"You have to pay attention in this show, because I go off on wild tangents," Ross Noble admonished a woman in the front row who was, inexplicably, reading the ingredients of her drink can in the middle of his set. "You drift off for one minute, you're fucked."
In fact, there are so many wild tangents it ends up feeling more like tangent than prepared material, which is the mark of a true master of his craft. A bit of easy crowd work leads to a sidesplitting bit about Peter Andre and just for whom the song 'Mysterious Girl' was written. Noticing a woman's work lanyard leads Noble to a very funny conjecture about the nature of thresher machines and security systems within thresher machine companies. And there's a bit about monkeys, dead and alive, that leads to some actual screams in the audience.
I have no idea how many of these were actually written bits and how many just occurred to Noble in the moment, based on responses from the crowd. Noble is so comfortable on stage and such a consummate professional he has absolutely nailed the 'oh, I just thought of this' off-the-cuff feeling. It's not the setup-joke, setup-joke style you see with less accomplished. comedians and much more of a mad, very silly journey through his mind. During some of the funniest parts Noble didn't even say anything at all, using gesture or facial expressions to telegraph what he wanted to say. Not everything landed, but he is such a pro he can turn even stunned silence around.
If you want a comedy show that is guaranteed to have you laughing, you're in good hands with Ross Noble. But don't drift off.
