Enter The Thing

JOHN BURNS considers the appeal of a comedian with a unique gift.

THERE IS no one else quite like Ross Noble; he is a freak of nature, an anarchic force, a rebel against logic. When he takes to the Eden Court stage on this week, his words will set the very laws of physics trembling. What he will do or say is unknown, and it’s fair to say that Noble himself probably only has a dim idea of what might happen.

Noble’s genius lies in conjuring absurdity from the mundane. He can create a 50-minute routine from the pattern on an audience member’s jumper, the bushiness of their beard or the toy dog they bring as a mascot.

Ross Noble

He has not performed a major British tour for two years, and his legions of fans will be clamouring for tickets as he sells out across Britain. His Eden Court performance is around the midpoint of his three month tour and we can hope that his comedic muscles will be in peak condition by the time he gets to Inverness.

The Geordie comedian now lives in Australia where, for some odd reason, he professes to prefer the climate. His appearances on Australia’s Triple J radio show with Australian comedian and broadcaster Terri Psiakis are classics of radio entertainment. Inviting a chicken into the studio or sending a pair of pants across the continent may not sound like great entertainment, but once run through the comedy mangle of Noble’s mind they are stunning examples of his improvised wit.

His BBC radio series Noble Goes Global, chronicling one of his comedy world tours, is another radio gem. Both may well still be available as podcasts.

Time Out time out felt that he was “the supreme master of spontaneous stand-up and the most exciting comic in the country.” He has been described as “The most brilliant stand-up of his generation” by the Sunday Telegraph.

Praise indeed for the Geordie funny man, but praise he has certainly earned. Ross began performing when he was fifteen and struggled through the numerous obstacles new comedians face with a rare determination. He was once heckled off in a student union bar, not because the crowd didn’t like his act but because the stage he was using had been improvised from a snooker table, and a few people wanted a game.

In the show he brings to Eden Court in March, Things, Ross explores things – big things and small things. Things that have happened to him, things that might have happened to you. That topic should give him unlimited reign to let his imagination off the leash and let it scamper round the theatre like an excited puppy licking the faces of the audience and ferreting about in their trousers.

Just like an errant puppy Ross can only just keep control of his precocious imagination and, once off the leash, even he can have little idea where it will end up.

You have to see Ross Noble live – he really doesn’t do TV. Certainly you can see him occasionally on chat shows with Jonathan Ross, but that is not his natural habitat. He has produced some brilliant DVDs of his performances, and Fizzy Logic is hugely entertaining and achingly funny. Despite these excellent digital reproductions, Ross’s comedy is very much in the moment and you really have to be there, to see the man in the flesh, to experience the full effect of the Noble experience.

© John Burns, 2009

Links

• Ross Noble

• Eden Court Theatre