You have to be careful with Ross Noble, lest you find yourself suddenly transformed from a hapless audience member into a punchline so surreal you’ll spend the following days desperately trying to remember who you originally were.
Similarly, woe unto those who arrive once the show is already underway, and will find themselves mocked mercilessly. In fact, from the moment you step into the same room as Noble everyone is fair game, though I was fully prepared to throw my theatre-buddy to the wolves if the comedian’s attention drifted our way.
His signature brand of stage shenanigans finds Noble engage with several audience members over the sprawling show, fashioning bizarre vignettes and observations from the responses in the crowd – a gamble, since you’re essentially panning for gold. Several reviews of recent Noble gigs in other cities have criticised the familiar format of his comedy, but I wonder if they just happened to catch him with a weak crowd. It’s a risky road to success, but when it works – as it certainly did for this rescheduled performance – he is outright hilarious.
The reason behind the rescheduling was fair enough; during the hailstorm that struck Sydney the Enmore Theatre suffered a malfunction of the collapsed roof variety, and the damage was still evident as Noble insisted were it not for the promise of widespread electrocution the show could have gone on. As it was, the gig covered vast and unlikely ground, and though there would no doubt have been rehearsed material scattered in the mix, such is Noble’s command of the tangent that he mixes action and anecdote with remarkable speed and ease.
He’s also quite lucky, in that even if someone in the audiences surreptitiously films part of his act (despite an entertaining pre-show cartoon warning against the perils of doing just that), it won’t really ruin the joke for future gigs; every show is different, and I’ve no doubt you could see back-to-back performances and be just as entertained (and fascinated) by his improvisation every time. That said, our performance ended with a surprise wedding proposal onstage, so it was especially unique.
Even when the jokes don’t quite find their feet, Noble throws himself into them with such wide-eyed passion that you can’t help but smile. Sure, the quality of each show might be a little chancy, but if you’re that concerned, you could always help the guy out by showing up late.
4/5 stars
Ross Noble was reviewed at the Enmore Theatre on Monday April 27 as part of Sydney Comedy Festival 2015.
