The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows, ''The Mighty Boosh'', ''Arctic Boosh'' (1999) and ''Autoboosh'' (2000) as well as a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired from 2004 to 2007, and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States. The first television series is set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.

The style of humour in the Mighty Boosh is often described as being surreal, as well as being escapist and new wave comedy.

Various members of The Mighty Boosh have appeared in a number of different comedy series including '' Nathan Barley'', ''Snuff Box'' and '' Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy''. Regular Boosh collaborators include Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, Nigel Coan, Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. The troupe is named after a childhood hairstyle of co-star Michael Fielding.

History

Noel Fielding first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Dave Brown whilst Fielding was studying a foundation course in fine arts at the Croydon School of Art. Then from 1992 to 1995 Fielding studied Graphic Design and Advertising at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education and whilst there both Dave Brown and Nigel Coan were studying the same course as Fielding and all three shared a student house together. After they had lived together in student housing, Fielding, Brown and Coan then later lived together in a flat in Hackney in London.

Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt first met when in 1997 they both appeared on the same comedy bill at a pub in north London. In 2006 Fielding said that "We were doing stand-up and were on the same bill together. I was on first and usually you can only have about one weird comedian on a line-up. He’d been doing it a bit longer than me... arratt was like...Let’s write together'. I’ve been stuck with him ever since and that was about eight years ago or something." While Fielding and Dave Brown were both art students at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education "They were both regular visitors to the Hellfire Comedy nights next to the Wycombe Swan Theatre in High Wycombe, which is where Noel first met future Boosh co-creator, Julian Barratt".

Whilst Barratt and Fielding were on The Jonathan Ross Show, Ross asked them "And did you perform as solo acts ever, did you do like stand up..." with Barratt responding "yeah, yeah, that's how we sort of met really on the circuit, doing stand up, yeah.", with Ross responding "But, but was it similar to the Boosh stuff, 'cos the Boosh stuff it seems to be so much of a partnership I can't imagine it being taken apart and being served up separately.", with Barratt responding that "We were both doing quite surreal stuff, eh...", with Fielding adding "It was quite weird wasn't it, a lot weirder than the show in a way...", with Barratt continuing "...but we sort of, when we first met we kind of liked each others comedy but we didn't know that it would work, we didn't know whether it was gonna cancel each other out and make....", with Fielding responding "Yeah, too weird to make sort of, straight...", with Barratt continuing "...might just become geography or something else or... this sort of thing, but it worked for some reason...", with Fielding adding "We had quite a good chemistry straight away."

On the day they met they both went back to Julian's place that night where Barratt played music on his Akai sampler whilst Fielding used a ping-pong ball to make an eye patch. The pair soon found that they shared common interests in music and comedy which included Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and it was also commented that "Both wanted to get their material heard; neither had found anyone to work with who remotely understood what was going on in their head. It was a huge relief when they chanced upon one another and decided to be the new Goodies... ...What they take from the classic Seventies series is more the spirit of... ...silly and surreal comedy." Fielding has commented on their shared interest in music that "I was sort of a bit more rock n roll and pop and he ulian Barrattwas a bit more jazz but then we sort of met in the middle with electro... but Julian was... I think he left university to join a band, we were both in bands before we were in the Boosh, so we sort of came from that background. Lot of our friends were in bands." It has also been commented that Barratt "...had dropped out of an American studies course at Reading University" and Barratt has also commented that when he was seventeen "We went to stay with a friend of a friend’s uncle but we came back after three days. We thought we’d make inroads into the jazz scene in London – we’d read biographies about guys who got gigs at Ronnie Scott’s and got spotted and immediately taken into someone’s band. So we told our parents we were leaving home. They gave us two days and we lasted three...". It was also commented that "...both ielding and Barratthad fathers who loved Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, and who encouraged their sons to avoid getting proper jobs."

On his beginnings in stand up Barratt has commented that "I was never like Noel ieldingor Lee Mack, who are just funny all the time. No one ever said to me, you should be a comedian mate. But I watched a lot of stand-up at uni – people like Mark Lamarr, Sean Hughes, Eddie Izzard, just standing on a stage doing these phenomenal routines. And I could see how you could do it. So I started doing it myself, and I was so shocked when it worked. I remember one time I completely forgot what I was about to say, and I just ran out of the venue." It has also been commented that this occurred "...during his first standup sketch at Reading University..." and that he "...ran through the back door mid-act and through fields to a lake." Barrett has further commented that after he left the venue "...the manager came out after me and said: 'Get back in there, it’s going well.' So I went back. I suppose that was a big turning point for me."

Barratt and Fielding have commented on the beginning of the Mighty boosh, with Barratt commenting that "We performed together for the first time in... ... was it in that show by Stewart Lee?", with Fielding replying "yeah, Stewart Lee's show, Moby Dick and King Dong (At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1997)... ...Julian played King Dong's penis...", with Barratt replying "...an enormous penis...", and then with Fielding replying "...a perfect King Dong... ...then we thought lets do a show together."

