|
Post by booshandleaguefan on Oct 16, 2006 19:31:57 GMT
"Note to self-pocket cup!"
;D
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 18, 2006 19:47:11 GMT
Times Culture magazine, um... quite a long time ago... "What's the profile of your typical fan?" is a question that comedians like to chew over. Put the question to a comedy double act, and the chewing gets a little more protracted. there will generally be a bit of a pause, a bit of stuttering, a couple of "No, after you"'s, and a long-winded answer that strives for the happy middle ground between both performers. Put the same question to Julian Barrat and Noel Fielding, however, and two succinct answers arrive before a beat is missed. "my fans are all 15-year-old indie girls" Fielding says "My fans are all middle-aged jazz men in cardigans", barrat adds, approximately one-eighth of a secong later. There are few comic relationships as self-consciously conflicting as the one barrat and fielding have nurtured over the past eight years. to saay that their show, the mighty boosh, is all about the innate differences between their natures would be too simple - it is also about phonetically joyous surrealism, musically and sexually fustrated monsters, shamanist nether worlds and what happens when horror, music, art and comedy meet in one terrific psychedelic melting pot - but it is a show that finds its comic engine in the pair's sheer oppositeness and the pitch-perfect, matey prodding that results from it. In the first television series of the mighty boosh, barrat and feilding's gratifyingly pointless alter-egos, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, enliven their life as zookeepers by staging boxing matches with kangaroos, dancing to gary numan with polar bears and helping apes combat split ends. Amid the low-fi lunacy of their self-created "zooniverse", it emerges that Noir (rock-star looks, lustrous locks) is the kind of individual who happily floats through life like an apple bobbing in a stream, while Moon (moustache, permanantly tormented expression) is a ball of novel-planning, jazz-composing, woman-repelling angst. the second series, broadcast on BBC3 last spring and poised to air on BBC2, ups the horror - in one episode, "Nanageddon" arrives: grannies go on the rampage after Noir summons an OAP demon by mistake while trying to impress some goth girls - and supercharges the squabbling. that Moon and Noir's wrangles about hair ("its not 'thin', its fine") Moon says, when Noir mocks his lifeless tresses) and chaotic musical careers take place against a backdrop of perverted mermen and woodwork-obsessed sand beasts only makes them funnier. the pair inhabit a madcap place, but their dynamic owes more to Hancock and James than it does to Reeves and Mortimer. "people say, 'ooh, its surreal what you do'. but really, its just a traditional relationship between two mates and teh shenanigans they get caught up in"' says barrat. barrat and fielding dont just think contrastingly about the world, they present themselves contrastinly before it - probably as contrasting as two thirty-something longtime residents of north london who share a passion for prog-rock can. in the mighty boosh, fielding reads cheekbone magazine and is frequently mistaken for a woman by old, creepy men, but he looks, if anything, even prettier in the flesh - so much so that my first though when i see him is "who is that womanwith julain barrat?". he wears the leather pants and got into a high-profile clash with Peter Kay (he was incensed at a Kay-sectioned charity even at the albert hall last spring, when he was heckled, and Kay, who was compering, came on and commented to the audience that fielding's act went over his head). barrat, meanwhile, quietly broods, and cultivates his wing-commander moustache. "i like it because it gives an air of pomposity". it is barrat who has the more commanding presence. legen has it that the mighty boosh - the name derives from a nickname once given to fielding's brother's hair - was initiated after fielding, then an art student, saw one of barrat's gigs and stalked him. on the boosh's website, a menu offers fans the option of 'visiting' both comedians. a visit to fielding results in a cavalcade of his naive expressionist drawings, while the other option merely offers a photograph of a beleaguered, Hancockian Barrat alone on a pub seat and a link - titled 'my interests' - to the website of the ageing jazz guitarist alan holdsworth. barrat, like moon, hopes to do "more music in the future". fielding, who is responsible for the boosh's artwork, wants to know if im "the journalist who wrote that the show was 'kaleidoscopically beautiful'". "im an aesthetic fascist" he says. "if a show's ugly, i have trouble enjoying it, even if its really funny. the office, foe example: i love ricky gervais, but the mundainity burns my eyes" with its DIY feel, wild splashes of colour, musical eclecticism and irrepressable good natire, barrat and fielding's world is everything the post-office cringe-com's is not. this might once have made it difficult to pursuade TV executives of its relevance, but now, the boosh are providing timely relief for those who have ground their teeth watching nighty night or peep show. barrat nd fielding's friends and family members, playing maggot-eating fishermen and, DJ-ing apes, bickering shamen and Chris de Burg, add to a some-times arcane yet always homely ambience that might make you hide behind the furtniture, but wont ever make you bit into it. "we like getting a family of people together, not faces of people you see all the time, clogging up the telly" says barrat. "its annoying when you see someone on a show, then on an ad teh next day" adds fielding. it seems particularly unlikely, then, that there wil be any imminent guest spots for a certain rotund light entertainer from the northwest. "it was very annoying" says fielding, when i askhim about the albert hall incident. "you dont get to play those places often. i was having a really good gig, and i got heckled at the end of my set. i put the heckler down sufficiently, then he [Kay] came on stage.... "its the compere's responsibility to come on and say 'oi, shut your mouth' at those things, and it was supposed to be called Peter kay and Friends. i got angry. he's an arrogant manand he was abusing his power." he takes a sip of his wine and tiems the next bit nicely. "i would have decked him, though"
*siiigghhh* i've been sat ehre writing this for over half and hour i think. no wonder my back hurts......
|
|
|
Post by booshandleaguefan on Oct 18, 2006 20:29:59 GMT
Did you really write all that out?
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 18, 2006 20:35:39 GMT
yeah
|
|
|
Post by booshandleaguefan on Oct 18, 2006 20:41:59 GMT
Aww bless ya! You deserve a kissy face And my respect of course ;D
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 18, 2006 20:52:23 GMT
yayness!! im pretty dedicated.. but i'm all spent, press-wise, so someone else'll have to take over!
|
|
|
Post by voodoohedgehog on Oct 19, 2006 20:11:29 GMT
Never Fear!!! I have many, many boosh press cuttings, gleaned from the pages of NME ( I reccomend NME, they absolutely love the boosh!)
First and Foremost here's a cutting from the 6th of May 2006 edition of NME, words by Tim Jonze, copied out by Me!
They're mates with all your favourite bands, look cooler than Liam, and have just finished for mights at Brixton, but... How rock'n'roll are The Mighty Boosh?What's the most extravagent thing you have on your rider? Noel: We always have champagne before we go on. It doesn't get you too pissed but it gets you hyper. We put a differnet juice in it each day, like pear juice, you've got to go on stage with cocktail , dont you?
Julian:The food's minimal. You dont want to go onstage with a belly full of kebabs. You need to be sleek. I've got to get down to my pants. I don't want to be waddling onstage like a water buffalo.
NME rock'n'roll rating 6/10
Ever thrown a diva strop? Noel: Yeah loads! You think you're not gonna but then you just lose it! Our fans are like "Can you sign this? Can you pose for this?" Then after three weeks some innocent little girl will ask you for an autograph and you'll turn around and go 'Oh just f**k off!'
Julian: I get pretty incoherant and violent. Short, sharp bursts of chaotic anger. It normally happens when Naboo forgets to turn up onstage at all, the little stoner." 8/10 Have you had many groupies stalking you? Noel: Loads, it's ludicrous! There was one girl who tried to get on the bus and we said 'No' so she said 'Let me change your mind!' and pushed her tits right up to the window! She left them there until we drove off.
Julian: I had to sign a man's- what do you call it?- 'garden path'! The hair leading down the front of his trousers. Trouble was,Noel had already done it, so I ended up basically signing the top of his cock 8/10 Which stars are on the guestlist? Noel: Roger Daltrey and Pete Doherty were down but sadly didnt make it. Johnny Borrell played a rabbit. Who else? Victoria Wood, Fatboy Slim, Chris Morris, Billy Bragg, Paul Weller and Phil Oakey. Oh and Steve Coogan partied with us. They're all fighting to get in.
