that it isn't seems significantly influenced by the fact that there are profits to be made in the manner that you've described. And our country, too, even just having had an election, has just doubled down on continued funding in the same manner. And to your point about JD Vance's comments, again, as I said, I didn't see them, but my concern would be, I suppose, that there seems to be a kind of systemic inertia, that once people arrive in positions of power, there are sort of various tendrils that latch around them and then sort of manoeuvred into a particular direction. And I know this won't be a popular thing to say on this channel in particular, but Donald Trump was in office between 2016 and 2020. I didn't change colour. You know, I mean, like, there were no more foreign wars. And I think that's really, really fantastic. But I think that perhaps both sides of the political argument in this country ought to perhaps consider whether there is a bolder vision that could be realized. Even though I appreciate and respect what you say, Dan, that what you expect from government is administration managerialism, getting the hell out of the way and allowing you to get on with your life. And I think that is the one area where I've most found it easy to identify with, like libertarianism, the right republicanism. Because other than being there to facilitate and support and offer love, you know, forgive the sort of wishy washiness of the final word, I don't want any involvement.

I mean, in a very intuitive way, I don't like being told what to do. I don't like that. I don't accept authority like that.

Dan Bongino
When did that become cool? Listen, let me take one quick break here, and I want to ask you about this. Cause this is where I'm, you as a guy who were, you were surrounded by leftists in this entertainment complex. Most of you, I genuinely, I'm not being sarcastic, do not understand this. Quick break here. Hey, you've asked mypillow. Listen, they're finally bringing you the most requested offer yet. Get the queen size premium mypillow. Now only 1998, my pillow is made with patented adjustable fill that adjusts your exact individual needs regardless of your sleep position. Helps keep your neck aligned. Holds its shape all night long so you get the best sleep of your life. I miss mine. I'm sleeping in a hotel, nice hotel, but I can't deal with the pillows. Get their six piece kitchen or bed towel sets only dollar 25. The brand new mattress topper as low as $69.98. Get their famous mypillow bed sheets for as low as $25 and so much more. Hit them up mypillow.com or call 806 374982. Use promo code Dan to get huge discounts on all MyPillow products, including the premium queen size Mypillow for only $19.98. It's the lowest price ever. Don't delay, order today. Thanks mypillow, we appreciate it. Russell, being surrounded by leftists your whole life. I ran in Maryland, I grew up in New York. I've been surrounded by them too. I have tried and tried and tried to understand how it became somewhat cool and edgy. Whatever word you want to use. I don't know. I'm an old man now. I don't know all the cool terms.

But for this paternalism where people in Hollywood are supposed to be like the James Dean cigarette smoke kicking down the street, Marilyn Monroe, they want the government to babysit them like a bunch of fucking nannies. Like how?

I want to go to the doctor. Oh, call nanny government. I don't give a shit what the government tells me to go to the doctor. I want to go to my own damn doctor.

I want to send my kid to a good school. No no, you're going to send them to a shit school. Well, why? Because the government said, that's the government school. Like when did this paternalism become cool? Like, I thought Hollywood people were supposed to be the renegades, not the pussies. Pardon my language, man. You know, like what's up with that?

Russell Brand
I don't know what ideology is really, and I don't know how to even quantify, qualify or describe it politically. It seems to me to be simply conformity. There is no radicalism in it. When I felt, when I was thinking about what might once have been meant by that movement, I think of men like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X and in particular people with strong religious faith. In the case of Malcolm X, a Muslim, and in the case of Martin Luther King, obviously a devout christian minister who gave their lives for civil rights, in particular the racial struggle in this country, and believed that they could change the world through sacrifice. Somehow those sort of values have, I don't know, been devoured and eaten by the culture in a way that doesn't make even metabolic sense. I don't know where that's gone, that energy. It doesn't seem to be about civil rights in a meaningful way. It seems to be about legitimising authority through the increase of fear and the pledge of safety. And the pandemic was just the most heightened and evident and obvious example of that.

