Ross Noble

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ross Noble
Image:1183381340 l.jpg
A publicity photo for Noble's 2006 tour, Fizzy Logic.
Born 1976-06-06
England Cramlington, England.
Occupation Stand-up comedian

Ross Noble, born 6 June 1976 an English stand-up comedian, raised in Cramlington, Northumberland. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife, Fran.

Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British and Australian television, particularly interviews and on celebrity quiz shows such as Have I Got News For You.[1] He has also released DVDs of several of his tours, which furthered his popularity through word of mouth. Although he has had success, he is still considered a cult figure.

Contents

[edit] Stand Up Performance

[edit] Noble's style

Noble's stand-up routine is a largely improvised and surreal performance with a stream of consciousness delivery. Often, a large percentage of his set becomes based around heckles and conversations with members of the audience.[1] [2] Although he does often have a few set topics which he performs throughout a tour, he describes the planning for the entire show as "about four words on a piece of scrap paper".[3]

Noble is known to be some what of a talking mime artist. He uses mime to help the audience visualise his surreal situations, for example, showing the audience and his imaginary ice cream apprentice how to serve ice cream properly after considering his own made-up plot of 24 in which the show just tracks in on something normal, like a ice cream man selling ice creams whilst Jack Bauer escapes a cell using a greasy goose.

Noble has commented on how his shows are similar to 24. The fact that Noble juggles many topics and unfinished stories throughout the show, due to Noble's random performance style, interruptions from hecklers or Noble has drifted off into another surreal conversation. Thus the audience is hooked and pesters Noble to tell the ending of his unfinished stories, these are usually the pay off at the end of his shows.

Noble has commented on his Regent Park show that he does "wander off the point, slightly" and later added, He can "open up too many tangents at once. It's a never-ending expanding spiral of possibilities." then Noble forgot what he was talking about. The charm of Noble's shows are because of his random and unpredictable ways.

[edit] Noble's Clothing

Noble has a distinctive onstage presence, freely moving around the stage with his long curly hair and his smart but baggy clothing. For the Randomist tour, Ross was dressed in all black but with a red stripe going down each of his sides. At one show (in Carlisle), Noble just step out on the stage and without saying a word yet, a heckler shouted "Why are you dressed as The A-Team van?", Noble thought that it was funny but true, so Noble commented on this heckle at other stage shows and on the Randomist DVD.

[edit] Recurring topics

Noble's shows have many recurring references and topics, including...

[edit] Career

[edit] Early years

Noble has been performing stand-up since appearing in his local comedy club at the age of 15, despite licensing laws that prohibited him working there and forced him to leave through the kitchen.[2] Coming from Cramlington, a new town, "the ultimate in dullness" helped him with his career, he said. "There was nothing to do so I used my imagination a lot, otherwise I would have started climbing the wall."[4] Noble has never really worked outside of stand up comedy. He once sold juggling kits in a department store for a few days, sold balloons for the travelling clown troop he used to stilt walk for [5] and dressed up as a big heart for a charity fair.

Noble studied performing arts at sixth form college, after he told his careers adviser at school he wanted to be a comedian. He later stated that this had no effect on his stand-up ability, as he believes that the information taught isn't important in being a good performer.[6]

[edit] 1999-2001

Noble has won many awards, including a Time Out award winner in 2000 for his Edinburgh show Chickenmaster, and a Perrier Award nomination in 1999 for another Edinburgh Festival show Laser Boy. He has since achieved great popularity in both the UK and Australia, where he has toured extensively every year since 2001.

Noble's TV appearances mostly take the form of interviews and panel game participation. He has not done any acting work on TV, as he prefers stand-up for giving him the freedom to say what he wants without being influenced by a crew.[3] He has appeared on many TV shows in Australia such as Network Ten's Rove (Live), The Panel, and the ABC's The Glasshouse and Spicks and Specks; and in the UK on BBC's Johnny Vaughan Tonight and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Noble has also made seven appearances on BBC 1's Have I Got News for You including the last show hosted by Angus Deayton and as a guest captain on the first show guest presented by Paul Merton. His most recent appearance on the show saw him and Paul Merton answer all their questions wrong, and getting no points in the entire show. He makes regular contributions to BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute and has also appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. He has hosted Radio 4's stand up show 4 At The Store.

Noble's worldwide travels as a stand-up were the subject of his own BBC Radio 4 series Ross Noble Goes Global, produced by Danny Wallace. This series, recorded between April and May 2001, saw him recording his observations as he travelled around various countries.

[edit] 2003

Noble's 2003 show Unrealtime was the best-selling show at the Edinburgh Fringe[7], before transferring to London's West End for a month long season at the Garrick Theatre where it played to packed houses. A recording of this tour was shown on BBC Two in 2004, and a double DVD set was released later that year.

[edit] 2004

Ross Noble performing at the Edinburgh Fringe
Enlarge
Ross Noble performing at the Edinburgh Fringe

During 2004, Noble performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and other venues with his show Noodlemeister.

[edit] 2005

In January 2005, Noble joined Australian comedian Terri Psiakis in co-hosting Ross and Terri, the weekday lunch shift on national radio station Triple J. Although the show was intended as a "filler" over the ratings-free summer period, the response on their website was more enthusiastic than expected.

His 2005 UK tour, Randomist, ran from September to December. He continued the tour in Australia during 2006.

[edit] 2006

In January 2006, Noble once again teamed up with Terri Psiakis on Triple J for two weeks of Ross and Terri in the lunch time slot of 12pm - 3pm. This second period on Triple J also saw Ross and Terri founding "Pants Across Australia", during which, 4 pairs of trousers were sent to the north, south, east and west extremities of Australia and then back to Melbourne.

