REVIEW Ross Noble
COMEDY
Ross Noble - Tangentleman
Regal Theatre
4 stars
Review by Sinead McKeough
Ross Noble loves a good tangent. From the moment he bounded onto the Regal Theatre stage on Tuesday night he was already subject-hopping, the tangential riffs piling high before ten minutes had passed. This hilarious off-the-cuff absurdity is the stuff Noble is known for, and he's a master at it.
While a substantial amount of Tangentleman - like all his offerings - is spontaneous, there are always a few prepared stories that anchor the performance. However, so talented is he at weaving completely unrelated topics together that picking out the pre-planned elements would be a chore.
In a first half that seemed to lean most heavily on the improvised side, Noble touched on steroids, Ebola, wolverines, seafood delivery driving, and what 50 Shades of Grey would be like in the style of The Three Stooges.
There was also a lengthy riff on a half-squirrel character backstage, at the end of which he paused to request that if any reviewers were in that they only refer to the character as his "invisible friend". Funny for certain, though if you were among the audience on the night you might agree that was for the best.
After the interval there were gifts from the audience (a long held tradition amongst Noble's fans), and tales of rap stars, unicorns, prophylactics, and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
There's a vague but ever-present tension at every Ross Noble show that his long and wild flights of fancy may result in a story left unfinished. Fair enough; he strings tangents into other tangents in such a way that it seems all too likely he'll forget where he started. So it's at times genuinely surprising when he effortlessly picks up a thread from 15 minutes before.
Probably the most aptly named show he's ever done, Tangentleman is classic Noble. Most of the time what he's saying makes no sense and, as Noble himself points out, taken away from the theatre setting he'd just be a strange man ranting about dolphin poo. But context is key, and on stage the nonsense makes Ross Noble king.
Tangentleman ends on Sunday.
