Blonde Ambition & Mellow Yellow

Noel Fielding played a two night residency at Just The Tonic on 12th & 13th March – only for the gigs to be almost drowned out in the controversy over his hair.

© Annat. Hosted by The Velvet Onion.

The bleached blonde comic has had Facebook groups created in memorium of his hair, but we at the Onion are kinda liking it. And besides, we’re here for the news about their stellar work, so lets just look at the picture and make our own minds up, eh?

Regarding his actual material, friends of The Velvet Onion were on hand for both gigs, and had this to say…

It was about one third to a half old material, and it all went down pretty well with a very nice mixed crowd there tonight, with only a few crazies and hardly any heckling.

He over-ran, of course – the whole set was about 50 minutes or so. The last part was all new – or at least to me. His cat, Poirot in his hair, quite a nice routine about flamingos and another about a jellyfish.  Quite a lot of nice flights of fancy which don’t really go anywhere but they are really nice to listen to…. if you have that frame of mind, though I had the uncomfortable feeling though that many in the audience saw him as a curiosity.

© Annat. Hosted by The Velvet Onion.

Saturday night’s set was quite a change from Friday, all fluid and high energy from the start. Old and new material seemed to flow effortlessly from one to the other, with was no sense of demarcation between the two. The new stuff was tighter, and the Monkey Edwards finale hilarious. The audience were laughing uproariously all through the set.  Noel was really, really on form making the two acts before him look pedestrian and lumbering by comparison. Fielding was master of the stage last night and he knew it!

Annat

Having seen Noel at the Amused Moose comedy night two weeks before, I thought I knew what I was in for, but once again I was surprised by his set. He immediately owned the stage, brimming with confidence with a few jokes directed at his ‘controversial’ new blond hair.  I won’t go into the new material too much as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet and is going to the Teenage Cancer Trust show, but there were some great routines involving a cat called Poirot, flamingos and his neighbour, ‘Monkey Edwards’. Needless to say, it was very funny.

Noel got a great reaction from the crowd who laughed uproariously throughout and gave him a big round of applause afterwards (and during in some instances!).   All in all, i would say it was a very successful gig. He is improving every time, working very hard on his new material and it certainly shows. He is confident, full of energy and seems happy and healthy. For anyone who is a doubter, give him a chance and go and see him. It is worth the time and money and you won’t be disappointed.

Becky Johnson