Review: Ross Noble's Jibber Jabber Jamboree

"This is a show which rewards punctuality!" Thus spake Ross - they only comedian I know of who can successfully heckle his own audience, chastise himself for doing so, go on a twenty-minute segue about cancer-sniffing dogs, and then return (more-or-less) to where he started.

It is exhausting to watch him prance around the stage, screaming at invisible interlocutors, and miming the painfully slow death of a slug being dehydrated by the tears dripping down the face of a crying man. At times he berates us for laughing at a man who is clearly losing his marbles - we're losing them alongside him.

If you can keep up with the tangents (I recommend bringing a small notebook and industrial quantities of Red Bull) then you are in for a complex, silly, and rewarding time. The callbacks are perfectly executed and, despite all the madness, there's a beauty in seeing how far he can take an irreverent thought.

Who would have guessed that we'd end the night with the audience singing Kumbaya or seeing Bill Bailey advertising essential oils? It was delightful to watch Ross Noble deftly avoid being Cancelled through the judicious use of screaming "IT'S SATIRE" after slandering royalty and several other protected species.

I've no idea how much of the show was improvised. There are clear strands of thought and well-rehearsed anecdotes peppered through the ramblings of a raving madman. Perhaps it would be nice to go to a different night of the tour and see what remains. But perhaps that might spoil the magic?