An Evening With Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding strutted onto the stage in a silver glitter cape.

He twirled it around and started to work the Sydney crowd, discarding it quickly so that he can properly inhabit his roles: either as a herbal tea bag, a chicken, or a singing milk glass. He makes jokes about his age, about Sydneysiders being unable to cope with the storm, and his wife (played by Michael Fielding) making off with a triangle (Tom Meeten). He makes jokes at the expense of members of the audience, but always with an affable grin – you can’t help but be charmed. His stand-up set is fun, setting up the characters and events to come cleverly, and introducing the animated and theatrical elements.

An Evening With Noel Fielding becomes self-reflexive and self-referential performance work, Fielding breaking the fantasy at times to say “I’m 41.” He’s only too aware that trying to improvise with an animation isn’t going to work, and that a set-up that includes Joey Ramone, a minotaur and a half-minotaur, plus The Dark Side Of The Moon (Fielding as Sgt Raymond Boombox threatening to call his mum, Roger Waters), may just be the strangest thing the audience has ever seen. The improvised aspect really adds to the whole thing, sometimes leaving cast member Meeten lost for words, chuckling on stage.

You’ve never seen a show like this before – and it’s unlikely you ever will again.