‘Comedy version of an android’ Ross Noble looks forward to performing live show in Derbyshire

The Geordie master of giggle-inducing gags performs at Buxton Opera House on November 11, 2021.

He’s also appearing at Sheffield City Hall on January 23, 2022, as part of an extensive UK tour.

Ross’s latest stand-up creation is entitled Humournoid. Explaining the backdrop to the must-see show, he said: “Imagine a huge version of my head that splits in half and then wires are stretched between the two halves and you can see all the circuit boards inside and the LEDs flashing. I thought it would be cool to walk out at the beginning of the show through a massive verson of my head.”

This set seems entirely apt for his surreal and spontaneous approach to stand-up. “People used to say, ‘What’s your show about?’ And it’s only in the last few months that I’ve realised it’s basically an invitation to see the world through my eyes. It took me years to realise that. I always thought ‘My shows aren’t really about anything’ but they sort of are. They’re about what I think about things.”

This might account for why Ross has called this show Humournoid. He began thinking of himself as “a comedy version of an android…like some sort of comedy experiment, some sort of Frankenstein’s monster”. He arrived at ‘Humournoid’, a mix of humour and android. Only later did it strike him the word had other connotations. “When you say it out loud, it sounds like ‘haemorrhoid’! I’ve got this idea that people will turn up to the show with creams, lotions, and donut-shaped cushions. In one way I over- thought it, and then also didn’t think it through! Which perfectly describes what I do.”

Of course, the pandemic-related difficulties of 2020 and 2021, which saw Ross’s show postponed on more than one occasion, have given the comedian new fuel for his show, a wild stream-of-conscious that relies on both his own worldview and audience input. Living in Melbourne with his family, it’s also been three years since he toured the UK with his El Hablador set. “I’m looking forward to getting back in front of a British audience,” he says. “I’m just interested to see where everybody’s head is at.”

Ross feels that more than most, stand-up comedians were equipped to cope with the lockdowns and quarantines that everyone had to endure. “You don’t have to leave the house, you doss around, you haven’t got a boss, you’re working from home, and then you go out for an hour. That’s been my life for the last thirty years! For me the pandemic was the same as my life normally is…except I just didn’t do a gig in the evening. That was the only difference.”

During the pandemic the comedian turned his hand to screenwriting and has a couple of projects in development which he hopes to put into production next year.

Tickets for his Buxton show are £29, go to www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk; tickets for Sheffield cost £31.20, go to www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

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