The Noble Art Of Comedy

At just 28 years of age Ross Noble appears to have done it all. Widely touted as the best stand-up since Billy Connolly (one of his heroes) the Geordie comic has concentrated his efforts on relentlessly touring his acclaimed improvisational shows.

Regularly breaking box office records, Noble has been the official “best selling show” at both the Edinburgh and Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. A Perrier Award nominee, he is a regular guest on TV shows such as BBC’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and Jack Dee Live At The Apollo. He has also made three appearances on BBC’s Have I Got News For You and makes regular contributions to BBC Radio 4’s Just a Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. His worldwide travels as a stand-up have been the subject of his own BBC Radio 4 series Ross Noble Goes Global which included a memorable trip to Ireland. In February 2004 BBC2 showed an hour long film of Noble performing live from his season at The Garrick Theatre, London. An extended version of this show has just been released on DVD.
His current show Noodlemeister, which brings him to Dublin and Belfast, has bowled over the critics yet again and we caught up with him on a break from his hectic touring schedule in his adopted home in Kent. Straight away he informs us that he is in the in the midst of a major domestic crisis. His toilet is broken!
“It’s the linkage between the handle thing that you flush with and the ball-cock,” he says, adopting a tone of mock seriousness. “I fixed it temporarily and it worked for a while but now it’s ripped off completely. I have to drain the water out by hand which is a pain in the arse.”
You get the impression that his plumbing difficulties will somehow make it into a future show. “It’s not so much the broken thing itself that bothers me,” he says, getting into his stride. “It’s picking up the phone and getting someone to come and fix it. It’s always the same - I go off on tour and my house falls to pieces. You wouldn’t believe the things that happen here. Doors come off their hinges and my gates get broken when I’m away.”
Presumably, his DIY skills aren’t up to dealing with this kind of thing?
“I am kind of practical to be honest but the problem is, I have no concentration. I can do all that stuff like grouting tiles but half way through I just get bored and I start thinking about doing some other job. Like, I might wonder if I could make a fish tank or something like that. And I start having a go at it and then get bored with that too so nothing is ever finished.”
Originally from a small town in Northumberland where he says there was a paracetamol factory at one end of town and a razorblade factory at the other, he first took to the stage at 15 when he was smuggled into a local comedy club. It’s been more or less non-stop since then as he has grown into an original, exciting talent with a limitless talent for improv. Who are his comedy influences?
“When I was growing up Les Dawson and Frankie Howard were my big heroes but they were on TV and I don’t know what they were like live. There’s a big difference between TV comedy and doing it live - people who are brilliant on TV can be a pile of shit live. One thing I’ve discovered is that what people laugh at in their living rooms is different to what people laugh at in public. Then there’s Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrot and Mike Harding.”
Speaking of Billy Connolly - he got into hot water recently over his comments about Ken Bigley. How would Noble have approached the subject?
“I saw Connolly last night and he was talking about the fact that what he’d said was misreported and completely missed the point. He was accusing some sections of the media for milking the tragedy for all it’s worth.
“But personally I like to be offended. You don’t want to piss people off for the sake of it. If you push the line you’ve got to be careful you don’t push it beyond a certain point. But you have to trust the audiences
“What really pisses me off,” he adds, “is the kind of political correctness that’s everywhere these days. For example what I find really funny is the fact that a lot of Asians where I come from have Geordie accents and some of them seem to have trouble pronouncing their own names. That’s funny to me but it’s not like Jim Davidson in the old days who would start a gag with ‘there was this Asian shopkeeper’ which was all about generalisation.”
Given his high public profile and constant travelling, why has he chosen to live in a small village in the heart of the Kent countryside?
“Oh it’s a very posh, polite place but it’s actually quite similar to Northumberland where I come from,” he says. “People around here are friendly but very posh. For example I went away for a while recently and my auntie was looking after the place for me. She took the dog to the park everyday and everyone in the village got to know the dog by name. So when I go out now with the dog, people are shouting out the dog’s name and completely ignoring me. It’s that kind of place.”
Does he have any strong opinions on the fox hunting issue that appears to have engulfed British public opinion?
“It’s become a fox hunting issue, but to me it’s a dog hunting issue,” he says. “Dogs are the ones doing the hunting aren’t they? And if your dog is in a hunting frame of mind it’ll attack and kill just about anything that gets in its way - whether it’s rabbits or cats so it’s not just about the poor fox. I love the fact that Brian Ferry’s son was involved in those protests. I went to the Q awards and he was going on about ‘my brave son Otis’ whom he dedicated his award to. He’s trying to continue his speech and everyone’s booing him…it was priceless.”
Given to wacky improvisational flights of fancy, Noble has been likened to a freeform jazz musician likely to go off in any direction without warning. His usual tack is to engage with the first couple of rows in the audience and take it from there. Surely this approach is fraught with dangers. Has he ever dried up on stage? “It’s weird the way some people might look at not going down well as dying on your feet, but I look at it the other way around. If something’s not flying with the audience it gives you the space to move in another direction. It allows you to go wherever you want…that’s the way I operate so I don’t see it as a bad thing if something’s not working. I just move on.”

Ross Noble appears at Vicar Street in Dublin on October 29 and at the Belfast Festival at Queens on October 31