THE MIGHTY BOOSH @ the Pleasance Theatre

Words cannot describe the Mighty Boosh live experience.

But I'll give it a go.

When I first saw Boosh on the tellybox I was a tiny little bit afraid. I wasn’t used to the shiny newness of the Zooniverse and the sarky sparky Moon/Noir banter - (alter egos of comedy duo Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt). Still, … soon got over it. Enough to jump with joy when I found out Luce had got the Fringey tickets to one of their preview shows at the Pleasance Theatre. Hurrah!

Warning - flimsy boosh plot is revealed!

Vince 'electro poof' Noir and Howard 'jazz maverick' Moon charmed and entertained the pants of us, with their comedy equivalent of a Babyshambles gig, but without the narcotics, (I think). In fact I nearly peed those very pants - really - in the first half, as they did a greatest hits setlist of all our fav gags, characters, and songs. But now - live on stage - they brought an evil twisted slant to their weird wonderful humour.

The comedy bastards toyed with us, first killing off Naboo, then Howard and Vince and even Bollo, during the course of the evening! Using 'the Hitcher' as their instrument of Boosh carnage - damn his minty eye! - they were able to do lo-fi semi-improvised versions of many of the best set pieces from the tv and radio series. (Forcing the Boosh boys into an abstract plan to save Naboo, by retrieving the Ruby of Kakundu from the arctic Tundra.)

The show builds to a hysterical climax, we laugh as Howard is stabbed to death by the evil minty cockney geezer, and then scream at the narcissistic darkness of Noel claiming to have fucked his own head, (when the psycho Hitcher beheads Vince in Topshop – offstage obviously). Fielding and Barratt are hilarious, no wonder pairs of tickets were going for £100 on ebay. My face hurt from all the laughing.

I wish I could go see them again and again, but in the meantime series two is out on dvd, I’ve ordered it already.

Luce said