It’s difficult not to like Noel Fielding even when he’s not being particularly funny, and in his latest stand-up show, An Evening With Noel Fielding, there’s a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, with some sections that bomb a little and others that crack the entire audience up, but no matter what he’s always in the good books with the kind of one-sided audiences that come to see his gigs, including us.
The new show combines surrealist humour, avant-garde jokes (or maybe concepts) and the darker side of the moon, so you get to see a wide range of comedy, including the slap stick pastiche of Michael Fielding baring and patting his own butt cheeks, which look a lot like the love-child of a peach and a sun starved coconut.
The tour kicked off on the 20th October 2014 at the G Live in Guildford and we managed to catch up with it at the Cardiff stop off at the “bee hive-live” St David’s Hall (his words, not ours – we reckon it’s more like a cement-based multi-dimensional labyrinth). With only another eleven gigs still to go on the thirty three show tour, Noel, his brother Michael and Tom Meaton (he plays Andy Warhol in Luxury Comedy) have had enough time to get up to a white heat level of comedy genius, and that’s definitely true for the most part, but they’ve also had time to become a bit too comfortable with the material and that’s also true every now and again.
However, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t also one of the most memorable stand-up comedy gigs we’ve ever seen. Not necessarily because Noel had to face down what can only be described as the worst heckler in the history of idiot audience members, but because it was an amazing opportunity to see the comedy genius of the punk rock Boosh Baby live on stage in all his unreserved glory.
The show itself is sort of like a live continuation of Luxury Comedy Series 2, sans Dolly, with the vaguest trace of The Might Boosh anarchy thrown in for good measure and a complete free reign for Noel to explore the more outlandish side of his comic style, which he takes advantage of unrepentantly. It ranges from empathy for day old helium balloons as a metaphor for the sad state of his advancing years to a strange and slightly disturbing story about being a chicken boy with an egg firing canon for a penis.
There’s also a few brilliant continuing character loops from the Mighty Boosh and Luxury Comedy to enjoy in the show and the coolest of these (ORBITAL SPOILER ALERT) is the introduction of the Dark Side Of The Moon into the mix, who as you’d expect is the evil version of the Mighty Boosh Moon. You’ll also find characters like Fantasy Man, Big Chief Woolabum Boomalackaway and the live action version of the plasticine incarnation of Joey Ramone getting in on the stand-up action.
There’s also a lot of new silly content to crack everyone up with and one of the most mental is Michael Fielding as Noel’s chav-like wife, who he catches having an affair with an isosceles triangle. It’s spins out of controls into all kinds of randomness with Meaton taking on the role of the pointy love rat.
An Evening With Noel Fielding may not be the most intelligent or serious comedy on tour at the moment (Michael McIntyre’s quiff is doing hour long-sketches featuring knock knock jokes about North Korean hairstyles at the Pleasance Theatre), but it is a hell of a lot of fun to be a part of. Our favourite section was when Inspector Boombox takes to the audience with a camera being operated by Michael Fielding, dressed as Noel’s wife, in an attempt to pump them for answers as a mystery develops in the second half.
An Evening With Noel Fielding review: 3.8/5