Julian: I'm waiting for some jazz guys to turn up- I'm not bothered about these new fellas. Problem is all my jazz heroes are dead now. 8/10 And has Kate Moss been round for a shag yet? Julian: A couple of times, yeah. I have to let her know I'm not that kind of guy. You have to say 'No, Kate! No More!' 9/10
Can you crowd surf to The Mighty Boosh? Noel: I did once! I fell off stage as the Hitcher. A load of girls screamed 'He's Dead!' I was really winded. But because you are onstage, you cant let anyone know you're hurt.
Recived any strange gifts? Noel: One guy literally threw his six year old daughter onstage at us. Like he was offering us his child.
Julian: Noel gets more than me. Everything he wears is donated to him from fans: pants, belts, socks.All I get is biscuits. 6/10
Who the f**k are the Arctic Monkeys? Noel: I like the name it's quite Booshy. But how old are they 12? 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor? How would you know? You've never even had an erection! You're still doing your homework - bless 'em. 8/10
What combinations of drugs are you on? Noel: Jesus! All of them. Including Lemsip and poppers.
Julian: I've done comedy on various drugs and it's pretty bad. With hash or weed you get really self confident one minute then really paranoid the next. You become obsessed with the one person who isnt laughing. They may just be deaf or something, but it really bothers you. 10/10
When are you going to be on the front cover of NME? Noel: It'd be nice. We love the NME quote about us being the most rock and roll comedy around.
Julian: Having said that, I'd sooner we were on the cover of New Scientist.
The Result: 72% Not quite Bobby Gillespie then, but still weirder than a thousand David Ickes.
;D I have more where that came from!!! Sorry if anyone is offended by the drug references, i dont support the taking of recreational drugs. Especially Lemsip. OD on that and you'll be very, very drowsy for up to 3 hours.
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 19, 2006 21:08:49 GMT
hehehee, i've never actually had lemsip.. missing out on a vital part of growing up there it seems!
rocking clipping hannah, more please! ;D
|
|
|
Post by voodoohedgehog on Oct 25, 2006 19:41:19 GMT
Interveiw from The Scotsman Online... I didnt type this, I copied and pasted cos it's so damn cute!!! ;D
Beat about the Boosh FIONA SHEPHERD
IT IS MONDAY, 23 JANUARY. According to a formula devised by a Cardiff University psychologist, this is the gloomiest day of the year. Yet, despite the dire warnings, cult comedy hipsters the Mighty Boosh are not having a particularly blue Monday.
"Well I'm pretty hungover this morning," concedes Julian Barratt, the tall, northern, more deadpan half of the Boosh duo. "That's quite gloomy."
Noel Fielding - shorter, younger, southerner, a man who fastidiously looks after his rock-star coiffure and never balks when a role "demands" cross-dressing - is having none of the theory. "I woke up this morning and swans carried me around the room and animals came through the window and combed my hair. There were harps playing. It was all good for me, so this guy doesn't know what he's on about. It would be good to find out where he lives and try and make his day special." This kind of fantastical, random wit and intuitive cross-talk is typical of the Boosh, whose flights of fancy make the free association of Reeves and Mortimer look pretty sober by comparison.
"It's a double-act dynamic," says Barratt, "and the relationship between double acts is quite childlike." There is definitely a playful naivety to the Boosh's work. Their television show, The Mighty Boosh, is a silly yet inventive mix of tangential humour, hallucinogenic plotlines, musical numbers, animated interludes, ridiculous monsters, homemade sets, dressing-up-box outfits and - of course, because it's inherently funny - people in animal costumes, all presented with DIY pride. "It's like in [Monty Python's] The Holy Grail when they use coconuts instead of horses because they couldn't afford horses," says Barratt.
The first series was set in a zoo, with Barratt and Fielding as Howard Moon and Vince Noir, the world's least attentive zookeepers, who were always zipping off duty to have Mr Ben-style adventures. The second series, which has just started a repeat run on BBC2, is even looser. "We wanted to make it about stupid quests rather than the business of a sitcom - characters and their relationships," says Barratt.
In fact, the endearing relationship between the tetchy, neurotic Moon and the cool, laid-back Noir has been flourishing for close to a decade. Barratt and Fielding debuted their alter egos in their first Fringe hit The Mighty Boosh, which won them 1998's Perrier Best Newcomer Award. The pair had only met a couple of years earlier. Two more successful Fringe shows and a radio series followed, before they found their way on to the small screen.
