Show cancelled after immigration run-in

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Russell Brand has been denied entry to Canada as his past misdeeds again caught up with him.

The comic was due to perform to 5,000 people at a casino in Orilla, Ontario, last night – but immigration officials would not let him in to the country.

Brand, typically, played on the drama on Twitter, writing hours before the show: ‘HELP! I'm gonna be late for Casino Rama show unless someone can force Canadian customs officials to let us land in Orillia.’

Later, he added: ‘Let me in! I must perform at Casino Rama, Orillia tonight at 9 for 5000 Canadians!’

He then announced the show had been postponed: ‘I'm sorry. I can't enter Canada. We must abolish the borders between our nations AND our minds.’

Casino Rama said the show had been ‘postponed due to a travel issue being experienced by the artist’.

He is thought to have been sent home because of his criminal record. Brand has been arrested 12 times, mostly during his time as a heroin addict a decade ago, plus once last year for suspected battery after turning on a paparrazo at Los Angeles Airport.

It is not the first time Brand has had problems with border officials. In May, he was deported from Japan, where he was visiting his wife Katy Perry.

And in 2008, he was denied entry to the US after flying to New York to appear on David Letterman’s talk show. He then spent eight hours at the airport before being deported back to the UK.

Published: 2 Oct 2011