‘An Evening with Noel Fielding – Live’ DVD Review
It’s fair to say that Noel Fielding is one of the more surreal comedians that has come out of the UK. Surreal but never boring. Coming to most people’s attention with The Mighty Boosh, then going a little too odd with Luxury Comedy it is fair to say he can be hit and miss at times. An Evening with Noel Fielding though is some of his best work. (Oh and Luxury Comedy got a lot better in the second season when it started to make more sense).
An Evening with Noel Fielding is a stand-up comedy act, but with added weirdness from some of the characters he’s created such as The Moon, and my personal favourite Fantasy Man. With a style of comedy that goes “meta” at times, it’s a show that while surreal actually works well.
Fielding shows that he is in full control of his stage show, and the audience who watches it. Showing knowledge of how his fans think, he’s not afraid to seemingly fall out of character and comment on his own act (which is the meta aspect). Bringing in people like his brother Mike Fielding and co-star Tom Meeten also allows for more characters to be added to the show. An example of this would be BigChief Woolabum Boomalackaway, as what would Adventure Man be without his trusty sidekick. Seeing Adventure Man on stage is also an interesting experience, and one of the highlights of the show.
Noel Fielding’s style of surrealism is often at the razor’s edge of being a little too strange for the audience at times, and he fully realises that fact. He uses it as part of his act, and whether it is scripted or not it is funny to hear him comment about how he is not sure how to “get out” of the joke he has trapped himself in. The true talent of the comedian is that fact that he sets up this scenario so that the audience can laugh at him, even if he is fully in control of the situation. He created situations where he apparently feels uncomfortable only to make the audience enjoy his attempts to get out of the hole he has dug himself into.
An Evening with Noel Fielding works because we are fans entering into watching the stand-up routine knowing exactly what we are getting. I’m not sure how some people would react to Joey Ramone, Fantasy Man or Sergeant Raymond Boombox but the fact he uses them in the show proves that he knows they will work and that they have become fan favourites. Just as Mighty Boosh fans know Old Gregg, Moon, and The Hitcher they also know these characters. Some fans even show up dressed as the characters, which shows just how over with the audience they are.
If you wanted a good introduction into the comedian’s strange world then An Evening with Noel Fielding is actually an interesting place to start. Not as out there as Luxury Comedy, but not as accessible as The Mighty Boosh the stage show gives a good representation of Fielding’s style. Daring, surreal, and always entertaining An Evening with Noel Fielding is well worth a watch.
***** 5/5
An Evening with Noel Fielding is available on DVD now.
