Festival Diaries #11: Ross Noble

..had to be performing in the most comfortable venue by far. The soft padded seats of the EICC were enormously soporific, so Mr Noble had his work cut out trying to keep his audience from falling asleep. Fortunately this funnyman truly surpassed my expectations, and I was bent double with laughter during the first half of his show.

Somehow after the interval, his spark was a little less bright as he went on to cheaply jeer at religions, politics, etc. During the whole second half it seemed Ross wanted laughs so much, that he went a little too close to the wire.

However; I loved the Princess Diana Fountain/Memorial Truck bit - "she was just a posh lass who died" - and Ross' portrayal of the Scouse seag-girl was spot on. The venue was perhaps a bit odd for such a gig, but it didn't alter the fact that, for the most part, Ross Noble was brilliantly funny.