"I was going to be a jazz-fusion guitarist," says Barratt. "I came to London at one point with my mate and we were going to make it. We spent three days there and went back home to our mummies. Then I went to university and started doing stand-up. I know this isn't what you asked, but I'll just tell you my life story anyway." Fielding starts to sing the This Is Your Life theme in the background. "And then I met Noel. I remember his hair very vividly. It was like a Norman helmet."
Fielding comes in: "What I remember is his big shoulders and his flowerpot hat and his twitchy eyes. He always looked frightened like I was going to kill him in the night. I used to think, 'Who the hell is this? what's he trying to pull off? there's hope for me'."
At the time, Fielding was doing performance art, dressing up as Jesus and impersonating Mick Jagger. Simultaneously. "I had a water pistol, squirting holy water in people's faces. It was nonsense but it was quite funny, although it wasn't supposed to be. So then I thought maybe I'll do some comedy."
Things started looking up for their newly established partnership when they were asked to play a whale (Fielding) and a giant penis (Barratt) in Stewart Lee's hit 1997 Fringe show King Dong Vs Moby Dick. These illustrious cameos have been followed over the years by roles in Nathan Barley, in which Barratt played hapless journo Dan Ashcroft and Fielding popped up in the background playing some bangin' choons, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (Barratt) and new Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd (Fielding).
With their left-field style, they have become the rock'n'roll comedy act of choice. But the cult of the Boosh continues to spread, and, less predictably, the pair are emerging as the sweethearts of the armed forces. "We got a letter from some soldiers in Iraq saying, 'We love the show, we quote it over the radio. Maybe you could come out and entertain the troops'."
There are plans to form a Boosh band at some point, although probably not for concert party purposes. The focus at the moment is the mammoth national tour they have just embarked on, in the company of cherished Mighty Boosh characters Bob Fossil, the lo-fi mystic Naboo (played by Fielding's brother Mike) and Bollo the gorilla.
"It's quite exciting, we've got a bus," says Fielding. "It is a bit like being in a band. Obviously me and Julian get star treatment. Naboo flies there; he's got his own private jet, sponsored by Pot Noodle." Barratt adds: "And we've got Bollo in a horse wagon that goes behind the tour bus. He's also a roadie."
After the tour, Barratt says there is "loose talk" of a third series, or possibly a film. "We're just trying to find a vehicle that can hold all these ideas we have. We're going into tapestry next, then modern dance. It's not immediately categorisable. I don't know what to say when anyone asks what the Boosh is."
"It's a shoe that you wear on your head," offers Fielding. "It's like a complicated album. It's [Captain Beefheart's] Trout Mask Replica. Some jokes are just not funny at the time, they're funny 25 years later. We're mainstream in about ten years time. Hopefully in 40 years people will say, 'That was great!'"
"They'll find us in the desert," says Barratt. "'Hey, your show's being rerun. Get off my land.'"
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 25, 2006 21:03:02 GMT
hahhahhaha, that was so great and sweet! i've just been watching noel doing stand up from what i taped off paramount comedy the other night, it was great... but anyway, back to this ^. i'll be reading it over and over again, and i like the 'its a shoe that you wear on your head', im gonna say that to people when they ask what it is. and 'we're going into tapestry next, then modern dance', and of course 'It would be good to find out where he lives and try and make his day special', so sweet!
|
|
|
Post by voodoohedgehog on Oct 26, 2006 19:43:22 GMT
it's so cute, soldiers in Iraq like them! I spose because they are in a living hell, they need something like the boosh to bring some relief
|
|
|
Post by Leaf on Oct 26, 2006 19:46:02 GMT
Omg! i think i am in love with this thread
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Oct 27, 2006 19:21:53 GMT
me too! hannah, we need more booshy articles! pronto!
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Nov 6, 2006 20:38:43 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Corrine on Dec 12, 2006 18:52:25 GMT
mum said she was reading a magazine in he break the other day, and it had a bit of celebrities being spotted: (this isnt word-for-word mind, its from memory) 'noel fielding spottet leaping off a tube after almost missing his stop because of being engrossed in a script'
looks like sereis 3's well on the way then!
|
|