Before, when I used to hear people like Jordan Peterson and saying, you know, man, that's the left, I used to think, well, I don't. Where is the. That's not the left. Cause for me, the left was meant to be about, like, supporting working people. Like people that worked in manufacturing industry or, like, around where I grew up. It would have been car manufacturing through the Ford plant in Dagenham, or people that worked in the police service or fire service, nurses and then teachers and like, people that, you know, like you described frequently in your show, people that work for a living. My understanding was, you know, cause in my country, it's called not the Democrat Party, it's called the Labor Party. They're meant to represent the working people. Now you can politically track the chronology of those mutations. It happened in particular and significantly under Tony Blair when he, inspired by Clinton and allied to George W. Bush, became what was called a centrist. But ultimately that meant, although we would never have used this term then, a globalist who supported war, that was a sort of a pivotal moment where the left in this country changed. And so I don't know. I guess I don't know when it stopped being genuinely, when it stopped being actually cool, when it stopped being like, oh, wow, these movie stars or rock stars or hip hop stars or whatever are aligned with real values and become corporatized. That I don't fully understand, but I figure it's got something to do with money and ease.

I don't know.

Dan Bongino
I guess so, you know, you just use the line, you reminded me of something I say on my show all the time. You said, you know, they legitimize authority through fear and you ever see the show the walking dead?

Russell Brand
I ain't seen it, but I know you mean there's zombies.

Dan Bongino
Zombies and shit like that. So there's this one scene where, you know, the world ends, the zombies are coming for him. And all of the living human beings that, you know, Officer Rick, they run in this prison, it's an abandoned prison, and they run it. Now, who runs into a prison voluntarily when you're more frightened about what's on the outside? The freaking zombies. And I use this analogy on my show all the time. I call it the Walking Dead analogy. That's the left. They voluntarily spiritually imprison themselves. They do it themselves because the left is so indoctrinated and that what's on the other side is so fearsome. Donald Trump, the fascists, the racists, they're all coming. Everybody's coming for you. Did you notice that? Everybody's coming for. Nobody's coming for. What are you talking about? I'm a conservative. I don't want to be on the fuck out of my life. I don't want to bother with anybody. Like, leave me. I'm not coming for you. I'm not even coming for myself. I can't even figure myself out. What the hell are you talking about me? You never know. Everybody's coming for you. Everybody's coming for. And that legitimizing authority through fear, brother man, you just nailed that. That is so right, you know?

Russell Brand
Yeah, well, that's the thing that I most noticed during the pandemic. And it's when sort of, like, the content I've made has always been, to a degree, anti establishment. That's why slightly, when people say, you've been red pilled, right. I slightly sort of like, hold on. I've never been into the establishment. I suppose I've been perhaps somewhat easily beguiled by the fact that I was doing well, making movies and being in. You know, when you're doing that kind of stuff, it's difficult. You take an iron will when people are telling you that you're fantastic, to consider the possibility that you might not be fantastic, that all of your success and the billboards on Sunset Boulevard might simply be an inadvertent side effect of some other people making money out of you. It's very difficult to have that kind of disciplined mind.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
I feel like you will agree with this, that people are inherently religious beings. We all are. So when we're talking about the left and how crazy they've become and how dramatically they've changed since the 1960s or even, like, the 1970s, what are we looking at? What kind of religious basis is it? Because you're right. Like, civil rights is something that we could say, you know, there's a christian foundation for it. We all have souls. We all have unique value because we're created in the image of goddess. Where is this coming from what is underpinning the vitriol and anger and anti christian animosity that we're seeing from the.

Russell Brand
Left right now, I feel that the aim is control.

