The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour

Future Sailors Tour

Comedy tour by The Mighty Boosh
DVD Cover
Start date	11 September 2008
End date	17 January 2009
No. of shows	91
The Mighty Boosh concert chronology

The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour was a stage-show written and performed by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, also known as The Mighty Boosh. Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher and Dave Brown also performed in the show, along with the Boosh Band.

The show toured the UK and Ireland from September 2008 through to January 2009.

Act I

The show, as it appeared throughout most of the tour, begins with an introduction by Joey Moose (Brown), reminding people of the strict no photography rule in place during that night's performance. This is followed by a sample of Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, as spotlights flash across the stage curtains. Vince Noir (Fielding) and Howard Moon (Barratt) begin the show proper with a performance of "Future Sailors" – Noir entering the stage in a large pirate ship, Moon following in a rubber dinghy. Noir reveals the boats and all other props were paid for via their new sponsors, Jean-Claude Jacqueti – much to Moon's distaste.

After their usual banter, both with each other and members of the audience, the first act of the show features a series of sketches starring a number of different characters. Bob Fossil (Fulcher) is introduced, and guides the audience through a series of moves from his Dance Academy. Naboo (M. Fielding) and Bollo (Brown) follow this, Naboo now a gangsta rapper in L.A. (which causes Noel Fielding, out of character, to exclaim his brother is dressed like their dad in the 1970s), and Bollo shows off his latest invention – the frisbee clock.

After this, we are introduced to, in quick succession, The Moon, who reappears throughout the show; Tony Harrison, who introduces his own chat-show themed 'nugget' of the show, including a set from a Lithuanian taxi-driver turned stand up comic Kraków (Fulcher), then The Crack Fox, who tells a cautionary tale about a party lifestyle and subsequent drug use. When he leaves, The Hitcher is introduced, and he is soon wandering through the audience looking for victims, before leading the Boosh Band on a performance of Eels.

Act II

The second act of the show revolves around a play written by Howard Moon about the end of the world, entitled No Future? Moon has enlisted the help of Naboo, Fossil, Bollo and Vince to perform the play, however, Noir is quick to point out its ridiculous content, and hijacks the play by blackmailing Howard about a jazz-porn photo shoot he mistakenly got roped into.

At Vince's insistence, the cast (now with Brown out of the Bollo costume again) perform his play about aliens from the planet Camden. Vince plays Sunflash (who speaks with a Chinese/Chav accent, which Vince believes people will speak in the future) and Fossil as Booblay (a future pleasure-robot). Sunflash transforms the mutants from Moon's play into beautiful versions of themselves, thanks to his sponsor Jean-Claude Jacquetti. The increasingly humiliated Howard is made to wear a silver corset and blonde pigtails, and together with Dave Brown's Mutant character, performs the Mutants song from the first series, which is then transformed via the help of the Boosh Band.

Angered and upset, Moon tries to halt the play, only for Noir to reveal the most explicit pictures from his jazz-porn shoot. Attempting to leave the theatre, Moon is lured back in with a crimp – which makes everything ok once again. The Boosh Band reappears and together with Vince, Howard, Naboo, Bollo and Bob Fossil, they perform a medley of crimps from the series. During this, the Honey Monster appears, and the gang use Vince's giant Jean-Claude Jacquettie hairdryer to decapitate him and stick his head on a spike: a reference to the infamous Sugar Puffs advertisement which plagiarised their 'crimping' style earlier that year.

The cast take their bows, one after the other, and then Fulcher's character Eleanor appears to play Bingo with the audience. She reads the numbers on the balls and makes crude remarks that link in some way (for instance: "Number 4: The number of Oasis I've had on my vagina.") The last number she reads out is 666, which leads into the Boosh Band set – as the boys perform the song "Nanageddon" to end the show. Venue curfew permitting, this is then followed by performances of "I Did A Shit On Your Mum" and "Charlie", before the Boosh leave the stage once and for all.

Early versions & changes

The previews and early performances were introduced by stage manager Bob Fossil, who would run through a series of safety features with the audience, before the "Future Sailors" number, but this was soon dropped. Over time, many sections become elongated – during the November shows, Bollo's frisbee clock joke was built upon greatly, for example.

Some parts of the show were dropped altogether – previews included prototype versions of The Crack Fox sketches, but were replaced on the early tour dates by a sequence involving Rudi, who would then join The Hitcher during the performance of Eels. Also, early performances featured the Bingo Caller from Nanageddon instead of Eleanor.

For the DVD recording nights at Manchester Apollo on 3 and 4 December, The Moon's reworking of the Jay-Z track, 99 Problems, was removed due to copyright clearance – but it has been performed on almost every other night of the tour (apart from one of the early Glasgow shows where the Moon did not appear due to technical issues), including the other shows that week. Eleanor also switched from throwing her usual ball-pit style balls into the audience during the bingo section, instead throwing and kicking giant, numbered, inflatable balls into the crowds – on the DVD filming nights, these were also signed by the cast.

Some sections change simply because of either audience participation, or due to mistakes on the night. Bollo tripping over the globe, for example, was added after Dave Brown slipped several times in early October, and by the end of the month it was a regular part of the performance. Similarly, Tony Harrison slipping in his chair, and the following dialogue, was added after Noel Fielding found it increasingly difficult to stay upright in such an enclosed space.

There have been rare performances of Love Games during the final band set.

DVD

Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour was released on DVD on 16 November 2009 with special and limited edition copies of the DVD being made available at the same time. Recorded at the Manchester Apollo in December, the DVD features the full show with commentary. The Special and Limited Editions also contain a bonus disc with backstage clips and scenes from Journey of the Childmen, a documentary about the Future Sailors Tour. Journey of the Childmen was shown at film festivals and received a full DVD release in 2010.

The 'Normal Edition' includes the 2008/9 Live Show. The 'Special Edition' includes the 2008/9 Live Show, the 2006 Live Show, and a set of Boosh Outrage Playing Cards in the style of Top Trumps.

The 'Limited Edition' includes the 2008/9 Live Show, the 2006 Live Show, a set of Boosh Playing cards, and a Boosh Belt Buckle.

Tour dates

References

External links

• Official website