Mimicking The Greats & Being A Quadruple Threat

When a comedian tours a new show, interviewers tend to ask where they got their inspiration. In the case of improv stand-up legend Ross Noble, however, this is a little more difficult. "Yeah, I don't get asked that much," Noble laughs, before adding, "there's a real fashion at the moment for incredibly high-concept comedy shows and, because I get bored quite easily, it's one of those things where if I'm going to do something like that I'd rather do it as a film or a play. So the joy of stand-up is in the moment, it can be whatever you want it to be. I give it that style so I can just do whatever I want, really."

Noble's new show, El Hablador, follows in the vein of some of the comic's previous offerings, wherein the show's title is rather descriptive of the man himself. "It means 'talker' or 'storyteller'," he informs, "so it's an all-encompassing idea of what I am, I guess. My last show was called Brain Dump because somebody had criticised me on Amazon in the comments section saying, 'This is just a big brain dump!' and I thought, 'I'll have that!'"

While Noble has spent over two decades carving out his own unique notch in the comedy scene, he still works hard to welcome new fans into his world. He says of his devoted fans, "It's funny, because I've spent all these years building up this live following so I've got a very loyal and hardcore fanbase. They really know what to expect and they put themselves into a particular mindset for my shows. You get some acts who are a bit droll, but people go to see them because they're doing really broad comedy or they just know that person from the telly. So in many cases it's not that unique or different, you know? What I like is when I get people off the street or people bringing their friends who aren't in that hardcore section. It's a good way of keeping it accessible and interesting."

As important is it is to keep his fans entertained, Noble is also diligent when it comes to having fun on stage. "I always keep it interesting for myself," he says, "and I try to do a show that I would want to watch. If I was paying money to see something, that's what I would want if I was in the audience, you know? And hopefully it's what the audience wants as well. You want to find that audience that is into what you are into and come together that way. I think where a lot of performers get frustrated is when they get famous for doing a thing that they don't necessarily like themselves, and then they're trapped. So I've always worked really hard to try and avoid falling into that [trap]. The way that I choose what I do is by asking, 'Would I watch this myself?' and, 'Is it going to be fun to do?' and then I go from there. What that often means is that if I go, 'Oh, that'd be fun to do, but I would never watch it,' then it's off the list. Or if I think, 'I really love that show, but I don't think it's actually that fun to do,' the same thing happens. That's 100% how I pick things in my shows and in my career."

On the subject of his illustrious career, Noble can now add Olivier Award-nominated actor for his role in the London stage musical Young Frankenstein. "When you get a call saying, 'Mel Brooks wants you to be in the original London cast of his new musical. You're going to be working with him while he's in the room with you rewriting the show as you're right there,' that's just too good to pass up. It ticks every single one of my boxes. It's a different discipline, but what I really like about it is that with stand-up... you can't really fake stand-up you know?  To be good at it, you have to put the time in on stage. But with musicals, [there's] that idea of a triple threat and being able to sing, dance and act. But with a Mel Brooks number, you have to sing, dance, act and be funny. There's all these different layers, and not everyone can do it, but I quite like that. I love that it's such a challenging thing. The challenges and the work that go into that - that really excites me as a performer."

Taking on the role of Igor, Noble was cautious about filling the shoes of the venerable Marty Feldman. "You can't compete with what he did on screen," he admits of Feldman's portrayal. "Even his eyes, you know, short of doing some kind of CGI thing; you can't get close to what his eyes were doing in that film. But a friend of mine who is a really experienced musical theatre guy said to me, 'Marty Feldman didn't have to sing or dance and he didn't have to do it eight times a week, either.' And as soon as you get that in your head, it really changes your perspective.

"Originally I said to Mel, 'You know, I'll try to avoid doing what Marty Feldman did,' and Mel said to me, 'Are you kidding? Steal! Steal it all!' So that's what I did. There were a couple of things in the film that he did that I nicked, just as a little nod to what he did. For example, there's this little thing where he puts his tongue to one side, so I sort of mimicked that. It's a tiny little thing that, to be honest, hardly anyone would be able to see anyway. But it's those sort of things that are little nods to what he did and what an amazing performance that was."