The Mighty Noel

Co-creator and co-star of the brilliantly unpredictable TV sitcom The Mighty Boosh, Noel Fielding heads out on the road this autumn for his first solo tour in five years, looking in at Colston Hall on Saturday, November 1. Expect a magical mix of storytelling, stand-up, animation and music – plus cameo appearances by characters from the recent television series Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy. Steve Wright catches up with the shaggy-maned surrealist.

Good to have you back, Noel. Why the long wait? 

It took me a long time to get over the last tour! We did about 100 dates, with just one day off a week. There was a lot of partying, and for about three months afterwards I felt like I was still on tour – it was like coming back from Vietnam. It was great fun, but if I did it again I think it would kill me. This tour will be a bit more intimate. The Peppermint Tea tour.

What can we expect this time around?

I’m taking a couple of people along, including my brother [Michael Fielding, The Mighty Boosh’s Naboo] and Tom Meeten [Boosh and sketch duo Oram & Meeten], and there’ll be a nice mix of stories, stand-up, music, animation, some new characters. I’m quite excited. I’m also trying to work out new ways of using animation – kind of interacting with it, rather than just watching it. It’s quite hard to get right, but we’re going to give it a go. If it all goes wrong it’ll make for an interesting show.

How do stand-up and TV compare for you?

Television is great, but it’s very different. The process is so long: you have an idea, script it, film, edit it. Your original idea goes through a million processes. By the end, you’re thinking, ‘hang on, is that really the same joke? That was funny when we thought of it’. Live comedy is just you and an audience, and they either laugh at the joke or they don’t. It’s so immediate, and so honest.

Who have been your main influences, from comedy and beyond?

Music was always a big influence for me and Julian [Barratt, fellow Boosh creator]. Our mums and dads were into a lot of psychedelic stuff – Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Santana, Pink Floyd – and that’s where a lot of ‘Boosh’s free-wheeling feel came from. When it comes to comedy, it’s the absurdist stuff that appeals to me – Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, the Pythons, Vic Reeves, Chris Morris.

Your own comedy is very fantastical. Is real life not quite as interesting as the places in your head?

I think you just do what you can do. You can’t fake it. If I tried to do The Office, say, it just wouldn’t look right. At art school I was into Magritte, Dali and Grayson Perry, and there’s a strong visual strand to our comedy. Boosh mixed animation, story, music, comedy. It was quite tricky, and people had to give it a couple of tries. A bit like a difficult album by Frank Zappa or Yes.

Is there a typical Noel Fielding fan?

Someone dismissed me on Twitter once: ‘Noel Fielding fans: art students and 18-year-old girls’. I tweeted back, ‘Best demographic ever!’. Those people have a lot of time and commitment. When I was 18 I would dedicate months of my life to The Doors or Monty Python. In fact, though, our audiences are really mixed. A lot of Boosh fans bring their kids along, and there’s definitely a childlike strand to our comedy. I’m also proud that at least half of our audiences are girls, because a lot of stand-up comedy is quite aggressive and quite male.

Do you write for an imagined audience, or for your own personal muse?

The balance always has to be in the audience’s favour. If you’re splitting audiences down the middle, like the first series of Luxury did, that’s tough – you’ll get a lot of praise, but a lot of flak too. People got the second series more, and that’s what you want really. You’re not setting out to make people angry or alienate people: you do what you do and hope to connect with people. Otherwise, what’s the point?

An Evening with Noel Fielding is at the Colston Hall on Saturday, November 1. For more info: 0844 887 1500 / http://www.colstonhall.org/shows/evening-noel-fielding/

Photography by Dave Brown