He takes the manic energy of Robin Williams and turns it into something more modern, less shtick-heavy, with characters making funny voices (his own voice is funny enough in its high-pitchiness), then straps it to a rocket and hits hyperspace. Sometimes the point or the joke is not what Brand ultimately concludes with; it’s the journey to get there. And in BrandX he’s able to use his being British as a kind of Brother From Another Planet conceit where he tries to understand what Americans are about and into, while also delivering gibes at both cultures. (Brand will use the stoic and serious Matt Stoller, a former Congressional policy adviser and Harvard grad, as “a political, economic and historical consultant.”) Stoller is less co-host or foil than a guy who takes computer polls, flashes news photos and clips on the screen and is the calm to Brand’s British storm.
Or is it the other way around?