The Velvet Onion

As we reported last month, Noel Fielding is currently exhibiting his artwork at Maison Bertaux. Between spending time working on the upcoming Boosh album and making a welcome return to the stand up comedy circuit, Noel has found the time to talk to Bizarre Magazine about his exhibition and his love of art.

© Bizarre Magazine

The four page article goes into details of how he discovered he was good at art at the tender age of five whilst drawing birds at school. It then moves on to explain how he went to art college, dabbling in the world of computer graphics and illustration for a short while before realising that it wasn’t for him. “I tried graphics but I hate computers. Computers are so far from being an artist it’s unbelievable.” He even went as far as to work on an advertising campaign for Jaffa Cakes before meeting comedy partner Julian Barratt and embarking on creating the magical world of The Mighty Boosh together.

You can tell from reading the article just how much Noel’s art means to him.  He describes it as his therapy, explaining how he uses it as a release for his frustrations, like the time he thought they might have lost the third series of  The Mighty Boosh because they couldn’t deliver it on time. “Somehow, real life always filters into your work,” he says.

© Bizarre Magazine

There is also talk of the new TV show that Noel is working on that is due be aired next year in which there will be a character called ‘The Human Mistake’, and he also details his love of Bryan Ferry and the many paintings of him he has on display at the exhibition, including one that has been purchased by Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey.

For more details about Noel’s art, you can look here, and if you’re interested in purchasing a piece, you can contact Tania Wade on tania-gallery-maisonbertaux@hotmail.co.uk. Noel’s exhibition, ‘Bryan Ferry vs. The Jelly Fox’, is on display at Maison Bertaux until January 2011.

As we reported yesterday Noel Fielding was confirmed as a last-minute headline act at the 99 Club Leicester Square last night – hopefully some of you managed to make it.  Luckily for us, three of our intrepid Velveteers were there to report back.  Here’s what they had to say…

Paulyne:
Just when we thought the regular Fielding warm-ups were a thing of the past, he pops up, fresh and jet-lagged from Los Angeles for this extended set in a basement, at the heart of Leicester Square.

Following two other smashing comics (Hal Cruttenden and Tommy Campbell), he donned the stage in his trademark skinnies and a velvet jumper (Velvet? We approve, Fielding), and after him getting through a selection of jokes about the ridiculous radius of my nest (I’m not defending myself, it was just his observation) and throwing water bottle caps in our direction, he came up trumps!

He leaned back on the oldies, but knocked them out like they were fresh from his mind-tank. Even the Blue-Bottle came back, but feeling revitalised, re-worked and something new, just stunning to observe!  The new stories – including his introduction where he was continuously interrupted by a cat with a man’s face – are still in need of a few more goes to get spot-on, but showed that the shiny man’s still got it. There was even the re-occurrence of a personal favourite of mine, which was his ingenious Bollywood version of ‘Buddum-tsh’, that was used throughout the night and kept me happy anyway.

Overall we saw him at his best, improvising, keeping the audience happy and trying out anything that he’s recently concocted.  Fielding is still a gem behind the mic and we cannot wait to see him take to the stage again sometime soon, polished and raring to go again!

© mog

Mog:
Sorry, but first I have to get something off my chest which has nothing to do with the acts who performed last night (who were all excellent in three very distinct ways): The venue sucks!  A hairbrained seating plan that means half the audience might as well have been in another country, 2 toilet cubicles for the entire female audience (all of whom, inevitably, needed to go during the 10 minute interval), £7.50 for a sub-Ginsters pasty in a polystyrene burger carton, and staff who refused to let us take any photos (hence the blurry stealth pic here, which is all we could manage).  Hmphhhh!  However, in spite of this we had a brilliant night, and that was wholly down to the quality of comedians performing.

Tonight’s Fielding set sits within the top 15% of the Fielding gigs I’ve been to (and I’ve seen an unhealthily large quantity of them over the years).  He was sharp, bouncy, spontaneous, and brimming with sparkly new material – even Pizza Express and Masterchef got a mention!  More familar numbers, which were starting to look a tad tired a year ago, have had new life breathed into them with the welcome scattergun addition of new verbal loops and detours.  Even Fielding seems to have fallen back in love with them, reminded of how funny they can be. “Knife Crime. Turns your eyes into cupboards”  is definitely one to watch out for.   And I’ll continue to be cheered for the rest of the week by the gloriously charming image of “2 small children wearing only pants and hats, smeared in jam, who are too young to even know why they’re there”.  An energetic, confident and tremendously likeable performance, further enhanced by the wearing of a velvet sweater.  In our honour, I like to imagine!

Becky:
Last night, despite the last minute rush to the 99 Club, we were once again whisked away into the magical world of Noel’s comedy, where anything is possible and you lose yourself in his words for a while, forgetting all about the stresses and strains of ‘real life’. Despite the less than impressive venue, we took to our seats and looked forward to the show. After a cracking couple of sets from the other two comedians on the bill, Noel came on to do his extended set.

Having been lucky enough to see quite a few of his gigs this year, it’s clear to see that Noel’s stand up is going from strength to strength, and last night was, in my opinion, the best I have seen him yet!   The crowd was respectful – there were no hecklers – and he shone, weaving in and out of his tales and linking them together with ease and confidence. The audience was lapping it up and he was loving it.  There was some old material in there, although this had been extended and worked on to create what seemed like an entirely new set. Monkey Edwards made a popular appearance, as did his story of getting stung by a jellyfish and there was a heart-warming tale of sledging with some young kids on Hampstead Heath, “The sledge went so fast, I went into the future!” And having to grow his skin back afterwards!

All in all, it was a fantastic set and I’m looking forward to the next gig. Don’t leave it too long please Noel!

© mog

At last night’s stand-up show at the 99 Club, Noel Fielding revealed that he will be filming a set for the forthcoming new series of Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow on BBC1.  Having trawled the net, as far as we can tell it will form part of the 5^th or 6^th show of the 2nd series, which is likely to be aired later this year.  For more information visit the show’s wiki page.

Addendum: This will form part of the Bristol show, recorded during the last week of August.

For more Fielding comedy news, look out for our review of Noel’s stand-up show from last night which we’ll be posting later today!

© Tammy Courtney Clark

Some exciting last-minute news for London-based Fielding fans!

We’ve heard on the grapevine that Noel Fielding is performing stand-up at the 99 Club Leicester Square, tonight.  Apologies for the late notice – we appreciate it’s going to be a tad late for most people to make it.  Further details and tickets are available here.