The Mighty Boosh Live On Tour
Vince Noir and Howard Moon Hit the Road for Major Live Shows
Nov 11, 2008
The Mighty Boosh are in the middle of a huge tour, which runs until January 2009. Taking in venues ranging from small and intimate to full blown arena size, the Boosh Live is an experience not to be missed.
Mighty Boosh Live Tour Dates
Check out the latest Mighty Boosh tour dates here. The gigs are proving popular, with several new shows recently added. A Mighty Boosh DVD box-set is also due out in shops before Christmas, gathering together series 1, 2 and 3, along with some extra behind the scenes footage. A perfect gift for Boosh disciples.
The Boosh Live Show
Noel Fielding (Vince) and Julian Barratt (Howard) are dab hands at live comedy. Kicking off their careers with a 1998 Perrier award winning show at the Edinburgh festival, performing live has always sat comfortably with them and their outlandish alter egos. But the appeal of the Boosh has grown at an exponential rate, earning them legions of new fans. Despite the performers experience, this latest tour elevates the Boosh to a whole new level. With fans new and old to satisfy, and stadiums to fill, they really needed to pull something amazing out of the bag. That they manage to do so is testament to Barratt and Fielding's dedication to their craft.
The show is, at first glance, a typically shambolic affair, with familiar home-made costumes prevalent both up on-stage and down in the auditorium. Yes, Mighty Boosh fans are a weird and wonderful lot, with many of them dressing up for the live shows as their favourite characters, and thrusting gifts of coconuts into the hands of their idols. But the Boosh, as always, have one or two tricks up their sleeves that distinguish them as bravura players. What begins as a simple hodge-podge of comedic songs and sketches from favourite TV characters, quickly grows into something much more finely honed.
Jazz Maverick Julian Barratt vs Bouffant Mod Noel Fielding
Seemingly throwaway lines and random ad libs in the first half actually have carefully orchestrated punchlines that appear at a later juncture. As such, the show is an entertainingly coherent whole, which rewards audience attention. The live band is also a remarkable adventure, bringing a proper rock gig feeling to the shows. Are they really comedians? Sometimes it must feel like they are pop stars. Although the thought of Julian Barratt - who genuinely does appreciate a good bit of jazz - earning his living playing twee songs for Noel to prance about to is also tinged with a certain amount of genuine ironic humour.
Of course, the conceit of The Mighty Boosh demands the audience accept Noel Fielding's Vince Noir as the special golden child, and Howard Moon as the deluded, corduroy jacket-wearing wannabe intellectual. It gives the duo their Eric and Ernie style odd couple comic allure. The live shows play on this effectively, but with Barratt now in possession of his own hordes of female fans, occasionally heckling can spoil a comedy moment. At one of the recent Nottingham Ice Arena shows Howard was in the spotlight on stage, lamenting his luckless fortune, when a group of giggling girls decided to shout out “we want to bed you Howard” (or words to that effect). Kind of killed the moment for everyone else!
Everybody Look at the Moon
Other Boosh favourites such as the foul mouthed evil cockney the Hitcher, Octopus-like creature Tony Harrison, dimwit the Moon, Bollo and Crack Fox all get star turn outings on this tour. Also returning triumphantly to the stage is the inimitable presence of Rich Fulcher. As Bob Fossil, Fulcher is comedy gold. His dancing is one of the funniest things ever to grace stage or screen, earning him his own tour t-shirt amongst the myriad merchandise available for the Mighty Boosh.
The Mighty Boosh excel in a live arena, bringing an intimate atmosphere of shared humour even to stadium sized venues. Catch them if you can!
Further Reading: Check out The Mighty Boosh Series 3.
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