Craigmonie Centre, Drumnadrochit, 5 August 2005

Ross Noble

ROSS NOBLE starts off his UK and Eire tour with 12 Highland dates before he gets a night off; the Craigmonie gig, winding up this year’s DrumBeat 2005 festival, was only the fourth of the tour.

Assuming he’s going to keep this level of energy going from now till mid-December would be impressive enough. But if he’s going to build it up for his finale in London, well, the only word to describe it is not a word, it’s that long, descending whistle of amazement, wheeeww.

He lopes onto stage, hits the plywood running, and that’s it, we’re off on a wild roller coaster ride through his imagination. Within minutes we are helpless with laughter, tears running down our faces. Without the aid of lights or music, armed only with a radio mike and, briefly, an audience member’s backpack, he fills the entire stage, conjures vivid, memorable images, and knits the capacity audience into a single entity. Most actors and performers achieve this only in their untold dreams.

Comedy is, or was, supposed to be the new Rock ‘n’ Roll and yes, this is big and strong like Rawk; but it’s also the new Jazz – spontaneous, unpredictable, breathtaking – as he riffs off late arrivals, a squeaking door, a stray comment from the audience and weaves all the disparate threads together into a surreal, totally cathartic whole. If necessary, crawl across live coals to see him.

© Jennie Macfie, 2005