The Mighty Boosh
Carling Academy Brixton, London SW9
Given that Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt have been touring their new show for more than a month, you might expect things to be a touch slicker. Microphones fail, props fall apart - not that the cult duo's fans, many of whom have turned up dressed as various Boosh characters, mind at all; the ad libs and minor mishaps are what make a live show unique, especially when you can see the performers are having such a blast laughing at themselves.
The first half suffers from the usual fate of successful television comedy: the fans are so delighted to see familiar characters on stage that all Fielding and Barratt have to do is show up and say a catchphrase to get maniacal applause. I'd have liked more of the apparently off-the-cuff banter between them (the lines between the performers and their Boosh alter egos, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, often blur), instead of the less funny characters like the Crack Fox and Bob Fossil. But the second half is vintage Boosh: Howard attempts to deliver a sonorous play about eco-catastrophe which is sabotaged by Vince and turned into a glam-rock extravaganza, proving that the dynamic between this phenomenally successful duo is pure Morecambe and Wise, if Eric and Ernie had had gold platform boots and silver hotpants.
