DVD review by Steve Bennett

It’s really not the done thing to review something without seeing it all the way through – but Ross Noble makes that difficult, if not impossible.

His top-of-his-head style means each of his shows is substantially different from the last, so he always has reams of material that he could include on his DVDs. And this year is no different, with a three-disc set including more than five hours of stand-up filmed in Canberra, London and the Hay Festival. Add to that an interview, a ‘best of’ feature, plus more live footage from the open-air Laughs In The Park gig at St Albans, and you’ve got a good working day of solid Ross Noble watching. Nonsensory Overload indeed...

There is, of course, a lot of digression and conversational flam in here, and times when you’d probably wish he’d find the funnies quicker, and cut down those long running times... but it’s also a crucial part of the experience, to emphasise the knowledge that he’s creating comedy out of thin air, and with an impressive hit rate, too.

Noble usually fires his imagination from the briefest of chats to the audience, the most innocent comment sparking wild fantasies about a man having a Stargate-style time portal in his backside or recreating Avatar on a budget.

Some of this may be pre-planned, but surely the vast majority isn’t. Either way, all is so seamlessly integrated by his free-forming mind that the shows seems so compellingly fluid, even when off-the-cuff routines are still finding their way. When strands come together he gets an applause break as if he was a circus acrobat who’s just pulled off some spectacular feat of gymnastics. Which of course, he has – if of the mentally agile kind, rather than the physical.

And if the flights of fancy look like their hitting some rough turbulence, Noble navigates out of it with his fallback technique of pointing out just how ridiculous or inappropriate he’s being. But while he’s forever cheeky, he’s never malicious, whatever a scandal-stirring Melbourne tabloid might have said when he joked about the laugh of a fan with cerebral palsy, just like he would with any other punter.

While it is his ad-libbing that makes Noble stand out, his peculiar brand of observational comedy also generates some brilliant routines that the most heavily scripted comic would be proud to include. His thoughts on the subject of why we tilt our heads when trying to figure something out is a particular highlight, with an inspired payout.

But I can’t tell you it’s the best routine of the DVD, as there’s several hours of footage still to be trawled through, and since Noble seems on top creative form here, who know what other delights are yet to be unearthed?

Published: 9 Nov 2012