The Noble truth
Like Billy Connolly, Ross Noble has flowing locks, an impenetrable accent and hilarious machine gun comedy.
The immensely likeable Noble experiences contentment
There’s no getting past it, Ross Noble is funny. Actually, he’s more than funny. It’s like he cracks our funny bones and sucks out the marrow. That hilarious. London Time Out called him the best live stand-up comedian right now, while viewers of UK’s Channel 4 recently voted him the tenth greatest stand-up comedian. In the world. Of all time. He flattened Steve Martin who clocked in at 59, Woody Allen at 14, and even nudged out Ricky Gervais, who came in at No.11.
Did he feel self-righteous? “There were a lot of people down the list that made me say, ‘Blimey, I don’t know whether I agree with that’. But it’s that sort of thing when lists are made, like with the sexiest people in the world, it’s always famous people who are on the list. It’s never ‘here’s some woman that works in a Red Rooster, she’s the sexiest person in the world’.”
Self-described “randomist”, Noble has been creasing folks with stand-up since his debut at a Newcastle club aged 15 and, even though he now lives in Melbourne, home still looms large. “People in Newcastle are known as ‘Geordies’ and on my website I am referred to as ‘Geordie Ross’ so loads of journalists in Australia thought my name was Geordie and ask why I changed it to Ross Noble.”
Which is perhaps a question Aussie musician Ross Wilson – of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock fame – would ask him. “I’m on IMDB, the International Movie Database. Have you heard of Ross Wilson? He’s a musician, I don’t really know much about him but on his profile there’s a thing that uses Ross Noble as his alias. That’s a bit annoying.”
As a proud owner of 11 motorbikes, does he take on the role as rev head? “It does sound like I’m some sort of, I hate to say it – a hard core petrol head. In the UK, I need to have a bike. But the thing is, I don’t really live a particularly extravagant life.”
But you have 11 bikes… “I like every type of bike, that’s why I’ve got so many. I’ve got one of everything. I’ve got one that I just use for the track and I’ve got another one that is my cruise bike, my child’s bike, just different ones for different occasions. I suppose, just like people who are into cars, they might have a sports car, a cruisy car. I just don’t want to come across as some sort of flash bastard that’s all like ‘oh yeah, I have a collection of bikes’.”
Bikes aside, he doesn’t live a life of excess. When Time Out caught Noble he was in Wonthaggi, South Gippsland in Victoria having just purchased a chicken roll from Red Rooster, which he planned to eat in front of the last episodes of The Wire on his laptop.
“I live my life for the now, all of my choices and what I do is based on how much fun it is, or if it will make me happy. It’s not about money and fame. Sure, that may be a hippy way of life but it seems that everything else comes with that contentment, you know. Gee, the Dalai Lama would whip my arse with this kind of wisdom.”
Ross Noble plays the Enmore Theatre from Fri 18–Wed 23 April at 8pm. (02 9550 3666 www.crackercomedy.com).