"Pound yer bananas, two pound yer pears..."

The Mighty Boosh is unlike any show you are ever likely to see, and one that defies description, which makes the job of the reviewer a very difficult one. If you're the kind of person that needs comparisons, the closest you could get to the unique style of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding would be in the early days of Reeves and Mortimer, with their cardboard props and men with sticks. But unlike Reeves and Mortimer, the Boosh zookeepers turned postmen Howard Moon (Julian) and Vince Noir (Noel), never leave their own world. The Mighty Boosh inhabits a universe entirely of it's own, and the invitation to join them once a week in the Hen and Chickens, Islington, or for an hour a day for their four week run of the Edinburgh festival is not one that any one should pass up.

In Julian's own words, the Boosh is "a shimmering bitch that, er, rapes itself". Noel describes the Boosh as "a chance for us to show the funny ideas rather than us just saying them. You know when a man says "Look at the puma" and he's got rainbows coming out of his ankles - that's funny. But when you can show that it's 10 times more funny, and that's what the Boosh is."

Barratt and Fielding have been working together for over two years now. They met when Noel was in Art College and he was first trying out his stand up material. "All my friends saw him separately and said to me "You've gotta see this bloke, he's just like you!" He's the first person I ever saw who was doing weird stuff. But not weird in the sense of mentioning bananas once in a set. Actually talking about things that were just not to do with anything. I thought that was brilliant." Noel began going to all Julian's gigs. "He thought I was a bit weird. I'd turn up and say "Oh, I like you! I do stuff like you! I'm gonna do comedy!" Julian: "I was like "Get out of my life!""

Noel claims that he used a very original approach with his stand up: "I used to dress up as Jesus. A little thing I used to do, dress up a Jesus! I had long hair anyway, I used to paint a beard on because I couldn't grow a beard at that point, a watercolour beard that if it was hot it used to just melt. And I had a massive cross and I used to get on it and do sort of Mick Jagger impressions."

"We didn't know that we could work together. We were very surprised. We thought we might cancel each other out but it was better than we thought."

They were both working their way around the stand up circuit, with some limited success. Julian moved from his home town of Leeds to London, and, as Noel relates, didn't immediately tell anyone in his house he was doing comedy. "So he used to just go out at night for five hours and come back in the middle of the night! Like a murderer. They thought he was a serial killer!"

Julian: "But I was the one who was dying, that was the irony of the piece."
Noel: "Ooooh! I like that!"

They both took part in what is now the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards, with Julian winning in 1995 and Noel coming runner up the following year. They first worked together in Stewart Lee's 1997 Edinburgh show "King Dong Vs Moby Dick", in which Julian played a giant penis and Noel played a man sized whale (They both refer to Lee and Herring as their "comedy uncles"). With this experience under their belts, and having seen each other's material through appearances on Channel 4's Gas and Channel 5's Comedy Network, they decided to create a new show together. Noel says that they were unsure about working together at first. "We thought we would both be too weird and it'd be awkward." Julian agrees: "We didn't know that we could work together. We were very surprised. We thought we might cancel each other out but it was better than we thought."

While filming 'Unnatural Acts' for the Paramount comedy channel, they met Rich Fulcher and Sean Cullen (Cullen has since appeared with them on the Channel 5/Paramount show "Festival of Fun"). "They were like an American version of us," says Noel, "They both got on really well even though they were different. They both had weird ideas." They talked about doing a "four-way sketch show, or something, but Sean ended up going off to Canada and doing really well." Rich joined Julian and Noel in the Mighty Boosh at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival, for which the three earned the Perrier Best Newcomer Award. Has anything changed for them since winning the Perrier Award? "I don't let people look at me anymore," says Noel, "People look at me and I get my agent to set fire to them." "I don't let people touch me anymore", Julian adds. "I don't like it, I don't need it. It's dirty... So, nothing really. It was great at the time, it was a brilliant high to win it, to be recognised for doing something which was great but nothing really has happened." "All the industry know who we are, and like what we're doing" adds Noel, "so that's a bonus."

They have been working on their new Edinburgh show, "The Arctic Boosh", for the last year, performing every Monday night in the Hen and Chickens in Islington, and have developed a very devoted following. A few fans come every week, but most come "every so often" says Noel, "to make sure we don't disappear up our own arses!" The new show, directed by TV's Stewart Lee, has been tipped to win the Perrier Award this year, but they are not letting this go to their heads. Julian denies that awards are an incentive for them. "The thing with awards is that they're quite... I think the important thing is that me and Noel are working quite hard on things constantly rather than winning an award and going "Hey" and then just don't really do anything. We're just going to keep working on this stuff which is the most important thing at the moment so that next year we've got better stuff than last year." Noel asserts that they are happy doing what they are doing now. "Stand up is just people saying things and I quite like the idea that you can have a Jazz fusion guitarist with a zoo keeper living in his head. I like that and it's nice that you can do it. And with other people it's like being in a band. It's so much better than stand up."

Julian: "I'd like to be like, some great big poncy bloke."
Noel: "I see myself as the Dick Van Dyke for the new millennium!"

They have plans for bringing their world to the wider media. Julian already has some experience of radio work, having produced a Christmas special for Radio 1 with Tim Hope, who works with him in The Pod. "So, we might do some radio soon. Might try and get some ideas across on radio." Noel agrees enthusiastically. "We're going to write a radio thing, write a TV script things and try and develop things like that". Wider ambitions include appearing as Walt Disney villains. "Julian could be like the great Walt Disney Villain and I could be his like really stupid sidekick. It'd be great!"

Julian: "Yeah, I'd like to do costume dramas, I'd like to be like, some great big poncy bloke who goes "But I... I - Oh!" who cries over his little tiny little pot pourri - I love that!"
Noel: "I want to be in a Disney film. I want a Disney vehicle that is for a kooky Englishman and maybe some cartoon fish in it with me singing "bobbing along..."! I see myself as the Dick Van Dyke for the new millennium!"

www.themightyboosh.inuk.com

Main photo (c) Avalon / Individual photos (c) B Magazine