The aim, I feel, is control. I still balk a little at the use of the term the left, because I'm still aware of movements in my country around 2017 where temporarily, the Labour party, the left wing party, was, it seems odd to say, captured by sort of a left wing politician, because they allowed an electoral process where members of the labor party rank and file, normal people that send $50 a year or whatever, could vote. And this elevated Jeremy Corbyn. And at that time, there was a really interesting speech by Steve Bannon at the Oxford Union, where he said, there is going to be a massive shift in politics, and it's going to be populism. We don't know yet, said Bannon. Five years ago, ten years ago, I'm not sure how long, he said, we don't know yet if it's going to be left wing populism or right wing populism. But what we know is a different type of politics is emerging. Our country strangled and stifled that movement which did seem to have as one of its concerns, perhaps its primary concern, representing the interests of ordinary people. I don't think I declare that the left could, should, ought represent the interests of ordinary people. It doesn't anymore, in any place or in any way that I can appreciate or understand, certainly not in countries like yours or a country like mine. We've just elected a globalist government under the sort of merest auspices of leftism. But they are a corporatist, authoritarian, war supporting government. That's what they ultimately are, just with the sort of hue of it.

When you say, but to your point of anti Christianity, I am becoming increasingly aware, since reading about it more and learning about it more, that there's a persecution of any value system that makes you less pliable and malleable. The ideas that I think transcend our political ideas are ideas like, I think progressivism. By don't mean cultural progressivism. I mean the idea that human beings are getting better and better and moving towards something like this is the best it's ever been. Look at our technology. Forget the past. We don't need to learn anything from them. Changing people with machines, yes, and replacing God, saying there is no God, so we can be God. If you acknowledge there's a God, then you have to live differently. You have to live like all people have inherent value. You have to live like you are in a position of submission and surrender. You have to acknowledge that life is about duty and purpose. If there is no God, you may as well enjoy pleasure and privilege. And even if you choose not to live a life of violence and domination, you can't argue with people that do. Because from where are you deriving your principles and values? How are you saying that violence and dominion are wrong unless inherently there is a universal moral code that deep down all of us know and understand?

Dan Bongino
Yeah, Russell, you know, I was a cop and then worked for the government, and I was, I don't know, maybe mid thirties or so before the show took off. I mean, I remember the first time someone recognized me. I was going into a gym, and the guy said, hey, are you damn Bongino?

How does this guy know me? And I don't know, I was in a local newspaper or some ridiculous thing like that. I don't have one 1000th of the notoriety guys like you have who've been in multiple different spaces. But, you know, having gotten a large degree of notoriety and fame at an early age, me at a later age, but to a lesser degree, I say, I have this conversation with my wife all the time.

It is so corrupting. It is so inherently polluting. It's like a cancer that gets in your body that you can't. There's no chemo that can kill it.

How did you deal with that at such an early age? I mean, I see these guys, like, Justin Bieber, kid was famous when he was like, 16.

There's almost no way you're gonna grow up sane. It's just so everybody tells you how great you are when you suck, and it's like there's no, you know what I'm saying? There's no corrective mechanism. How did you deal with it?

Russell Brand
Well, I think the word intoxicating is a really good one, because toxicity intoxicating can be sort of a really joyous experience to be sort of bewildered for a minute. But also, it is a form of poisoning, obviously, in the most literal sense. I wasn't that young. I was about 30. I'd been really working for a long time. I'd started doing being in little plays and stuff like that at school when I was 15 and started doing standup in my early twenties. It took a long while. I did it for a long while for nothing. While living, actually, if I can be honest, on welfare, as a drug addict, signing on, getting welfare checks, doing stand up comedy, doing it in front of very, very small audiences, it took a lot of time, and it took a lot of diligence, and I learned how to fail again and again and again and again and again. I was about 30, and I was clean from drugs and alcohol by the time I got famous. But then it begins again, kind of, as you say, it is a bewildering thing to enter into. It is corrupting, and it is overwhelming, and I suppose it's designed to be. I sort of suppose I feel that whatever institution you're entering into, whether it's Hollywood or it's like there's a machine, a system that's waiting for the raw fodder of new talent. And when you come, it just guzzles you up, and hopefully you sort of behave relatively correctly. I even think that people like sort of because I watched a documentary the other day. It was 15 minutes long. It wasn't too demanding about Barack Obama, but it was made before, I think, he was a senator, and it was made by PBS or whatever.

