Nellie Andreeva

The working title of Russell Brand’s upcoming late-night series for FX is Strangely Uplifting, he and the series executive producer Troy Miller revealed during the show’s TCA session today. The British comedian sure lived up to first part of the title with his behavior, jumping from topic to topic in a stream-of-consciousness style. Strangely Uplifting, billed as showcasing Brand’s unfiltered view on things, will shoot in front of live audience 2-3 days before air, with the premiere slated for April. Miller stressed that the show will be very stripped-down, with Brand giving his take on hard and soft news and anything that interests him. “I’d like this show to be news and topical comedy, stripped of all nonsense, stripped of all subterfuge,” Brand said. “These people in the news, they’re filling our minds with shit glitter.” What if Brand himself is in the news? “If I’ve done something actually newsworthy, then I’d cover it,” he said.

Brand gave a taste of what his take on current events may look like. “Why are we more outraged by pissing on a dead body than killing a live body? It’s the killing that’s the problem,” he said, a reference to the news story of Marines urinating on dead Taliban bodies. As for the Republican presidential candidates, Brand admitted that he doesn’t know much about them before taking a shot at frontrunner Mitt Romney. “Mitt Romney is so rich even the 1% seem to him like peasants. Other billionaires must seem like Dickensian street urchins eating gruel with fingerless gloves.” After poking fun at Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum’s names, Russell declared that he is not interested in covering the presidential race. “I’m not going to be part of the meaningless spectacle,” he said. “It’s like describing individual termites.”

What does Brit Brand like about America? “I think it’s done really wonderful things with the English language.”

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage

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