All good trilogies come in threes, and with the Boosh it's no exception, although of course we are all hoping that there will be more Booshes to come in the future. The first of the shows, The Mighty Boosh, deservedly won Noel and Julian the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 1998 at the Edinburgh Festival and also went on to be part of the programme for the Sydney comedy festival where they have since acquired a large Australian fan base. It starred Vince Noire (a squashed elvis) and Howard Moon (Leeds brute), two disgruntled zoo keepers working under the rule of Bob Fossil who took a shine to Vince but in Howard's opinion wasn't worthy of running the zoo. It ran for a number of months at the Hen & Chickens theatre in Highbury & Islington and as the weeks passed by Noel and Julian presented work in progress and introduced their comedy friends to the Boosh audiences. These friends included Shelagh Martin, part of the original H&C residency team, along with Rich Fulcher, Dean Lerner/Garth Marenghi, Matt Berry, Rolly Moe, Lee Mack, Catherine Tate, Dan Antopolski, Universal Grinding Wheel and on occasion Noel's brother Mike and his friend Pete (who together threatened to form the Panini Stickers).

1999 saw the presentation of Arctic Boosh which was directed by Stewart Lee and had more of an identifiable and understandable plot than its predecessor. Vince Noire and Howard Moon, now working in a Post Office, travel to the Arctic in search of the mythical egg of Mantumbi and along the way encounter such characters as Uncle Pedro (he's from Spain), a dancing Yetti, and Mr. Jiffy - a 10 foot mish mash of envelopes, bubble wrap and evil. Nominated for the main Perrier Comedy Award along with then stable-mates Al Murray and Simon Munnery, Noel and Julian narrowly lost out to the Pub Landlord. Arctic Boosh went on to be the main inspiration for the 2003 TV pilot produced by BabyCow, "The Boosh", which has since been commissioned by the BBC.

Noel and Julian were fast making the leap from cult to mainstream as the new look Boosh was aired during 2000 in the larger capacity venue, Pleasance Two - affectionately known as The Barn. It starred Noel, Julian and Dave (a temporary third member of the team) and again starred a host of weird and wonderful characters, props and impressively crafted stage sets. Howard and Vince set off on the road trip from hell. To the surprise of many, Auto Boosh was sadly overlooked when the Perrier nominations were announced, but they did triumph when they took the show to the Melbourne Comedy festival and won the Barry Humphries award. Auto Boosh reared its head again during "Head Farm", a pilot for Channel 4 directed by Stewart Lee, a great supporter of the Boosh. It featured a three minute film based on the show which really whetted the appetite with a taste of how the Boosh could be perfectly realised on TV, but the pilot unbelievably failed to be commissioned.

In 2002 Noel ventured up to the Edinburgh festival with his solo show, "Voodoo Hedghog", a fantastical hour of original stand-up and bizarre characters including Ceruvial Brookes, the Moon, the shadow bummer and a beautiful animation "The Jelly Fox", complete with a set of highly sought after badges to promote the show. Receiving his first solo Perrier Comedy Award nomination, Noel was now on a par with Al Murray but the award went rather predictably to Daniel Kitson.