Whilst performing at Edinburgh in September 2006 for his Fizzy Logic tour, a fight broke out during the gig, caused by a drunk member of the audience arguing with another. [8] At another gig, he found someone filming the show on their mobile phone and confiscated the phone. He then recorded a video on it himself, which can be seen here. After finding that several people recorded his finale skit "the falling owl stunt", Noble encouraged the entire audience to record the stunt simultaneously and post them on YouTube, in an attempt to achieve "the largest number of videos showing exactly the same thing".

[edit] Tours

Dates apply to UK tours[2]

  • Laser Boy – 1999
  • Chickenmaster – 2000
  • Slackers Playtime – 2001
  • Sonic Waffle – 2002
  • Unrealtime – 2003
  • Noodlemeister – 2004
  • Randomist – 2005
  • Fizzy Logic – 2006

[edit] DVD releases

Several recorded performances of Ross Noble are available on DVD. Noble demands that his shows are not edited to let the DVD viewer see everything and have the theatre audience experience, even though the DVD viewer doesn't have the ability to heckle, throw cheese or get asked questions by Noble.

With Noble's recorded shows, they are mostly dominated by Noble with a just few moments of audience anticipation. Although throughout the rest of his tour, Noble is more relaxed with the audience joining in, even though sometimes the audience can dominate a show, as seen on the extra "Live in Birmingham" gig on the Randomist DVD.

[edit] Unrealtime

A Double DVD set which includes a performance of Noble's Unrealtime show at the Garrick Theatre, as well as a performance at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Also Ross on tour backstage footage and a quiz to unlock extra footage.

The quiz is based on subtitles shown throughout the performance on disc 1. Typically these are quite surreal and only tenuously linked to what is being said at the time they appear. Given that it is a long show and there are 20 questions to answer, it requires some dedication to unlock the 3 extra pieces of footage. Piece 1 is an animation of a slug that was shown to the audiences on the tour prior to Ross arriving on stage, the slug is basically saying No Smoking, No Mobiles etc. as a lot of theatres would normally announce anyway. Ross being Ross, that's too normal so the slug does it in typical Noble fashion - the message gets across and some fun is had. The second piece is quite an old clip which is coincidentally also slug-related. As is the norm for Ross Noble shows, whole tangents can open up from audience contribution and that's what happens here. The "Slug Pub" has since been used in the live shows, it seems that this may well be its origins. The final hidden extra is (a fatter) Ross talking about appearing on Pop Idol (again quite an old clip or the reference would be to X Factor) with an owl as a gimmick. Naturally the owl is mimed and it is likely to be the most unusual rendition of Lady In Red that you will ever see.

Should you not wish to make the effort of finding out the answers the longwinded way - here they are: 1) Hull 2) Tony Fishing 3) Goat 4) 1982 5) Sailor 6) Canvey Island 7) Hi de Hi 8) New Zealand 9) Cats 10) Fuck Off Tramp 11) Chinese Elvis 12) All good bookshops 13) Have a good look 14) Medieval warfare 15) They're great 16) Wolf's milk and sunflowers 17) Permission 18) Winkles 19) 243 20) Loads (this one isn't actually a subtitle in the show but is quite easy to guess in the context of the question.)

[edit] Sonic Waffle

The single DVD contains the uncut last night performance from London's Vaudeville Theatre, complete with commentary and "commentary on the commentary" audio tracks. It also includes his 'meat on the face' performance from the BBC television series Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, which has an audio commentary opinion where Noble is joined by a Cantonese Interpreter. The DVD also offers the viewer to play a game of celebrity muffins.

[edit] Randomist

A 4-disc set which contains unedited performances from the City Hall in Newcastle, the Victoria Hall in Stoke, the Alexandra in Birmingham and the Town Hall in Melbourne, Australia. The extras include the documentaries Ross' Highland Fling and Ross' Australia Tour, and an interactive quiz. The fourth disc contains The Randomiser, and an hours worth of randomised live performance clips. Commentary is included for three of the shows.

[edit] Personal life

Noble married an Australian woman called Fran (short for Francine). Very little is known about her, although Noble occasionally refers to her throughout his shows and anecdotes, especially in the performance at the Jack Dee Live at the Apollo tapings. Fran's birthday is the 3rd of October. Both of them now live in Melbourne, though Noble is often promoted as 'international', or 'all the way from England'.

Noble has a mild case of dyslexia. This is a reason why he turned down the chance of appearing on Countdown, as the celebrity guest in dictionary corner. The game show involves the contestants finding the longest word possible from nine letters.

In April 2006, Noble was involved in a motorbike accident, and both fractured and dislocated his collarbone. Conveniently he crashed right outside a hospital. Ross performed his shows over the following weeks with his arm in a sling.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Wilf Guyatt. "Noble is wafflely versatile", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
  2. ^ a b c Ross Noble. Biography. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  3. ^ a b Ross Noble interview, Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1 (2006-11-06)
  4. ^ The Noble art of stand-up. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
  5. ^ Ross Noble. FAQ. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
  6. ^ BBC - South Yorkshire Stage - Ross Noble interview. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
  7. ^ Fringe passes million tickets mark. BBC News (2003-08-25). Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  8. ^ Ross Noble interview, Nemone on BBC 6 Music (2006-09-27)
  9. ^ Ross Noble interview. (2006-04-11). Rove Live [TV series].

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/o/s/Ross_Noble_ef0b.html"