The Mighty Boosh: Surreal mayhem is mighty fun

Oct 3 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

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TV’s Mighty Boosh are thrilling many with tales from their surreal world. Vicky Anderson reports

"EXPECT punks and Yetis and monsters with elbow patches, in a psychedelic meteorite of music and mayhem,” says Julian Barratt, one half of the Mighty Boosh, when asked what awaits the audience of their upcoming live shows.

Alongside comedy partner Noel Fielding, the duo have worked their way up from pub gigs to a radio series, on to television stardom, and now, Arena shows.

They come to Echo Arena, Liverpool, for two shows on October 14 and 15.

It’s a huge step up from their last appearance in the city in 2006, when they filled the Empire with dedicated fans, seemingly through word-of-mouth alone, at a time when their TV show was barely on the radar of the majority.

Now, you can’t escape them.

The Mighty Boosh is the pair’s alternate universe, where adventures have included travelling to the Arctic tundra to retrieve mystical treasures, saving their talking gorilla friend Bollo, from Monkey Hell, being possessed by the Spirit of Jazz, and being inexplicably stranded on a desert island and turning to coconuts for company.

“Live comedy gives you a particular buzz,” says Leeds-born Julian, 40.

“It’s so instant. You get a reaction straight away.

“Having spent a lot of time making television, you hunger for that immediate response.

“It’s great to find out what people think of your material right away, rather than months or even years later.

‘YOU can improvise as you’re going along, which is a real thrill, too. Live work is incredible, and when it goes well, nothing can beat it.”Š

“It has been amazing,” adds Noel. “The only way I can measure it is by the people who come up to us in the street. It used to be just cool kids, but now it’s cab drivers and chavs, which is great because it means you’re appealing to more people. In the past, when I got into taxis, the cabbies would always ask, ‘who are you?’ Now they immediately say, ‘Mighty Boosh!’

“Chavs come up to me and say, ‘that show is sick.’ It doesn’t sound it, but apparently that’s good. They don’t stab me, so that’s fine – ‘don’t touch him, he’s on telly’. When you dress the way I do, it’s great to have things like that to save you.

“Kids really like it because there are lots of visual elements to it. It’s one of those programmes kids like more than their parents. It’s like with music, if a parent says, ‘that band is awful!’ their kids will go out and buy their albums.”

Now, with three series of the programme under their belt and the possibility of a film in the near future, the Boosh are riding high.

Their whimsical premise – the first series being set in a zoo, the second a flat and the third in a curiosity shop, had each and every episode bursting with music and nonsense as Vince and Howard took on a range of strange adversities from a demon grandma to a merman called Old Gregg (all played by themselves).