Ross Noble is back in the UK for – remarkably – his 21st solo stand-up tour Jibber Jabber Jamboree, with dates including Brighton Dome (Friday, February 9) and Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park (Wednesday, February 21).
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00:00 Yeah, great.
00:01 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:06 Fantastic pleasure, huge pleasure to speak to Ross Noble no less.
00:09 And you are heading our way on 'What is your 21st tour?'
00:13 You're coming to Eastbourne and Brighton very shortly.
00:16 21st tour, that is incredible longevity in comedy.
00:19 You must feel enormously proud to have reached that landmark.
00:23 I thought you were going to say, 'And that is why you look as old and agitated.'
00:28 I would just like to point out as well that I'm currently on tour at the moment
00:36 and I'm staying in, where am I sitting? Ross on Why?
00:40 Oh, nice.
00:41 Which my tour manager did point out, that's the sort of thing that
00:45 Channel 5 would turn into a series for me.
00:49 It's just going to be like, 'It's Ross on Why!'
00:52 So I'm currently staying by a sort of a beautiful river and all the rest of it,
01:04 which is why I've got, that's why there's an Ordnance Survey map.
01:07 I was wondering, I thought you were planning your next run on that.
01:10 Well, people might be looking at this and just thinking that I'm in some sort of sauna
01:15 and that I've got a large Swedish woman with some birch whipping my legs.
01:23 I'm not, that is literally, that's a cupboard and this isn't my house.
01:27 The thought never flitted through my mind, I promise.
01:30 I do this tour, I'm doing the whole thing with, instead of GPS, it's all orienteering.
01:38 So every single gig that I do has to be within visual distance of a trig point.
01:49 Fair enough, fair enough.
01:51 But the 21st, that is a hell of an achievement, isn't it?
01:55 And when you look back, do you feel that you've become a very different comedian over the years?
02:00 Have you changed?
02:01 Yeah, I think I've become a very different person, you know, over that.
02:06 I don't know if I've, I don't know if I've become a different, have I become a different comedian?
02:13 Yeah, I think I have. I think, I mean, the difference is that when I, you know, when I started,
02:18 I was, obviously I was a, you know, I was a small child.
02:22 I was, you know, I was a single bloke that just basically, I mean, essentially just lived out of my car, you know.
02:30 I was just travelling around doing gigs and dossing on people's floors and stuff.
02:34 And then. But now you're a family man living on the other side of the world.
02:38 Exactly. Yeah. And so, yeah, so you sort of, I think you do sort of, I think you change in terms of like things.
02:45 My entire life was just being a comedian, you know, and I think you can sort of, you know, when you do a gig,
02:53 you do a gig and then you basically move to the next gig.
02:56 That's, that's your entire, that's your entire world, which makes you really good at being on stage.
03:02 It means you're really good at being a comedian. But I think over the years, I was about, this sounds so,
03:11 this sounds like I'm going to write some sort of self-help book.
03:14 But I think you become, you sort of become a human being.
03:19 You become a better human being rather than, I used to think, oh, just being a, just being a really good comic.
03:25 I don't worry about all that. Don't worry about.
03:28 You must be a better comedian for having more happening in your life, mustn't you?
03:31 Exactly. Exactly.
03:32 More to draw on.
03:33 Turns out that that is the lesson that you need to learn. So, yeah.
03:37 And obviously, come at a different perspective. You live in Australia, don't you?
03:41 To come back to the UK, do you see the UK in a different way these days?
03:46 Yeah, yeah, very much so. I mean, I was here, so we were, we were living, we were living in Kent for like 10 years.
03:57 And then we only moved back. So people always, when I'm here, people always think that, like when I'm living here,
04:04 people think I live in Australia. When I live in Australia, people always think I'm here.
04:07 But I sort of, you know, we split out anyway because of the kids and all that.
04:11 We have to sort of decide. So anyway, we've only been back there a couple of years now.
04:15 But no, I do, I do notice it. I think the big thing that I notice, which my only,
04:22 my only major criticism of this country, which nobody, everyone's used to it, so they don't realise,
04:30 but the only thing that annoys me about Britain is the fact that, when I say this, it's going to,
04:38 this will blow your mind, right? In Australia, when you go to the supermarket, you give them your bags,
04:45 you know, your recyclable bags and whatnot, and they put the bags next to them and then they go bleep
04:51 and they put it in the bag like that. So there's literally, it goes bleep and it's in the bag.
04:57 And it's just, it takes less effort and less time than throwing them, you know, here, it's basically,
05:06 they just go bleep. - Well, the fact is, it's down to you to make that suggestion and see how it goes.
05:11 - Oh, that's, I'm going to, you know, when I eventually do run for Parliament, that will be my first thing.
05:17 So that's the thing that I notice the most. And I always, every time I, and I always forget,
05:23 and I'll go to the, you know, I'll be in the supermarket, I'll just get a few odds and ends.
05:29 And then you go, would you like a bag? Yes, please. There's the bag. And then they just go,
05:33 and they just chuck it. But, you know, the arts and the culture and the history and the availability
05:42 of things, it's much better in this country than it is in Australia. So, you know, but yeah.
05:50 - But Australia is where you're going to stay, is it, do you think?
05:53 - No, I think we'll, I think once the kids, once kids are through high school,
06:00 then I'm going to go back to what we used to do, which was perfect, was we would,
06:07 I constantly chased the summers. So I would basically, as soon as it got cold,
06:12 I would go and tour Australia and then vice versa. So I was in a constant summer.
06:20 So yeah, no, we'll come back here once they're, yeah, once they're big enough.
06:25 But at the moment it's kind of, it's really hard to go, right, six months and then change school again.
06:31 But no, I'll be back. I'll be back for sure. But only if Marks and Spencers
06:36 and Sainsbury's can decide on just a bit of basic human decency.
06:42 - Right, well it's down to you to make that change. Brilliant. Really, really lovely to speak to you.
06:48 Good luck on your 21st tour. And thanks so much for your time, Ross. Thank you.
06:52 - Oh, see you.
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