Slacker’s Playtime
Ross Noble @ Nova 2
11:30pm, Fri 15 Mar 2002
Score: 9
Short Review: Surreal
The Nova lights dim. Some loud music starts playing. A red stage light starts pulsing in time with the song. Two figures with (badly made) paper mache heads come onstage, miming the words to the song (which was merely a reminder that the show was about to start, turn off all gadgets, thanks). The figures then left the theatre.
Odd.
Ross Noble then came onstage; a normal looking guy for such a weird intro. Hello, good evening – and then the first late-comer. Then suddenly Ross took us on some bizarre journey involving late-comers arriving on ponies. Subsequent arrivals were greeted with “Hello. Did you bring the oats?” or “Would you like a carrot?”. The pony theme permeated the entire evening.
…as did Ross’ Cirque du Soleil obsession, his observations on the Rundle Street petrolheads, and more. He was reasonably careful not to criticise the locals much (“Don’t mess with Adelaide people, or you’ll end up in an acid bath”), but still managed a bit of gentle audience participation – despite the usual reticence of the assembled throng to respond (which led to another weird sidetrack).
Noble left the stage (after one final pony reference) with “You’ve still got no idea what I’m talking about – and that pleases me.” Yup, it pleased me too. Wonderful, weird-ass surreal stuff.