There’s very little left to say about Ross Noble that hasn’t already been said, so instead of lauding him with the myriad compliments, accolades and hyperbole he so clearly deserves, I’ll keep it simple: Ross Noble is one of the greatest comedians this country has ever produced.
Not only is he among the most influential, recognised and revered comedians in the UK, he is also a Geordie gemstone. Fiercely individual and endlessly inventive, Noble has helped shape the landscape of modern British stand-up. Almost every touring comedian on the circuit is indebted to him in some way. Generations of comics have marvelled at, and often attempted to emulate, the freewheeling, mind-bending improvisations that the master routinely conjures up on stage.
With a style entirely his own, nobody can anticipate what Noble will say next – least of all Noble himself. Everything arrives in the moment. He is a master of the spontaneous, stretching the smallest observation to breaking point before skilfully contorting it into something utterly unrecognisable. There is something almost ethereal about watching the Newcastle native flex his comic muscles time and time again, and the ease with which he spirals into the surreal is genuinely reminiscent of watching Usain Bolt sprint or Mozart compose.
Each show is undeniably distinctive, with a special kind of electricity generated as Noble launches into the obscure off the back of the tiniest micro-interaction. A single throwaway comment from the crowd can become a ten-minute detour into beautifully controlled chaos. There’s a clarity and a gleeful ecstasy as one of Britain’s finest eccentrics ranges off into the miraculously random, again and again.
Beyond stand-up, Noble’s creative arsenal is vast. He wrote and starred in the 2012 horror-comedy Stitches, built a successful theatre career with roles in The Producers, and earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Young Frankenstein. His life and career are littered with the strange and wonderful, from gleefully annoying Alan Sugar on The Apprentice to, more recently, appearing on Sharks! Celebrity Infested Water.
Ross Noble is always value for money, and it only takes one night in his company to understand why he’s held on a pedestal above the rest. He operates in a different league, delivering comedy at its most unfiltered and unrehearsed. From start to finish, you are in expert hands.
Coming to Middlesbrough Town Hall on Saturday 21st February, ‘The Cranium of Curiosities’ is an unmissable event for anyone remotely interested in stand-up comedy.
Tickets, priced at £32.70 in advance, are available from boxoffice.middlesbrough.gov.uk.
