Unrealtime

Ross Noble spends his performance wandering the stage on a whim, pulling bizarre tangents out of brief audience interactions and letting his mind run entirely on autopilot. The centerpiece of the evening involves a woman in the fourth row whom he suspects is a nun—a theory put to the test when she starts drinking lager. The appeal lies in watching a comedian completely discard the safety net of a written script, opting instead to build a show out of random impulses, whether he is riffing on the jauntiness of sailors, suggesting that hip-hop artists try “keeping it vaguely imaginary,” or mapping out a world populated by voles.

Filmed during a month-long West End run at London’s Garrick Theatre in September 2003 and released on DVD in 2004, the show caught Noble at a pivotal point in his career. He was transitioning from a cult Edinburgh Fringe favorite into a major theatre headliner in both the UK and Australia. The production values reflect this step up, featuring a backdrop of giant plastic flowers that bloom as he walks out. While some contemporary critics felt that the grand, Victorian-era venue swallowed some of the intimacy required for his crowd work, the run cemented his status as a West End draw.