And it was such a sort of an optimistic thing about someone that was clearly very brilliant and a very sort of successful individual with a really unique and unusual background, with, like, one penniless from Africa or Kenya, I think, specifically. And that had spent time in Indonesia and had done a lot of good stuff. Because at that point, at the point that this BBS documentary had been made, they hadn't had time to sort of shape it all and go, don't say that. That makes it sound. And you see Michelle Obama, and she seems like just a go get em kind of Chicago lawyer. And then by 2008, when Barack Obama is bailing out the banks and not delivering on hope and change and carrying on like pretty much any president, droning kids and all of that kind of stuff, and participating perhaps, in the deterioration of what would have once been regarded as the left of center, but I still wouldn't call that left.

I feel like what must have happened, what must happen to all of us, me, in my relatively insignificant way, participating in institutions like Hollywood, people that go near real power. It seems that, like, you know, if fame messes you up, God knows what that kind of power must do to them. God knows what kind of faith in God and what kind of belief and connection you would require not to start to feel it sort of seeping into you and devouring you. Because what it was like for me, even though I was 30 and even though I was in recovery and even though I sort of knew myself a little bit, is overwhelming. To go from a person that doesn't have power, doesn't feel special, doesn't feel attractive, to like, you know, then I wouldn't drinking or taking drugs no more. But to suddenly have high availability of sexual partners is like a sort of magical dream. It's on one level incredible because it's like you're told that that's what you're supposed to want from your culture. You're told that the way you gain significance and power is through fame and success, and that the rewards of this are evident and obvious. You're going to have a lot of money. You're going to go places in private jets. Everyone's going to want to sleep with you. You're going to have freeways. It's all going to be amazing. And you do that. And aspects of it are sort of stimulating and really, really stimulating. But to a point I made earlier, there is something else that we are looking for. There's certainly something else that I was looking for.

It requires a little bit of discipline and some pretty hard lessons and some serious insight to get there. So, yes, it was intoxicating. It was bewildering. I'm very glad I've had the experience because I suppose now, as a father, these are things that I can offer to my children. Lord alone knows whether or not they'll listen, but I can tell them about the reality of drugs. I can tell them about the reality of fame, of money, and the necessity for a spiritual life, the importance of having a purpose. But even as I'm saying this, I'm thinking they're not listening to me now and they're six and seven and they're already swearing at me and kicking my ass at regular intervals and behaving how they want to. So hopefully I'll be able to deliver some of these lessons.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
I have to ask you about kids in Hollywood because you said it's intoxicating and it was corrupting and you were an adult, and there are so many kids who go into this industry, they get chewed up and spit out, you know, I mean, it's just awful. There was a documentary about kids who were on Nickelodeon that came out on HBO, and there was sexual abuse, and none of them became a realized adults because it was so stunting. Do you think that kids should even be in Hollywood as a father?

Should it be allowed?

Russell Brand
I don't know that I would do it. I feel like kids maybe enjoy showing off, but I did a couple of movies that had kids in them, and I sort of felt like this don't seem right somehow. I don't mean in any nefarious way. I was in particular. I can remember a movie I did with Adam Sandler? And that guy's a straight up beautiful dude. I love him. And he ran his stories.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
Was that bedtime stories?

Russell Brand
Yeah, exactly.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
Loved that movie.

Russell Brand
So the kids in that, like, the kids have. The kids can only work a certain number of hours a day, so the kids have doubles. So there were some kids that are the stars, and then there were kids that double for them. And the kids that are the stars get treated real nice, but the kids that are just the doubles, right. You took. Now you get in there, and then one time they had like, a little person, a small person, whatever you call them, you know, like a dwarf, I guess, you know, doing it. That was a crazy day, you know, because I didn't know that it was really turned around. Surprise, you know, like, it's a weird little world inside there. Also the idea of monetizing childhood. I know the show business has always had traditions of doing that kind of stuff, but when you learn, like from, as I'm aware of that Nickelodeon documentary, that there's an institutionalized exploitation that seems extremely common, and we're all talking about it in various ways. The use of trafficking, exploitation.

