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Ross Noble - Tangentleman
Oct. 16th, 2014 10:11 amOn Sunday evening, as part of my sister's Christmas present from last year, the three of us (including Wolfie) went to see the delightful Ross Noble at Leeds Town Hall.
We were sat to the right of the stage as you look at it, at the end of the far side of the aisle. The view was very good apart from an elderly woman's lollipop head in front of me, slightly impairing my view. In the second half, two people sat in the empty chairs to my front left - we thought it was 'Dorito Viking' sick of talking to Noble but alas it wasn't. The front row of the gig (and second row as three people on the first didn't turn up) got quite a ribbing.
The venue is quite good for a gig, even though Noble had only previously seen it on Question Time. The high ceilings and Victorian architecture does provide a great atmosphere which became quite surreal with the inflatable backdrop with luminescent green virus looking structures attached to it. This backdrop was somewhat unfortunate considering the subsequent rise of Ebola, which resulted in a skit about Yorkshire people contracting the disease and the funny way their accent would render the word Ebola. As is typical with Noble, he often approached subjects in odd angles with a friendly cheekiness rendering any controversy moot.
As you expect with Noble, it was two hours of surreal rambling, going into tangents as the title of the show suggests. However there did seem to be a noticeable strand running through the show, so how much this was improvised and how much was scripted was hard to tell. Not that it mattered, the clearly improvised bits, concerning a brass bar at the front of the stage and some gifts he was given during the interval, were just as hilarious as any scripted parts and he was on the stage for over two and a half hours (including encore), which is more than you usually get for comedians. His response to heckles was good too although as usual there was one loud mouth who thought she was better than everyone else - she actually got into an environmental argument with another patron concerning the delightful Moon Cup gift Noble had received (there was a lot of improvisation here too). His rambling often meant he had to be prompted by the audience to go back to topics he had discussed but not concluded, a unique way of audience participation I guess and one I found quite endearing. On stage he's quite manic too, always pacing around and clearly having a great time, which tends to carry an audience with you. This started right at the beginning with a surreal airport style turn off your phone montage played before Noble came on.
The subject matter was similar to that from his previous York show we had seen about two years ago, which was one of the most hilarious shows I have ever attended. The same was true on Sunday and we all enjoyed it, although I did think I must visit another show on the same tour just to see how much they differ. Apparently, he was talking about foot spas in Manchester, which promoted a gift of a foot spa in Leeds, yet it was generally a spa free zone.
My sister enjoyed the evening out - I had taken her to the Vietnamese place in Trinity Kitchen where I tried their delicious Pho and a local lager before we tried yet another new bar that has opened, 115. This used to be The Northern Monkey, a dingy rough and ready place but they have done it up and like everywhere else focus primarily focus on American burger food. Sadly there was no craft beer - there are a few non-craft bars opening in the city now, probably a good thing as it gives people choice I guess - and there was an ignorant large fellow stood in front of the taps is you couldn't see what ales they had on. He acknowledged me but still refused to move. He was very rude.
After the gig, my sister had missed her last train, the final one between Leeds and Sheffield being 10:15pm on a Sunday night, so we had to drive her back to South Yorkshire as she had a meeting with her supervisor on the Monday morning. I genuinely thought the last train would have been about an hour later and there was no real way to check when I booked the tickets nine months ago. It was quite an inconvenience but there was little else we could do, so we drove there and back and got home nearing one in the morning. Still, it was a great evening.
We were sat to the right of the stage as you look at it, at the end of the far side of the aisle. The view was very good apart from an elderly woman's lollipop head in front of me, slightly impairing my view. In the second half, two people sat in the empty chairs to my front left - we thought it was 'Dorito Viking' sick of talking to Noble but alas it wasn't. The front row of the gig (and second row as three people on the first didn't turn up) got quite a ribbing.
The venue is quite good for a gig, even though Noble had only previously seen it on Question Time. The high ceilings and Victorian architecture does provide a great atmosphere which became quite surreal with the inflatable backdrop with luminescent green virus looking structures attached to it. This backdrop was somewhat unfortunate considering the subsequent rise of Ebola, which resulted in a skit about Yorkshire people contracting the disease and the funny way their accent would render the word Ebola. As is typical with Noble, he often approached subjects in odd angles with a friendly cheekiness rendering any controversy moot.
As you expect with Noble, it was two hours of surreal rambling, going into tangents as the title of the show suggests. However there did seem to be a noticeable strand running through the show, so how much this was improvised and how much was scripted was hard to tell. Not that it mattered, the clearly improvised bits, concerning a brass bar at the front of the stage and some gifts he was given during the interval, were just as hilarious as any scripted parts and he was on the stage for over two and a half hours (including encore), which is more than you usually get for comedians. His response to heckles was good too although as usual there was one loud mouth who thought she was better than everyone else - she actually got into an environmental argument with another patron concerning the delightful Moon Cup gift Noble had received (there was a lot of improvisation here too). His rambling often meant he had to be prompted by the audience to go back to topics he had discussed but not concluded, a unique way of audience participation I guess and one I found quite endearing. On stage he's quite manic too, always pacing around and clearly having a great time, which tends to carry an audience with you. This started right at the beginning with a surreal airport style turn off your phone montage played before Noble came on.
The subject matter was similar to that from his previous York show we had seen about two years ago, which was one of the most hilarious shows I have ever attended. The same was true on Sunday and we all enjoyed it, although I did think I must visit another show on the same tour just to see how much they differ. Apparently, he was talking about foot spas in Manchester, which promoted a gift of a foot spa in Leeds, yet it was generally a spa free zone.
My sister enjoyed the evening out - I had taken her to the Vietnamese place in Trinity Kitchen where I tried their delicious Pho and a local lager before we tried yet another new bar that has opened, 115. This used to be The Northern Monkey, a dingy rough and ready place but they have done it up and like everywhere else focus primarily focus on American burger food. Sadly there was no craft beer - there are a few non-craft bars opening in the city now, probably a good thing as it gives people choice I guess - and there was an ignorant large fellow stood in front of the taps is you couldn't see what ales they had on. He acknowledged me but still refused to move. He was very rude.
After the gig, my sister had missed her last train, the final one between Leeds and Sheffield being 10:15pm on a Sunday night, so we had to drive her back to South Yorkshire as she had a meeting with her supervisor on the Monday morning. I genuinely thought the last train would have been about an hour later and there was no real way to check when I booked the tickets nine months ago. It was quite an inconvenience but there was little else we could do, so we drove there and back and got home nearing one in the morning. Still, it was a great evening.
