Review: Ross Noble @ Bournemouth Pavilion 29th October 2010

Once that screen goes you are left with a visual mind explosion on stage with all manor of inflatable objects forming the back of his stage. And through it all comes Noble.

The imagery on the poster and the inflatables at the back are a perfect way of showing what Noble is like as a comedian. His mind just explodes with so many weird and wonderful things, it seems like a mental explosion.

For most of the first half, we were treated to jokes, sets and routines that had come purely from a heckle regarding certain types of pig’s feet after he had been chatting to a woman in the audience who had her crutches with her. There was then a routine about conversations he has with his bum when on the toilet (“Pinch!”) which only added to the surrealness of it all.

The second half carried on much the same as the first. Picking up items left for him by the audience and extracting all manor of comedy from each item. He discovered that Cowslip was a flower (“Oh, I thought it was an accident at a farm”). He then went on to describe what he thought a Google Phone was and how you would play it and in what situations it might not be acceptable to play it.

The way Noble delivers his set very much reminds me of Billy Connolly, in that you’ll end up going off in all different tangents but ultimately end up back at the original story (albeit 30 minutes later). I’d never seen Noble’s stand-up before and was worried it was going to be too surreal, but in all honesty, it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to all year.

SL

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