Last night, Brand X with Russell Brand debuted on FX. Either I misread the press releases or FX did not make clear the concept of Brand X. I thought it was going to be talk show, possibly along the lines of the short lived Talkshow with Spike Feresten. It wasn’t, but that isn’t a bad thing.

The show is basically a half hour comedy special with a lot of interaction with the audience and Brand’s sidekick, Matt Stoller. If you’re a fan of Brand, you’ll love it. If you hate Brand, Brand X won’t change your mind. If you’re like me, you were somewhere in the middle to begin with and this will leave you on the fence.

For most of the half hour, Brand spoke about spirituality and the Dalai Lama. The jokes weren’t amazing, but they were typical Russell Brand. I wouldn’t call Brand a genius. His comedy isn’t cerebral, even though his accent may lead you to believe it will be. He’s not Monty Python or Stephen Fry. However, he did bring up the Dalai Lama, so he does have more depth than I originally thought and can be kind of clever.

Unless I get really bored on a Thursday at 11pm, my exposure to Brand will probably remain limited to his talk show appearances on Ellen, Conan, and David Lettermam. I don’t see Brand X sustaining itself as a regular show because it will get old fast. However, it would make for one excellent comedy special.