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Russell Brand detonates 'charm bomb' on TODAY while promoting new children's book

Russell Brand: Comedian, talk show host, children's book author, "charm bomb." Brand visited TODAY Monday to talk about his new publication, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Russell Brand's Trickster Tales," and in the process the hyper-verbal funnyman earned a special new title from Savannah Guthrie. Russell Brand wrote a children's book? Yep! But he understands the confusion."Maybe I've been cultu

Russell Brand: Comedian, talk show host, children's book author, "charm bomb." 

Brand visited TODAY Monday to talk about his new publication, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Russell Brand's Trickster Tales," and in the process the hyper-verbal funnyman earned a special new title from Savannah Guthrie. 

Russell Brand wrote a children's book? Yep! But he understands the confusion.

"Maybe I've been culturally positioned as an adult figure, what with all the skylarking, skulduggery, hullabaloo and mayhem," he said. "But children are associated with all those things."

The Pied Piper tale is rather odd, when you think about it.

"However you look at it, stealing all the children from a town is a massive overreaction for not paying a pest control bill," he said.

Russell Brand's Pied Piper of Hamelin book
Today

But it's actually an allegory.

"It's a story about decency, connection and spirituality about how we have got lost in materialism and if we lose our connection to the transcendent when we're children or adults we will be condemned," he said. "Plus, there's rats."

Brand is dandy with letting his body do the talking sometimes.

In a clip of his upcoming EPIX stand-up show "Messiah Complex," Brand sways his hips in manner that caused Guthrie to comment. "The pelvis is an underrated communicative tool," he said. "Ever since Elvis was banned from Ed Sullivan the pelvis has been neglected. Well, it's back."

Bonus: There's a Russell Brand-Tamron Hall mutual admiration society.

"What time does she knock off work?" he asked, clearly interested in charming her as well. "I think it's very likely that we've not heard the last of this."

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Russell Brand's Trickster Tales" is now available online and in bookstores. "Messiah Complex" premieres on EPIX on Friday, Nov. 28, at 10 p.m. ET.

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