Institute of Contemporary Arts

Chatting with the Boosh

Date: 21 February 2008

The Mighty Boosh

Last Monday afternoon (10 Feb) there was a staff and public rush to attend a screening and Q&A with The Mighty Boosh. It was billed as comprising of two of their favourite episodes followed by a discussion with the men themselves. It turned out to be a bit of a promotional exercise for their Series 3 DVD so we actually watched three episodes from the last series while we were waiting for them to arrive from their signing at Virgin records. However, it was fun to watch the episodes with a giggling crowd and they translated surprisingly well to the big screen. Once the Q&A began Noel revealed that they had always intended for the programmes to have a filmic feel and I guess the fantastical content and the travels their characters go on do make them feel like mini movies. Julian Barratt quipped that now they're considering making a film they might have to make it look more like TV in order to have some contrast.

We were joined not just by Julian and Noel but also Michael Fielding (Naboo), Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil) and Dave Brown (Bollo) which made for a bit of a ramshackle affair as far as any kind of coherent answers to questions went, but what else would you expect? Noel was wearing a fetching red lined cape and Michael (his brother) was looking kind of seventies porn/cop style with a hat and generous moustache. Rich Fulcher arrived late as a 'surprise guest' and got the warmest crowd response. The man just looks funny and I found myself laughing at pretty much anything he said.

As I had expected there were some hardcore fans asking intricate questions about particular episodes or trying to join in with their own jokes but there were fewer students and hipsters than I had imagined and I did find out some interesting things, notably how Noel and Julian had met. Apparently Noel approached Julian after having heard that he was really great and went to watch him a few times but nothing much happened until some time later Julian needed someone to fill a spot and asked Noel. I had always thought that they’d come up with the idea of the show together: I can’t imagine Julian performing alone really but it sounds like he was the stand-out performer when they began. They had funny stories about their first few collaborations. Their first show involved using some old curtains and those tap covers that have a shower nozzle at one end to make a strange creature. As well as coming up with the basic idea of a series of Goon-style shows with adventures, scrapes and strange encounters Julian also writes all of the music, some of which I think is genuinely great. He’s by far the quietest one in interviews and I thought he might be difficult to talk to but as you’ll hear here, he’s actually pretty chatty. It was a real pleasure to meet him. Please click the link below to hear the interview.

Listen now (mp3)