Bono

From Laughs In The Parks 2011

More Ross Noble videos

CV

Ross Noble at Just For Laughs, Montreal 2009
Live Review

You don’t often get the chance to see Ross Noble in a room that seats only a hundred or so punters; but here in Montreal he’s so unknown that his solo show is not even in the main Just For Laughs festival, but the spin-off Zoofest – an arms-length, low-cost fringe, backed by the main event but excluded from much of the advertising push.

A good proportion of the audience seem to be British, too, which is something of a shame, as half the fun here must be in seeing what Noble neophytes make of his digressionary, free-wheeling surrealism, a world away from the highly-honed comics who dominate the North American scene.

The reviewer from the Montreal Gazette certainly made a schoolgirl error at a gig like this – sitting on the front row, notebook clearly visible. Needless to say it was confiscated, read and defaced by the cheeky Geordie Sasquatch.

Since she couldn’t take notes, let’s recap some of the subjects covered, for her benefit: steam-powered rappers, swatting a fly with a miniscule newspaper, children named after kitchen implements, Jesus being nailed to an Ikea computer desk and the man with profiterole eyes. Utter codswallop, of course, but such compelling codswallop.

Although some prepared routines can be detected if you look hard enough, most of this will never be repeated, and the sense of being in a perfectly unique moment in time is what makes the frenetic Noble so exciting. Most comics work hard on the illusion of spontaneity, with him you know it’s the real, unpredictable deal.

Even he doesn’t always know what he’s going to say next, and often catches himself out as his runaway mouth stumbles over a phrase, sparking a whole new avenue of the imagination. How else would we end up with the concept of Puffin Daddy? So while laughs come thick and fast from the nonsense he spouts, just as many come from the reaction to it, often his own, as he pulls himself up from a seemingly runaway train of thought to point out the whole ridiculous situation; a room full of paying punters listening to an easily-distracted man generate the most unlikely piffle.

But his mind is as good at making connections as it is at conjuring up weird images, so the night gets a surprising structure, almost by accident. Callbacks suddenly occur to him, or links between one chunk of nonsense to another. From the randomness, form emerges. There’s probably something very profound in that…

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Ross Nobles is one of the greatest comedians around. He always has me doubled up in laughter. Don't know how anyone cannot think he is funny. Keep up the good work Ross!.

Sophie, September 2011

Saw Ross Noble and friends at Aldershot: Ross turned up wasted, slurring words, and improvised 99% of the show. Billed to compere the evening which two other new acts, he ended up waffling on for an hour and a half including; 40 minutes of wheelchair related comedy, yes really, much of which was just bad taste, also clumsily running with other weak jokes for long periods of time. I have seen him before and found him very funny, but on this he occasion was cringeworthy. Ross had moments but they were few, and were completely overshadowed. The only saving grace was Sarah Kendall who was fresh, witty and very funny. Unfortunately this moment was sandwiched by Ross’s ramblings, the likes of which I could have got for free in the local Wetherspoons. It left nothing but an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

Showbizjonny, July 2011

Genius

hammy, April 2011

Saw Ross last night in Belfast,I will go to more of his shows in the futureT ell him this is from Yoda.

Ronnie Robinson, November 2010

Saw Ross in Grimsby last night and he stormed it. Absolutely incredible routines and great crowd work. You can barely spot where the routine end and the improv begins. An inspiration to idiots like me who want to do stand-up even half as good as he does.

Lukas Wild, October 2010

just seen him in Wolverhampton. Best stand up comic I have seen in years.best value for money we will be going to see him again hopefully in london. Seeing someone like ross makes us wonder why he isn't on our telly with his own show when we watch all the crap that is being put on our telly. 10 out of 10.

sarah, October 2010

Saw Ross Noble this week in Swindon and was disappointed. Found myself yawning and looking at my watch well before the end of the lengthy show. 15 minutes on Avatar is 14 minutes too long for the large number of people in the audience who haven't seen it, us included. Some of the extended gurning and lumbering around the stage would have been better suited to an audience of seven year olds.

Paul, September 2010

I don't find him funny at all. Why alot of people do God only knows!

Rosie, October 2009

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8