Yeah, there's some things going on there. Me, I don't think I want my children anywhere near that. I don't put them on social media or nothing like that. Just because of the experiences I've had with fame and celebrity. And because I know how fame and celebrity can turn. It's amazing when everyone thinks you're wonderful, but what about if they just change their mind? What if you say something they don't like?

Then you're ready for a sort of a different go on a carousel, you know?

Dan Bongino
Russell, exit question. You've been generous with your time, folks. You can find his show, by the way, on Rumble, Russell Brand has his own show. It is phenomenal. Just put his name in the search bar. Give him a follow. Click that green button. We really appreciate him on Rumble. He's a huge advocate for free speech. Lighter question. On the way out, we've been talking politics, Christianity, serious topics, polluting effects of fame. I ask everyone famous or with some degree of notoriety the same question. Sometimes you get an answer, sometimes you don't.

I knew when I had kind of cracked it open, there was a moment, this young speech I gave about the second amendment at the Maryland Capitol, one nuclear, and I knew things were going to change. Was there a road to Damascus moment where you're performing, you're doing comedy, you're acting or whatever, and you're thinking to yourself, wow. I made it like, do you see your hero self on the radio? Do you see a billboard? And you're like, gosh, everything's gonna be different now.

Russell Brand
I support West Ham United football club, and I've been going there most of my life, you know, with my dad when I was a kid, with my mates when I was a little older, sometimes even on my own. And then one day in 2006, I went and I don't. I guess I'd been on a really popular talk show in my country. Everyone recognized me. Oh, what you fucking doing here? How come you're coming in now? I've never seen you here before.

Dan Bongino
That's good accent.

Peterson Canadian.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
The Jordan Peterson dialects.

Russell Brand
Well, Dan, I don't know if you know, but I used to be an actor, man.

Dan Bongino
I can't make an accent for shit. You're pretty good. And you flip in and out like that. You did the Jordan Peters. It sounded like he was in the room.

Russell Brand
I was like, holy shit, that's good. Thanks.

Dan Bongino
Yeah, the football game.

Russell Brand
And then they made me sing a chant, like a famous way. And I thought, oh, God, it's changed. This has changed now. Everything is different. There have been lovely little, like, moments like that. That was actually quite beautiful. A moment where it felt like achievement and excitement, when I didn't think of fame as something solely toxic, corrupting and divisive, but something that's sort of a. Sort of a celebration of performance or showing off or creativity or something. So probably that moment.

Dan Bongino
I want to thank you for a couple of things. I want to thank you. First, for advocating for free speech with rumble. We don't have to agree on everything. That's the point of free speech. You tell me where you stand, I tell you where I stand. Maybe we meet in the middle, maybe we don't. And secondly, your advocacy for faith in Jesus Christ. That matters a lot to me. Matters. A world to Evita. You know, we run into each other in church sometimes, and the world is empty without it, man. The world is empty without it. I mean, there's only so many private jets and cars. You can only drive one car at a time. You can only spend $1 at a time. You can only get on one fancy computer at a time.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso
And you can't take any of it with you.

Dan Bongino
Love for Jesus. No. And you know what? She's right. None of that is getting buried with you, ever. Thank you, my friend, for spending the time. Really appreciate it, folks. Thanks so much for tuning in so much. I really deeply appreciate it. I'll be at the RNC tonight watching the speech. We'll also be recording some content for tomorrow. Thanks again. See you back on Rumble. Download the Rumble app and join us on your desktop, rumble.com bangino. Take care.

You just heard the Dan Bongino show.

SPECIAL: Bongino x Russell Brand - LIVE at the RNC

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Episode Chapters

1. Introduction and Sponsor Mention

2. Russell Brand's Career and Transformation

3. Media and Political Discussions

4. Critiques of Media and Politics

5. Spirituality and Its Role

Actionable Advice

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