Sometime in around 1998 they then put on their first comedy show and it was commented by Nigel Coan with whom they collaborated with on Mighty Boosh that "They did their first gig at Oranje Boom Boom which is sort of in Chinatown in London, and ah, which was ridiculous, I mean it was really, like, ridiculous costumes and um, they didn't know what... they really idn'tknow what they were doing... ...It was very raw, but it was, it was hilarious..." After Barratt and Fielding's first performance together at Oranje Boom Boom at bar De Hems, in London in April 1998, they developed their zookeeper characters, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, in a series of sketches for Paramount Comedy’s '' Unnatural Acts'' with Barratt commenting that "Early on we had Rich Fulcher, we were working on a sketch show...".

Nigle Coan has commented further on them developing the Mighty boosh "...They thought lets do a show, an Edinburgh show. I think they started to think about doing that. So they got a gig at Hen and Chickens...". Dave Brown who also collaborated on the Mighty Boosh with them commented further on their time at the Hen and chickens which is a theatre bar in Islington, London, "They would use the Hen and Chickens as this kind of... place to, a platform to just try stuff out and it was just a great little place they could do a regular spot... ...where they would probably write and have ideas in the week, try stuff out for half of that and then for the rest of it, it would just be improv and mucking about. Then they took the, um, took ''The Mighty Boosh'' up to Edinburgh and then two more shows ''Arctic Boosh'' (1999), ''Autoboosh'' (2000)...".

Fielding and Barratt commented on their time at the Hen and Chickens, with Fielding commenting that "...cos it'd be stand up and people would come on and do straight stand up. And then we used to put potted plants all around the gig and music on... ...to try and make it into a sort of play... people couldn't believe the audacity. It got some sort of reputation as being sort of enigmatic but we're just really unprofessional. We didn't know anything about theatre or what you did." with Barratt responding to Fielding "Speak for yourself, I was in a Sartre play at university I'll have you know. ''Huis Clos''." Fielding has commented further on their first live show, ''The Mighty Boosh'', “Julian had a song about a mammoth that he wanted to sing to a girl in the audience, and I had a few ideas for some weird sketches... ...We started working on our ideas together... ...We were zookeepers and we got sucked through our bosses’ eyes and into a magic forest..."

Michael Fielding and Richard Ayoade both performed with the Mighty Boosh in 2002 during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot. Richard Ayoade played adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4.''Inside the Zooniverse'', The Mighty Boosh: Series 1, BBCDVD1553. Ayoade returned in the second and third series as a belligerent shaman named Saboo. The name "Mighty Boosh" was originally a phrase used by a friend of Michael Fielding's to describe the hair that Michael had as a child.

All three of the Mighty Boosh stage shows – ''The Mighty Boosh'' (1998), '' Arctic Boosh'' (1999) and '' Autoboosh'' (2000) – were taken to the Edinburgh Fringe and with the success of ''Autoboosh'', a radio series was commissioned by the BBC. Produced by Danny Wallace, ''The Boosh'' radio show was a six-part series that was first broadcast in 2001 on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4, and Barratt has humorously commented that "...so we did a radio show, we did, we sort of recorded it in a sort of old railway sort of arch... ith Fielding addingin Shoreditch... ....built our studio out of weird... little children's toys...".

From the radio show Fielding and Barratt were given a half-hour television pilot of the same name, and Barratt has commented that "...we wanted to get on TV but it'd been a lot of trouble because they thought it was eh, the scripts we sort of gave them were sort of like massive epic adeventures that sounded like it would cost them a million pounds to make so they said this isn't, I dont know how this is going to work on stage, well actually what happened is...", with Fielding adding "We wrote it for Channel 4 originally...", and Barratt replying " e spoke to them..before we'd done a stage show and they said how is this going to work on TV cos it is ridiculous. So we wrote, we did a stage show and then they said hows that going to work on TV because its really good live, so, perhaps we should've done it inside a television set." In 2013 Fielding has also commented that "I would love to do a Boosh film I really would. I hope we do cos I feel like thats what we started out wanting to do. We really wanted to do a film, really,... ...we wanted to do a film, and then we thought alright we'll do a live show. We didn't really know how to do a live show we thought we'd just learn, and then we sort of... ...we did a radio show, we did a TV show, we never quite got around to doing a film..." In 2008 Fielding commented that "A film is the first thing we ever wanted to do, so we've always come up with ideas and stuck them in a drawer." and in 2014 it was commented that "The pair have written two film scripts in the past, though neither made it to production. One was a "Rocky Horror Picture Show type thing," according to Fielding, in which Barratt played a character who has woken up believing himself to be the last man on earth. The other was an Arctic adventure – 'because we always liked the Arctic'."

The first 8-part series was then commissioned for BBC Three, directed by Paul King and broadcast in 2004, with a second series of 6 episodes the next year. The second series moved away from the zoo setting to show Howard, Vince, Naboo the shaman and Bollo the talking ape living in a flat in Dalston. In 2006, the Boosh returned to theatre with '' The Mighty Boosh Live'', which featured a new story entitled "The Ruby of Kukundu".

Fielding has commented in relation to touring that "The touring lifestyle is quite hard... ...In the boosh tour we did a 100 day tour and we had one day off a week to travel and we were playing arenas and we partied every single night and we got up for sound check at six o'clock. So we were like Dracula. I was like Dracula. So I'd wake up at six, do a sound check, wake up, do the show, go to a party, stay up till five in the morning, sleep all day, every day for a hundred... ." Fielding has further commented about the Mighty Boosh that "It was crazy cos we were just going.... ...it was never mean't to be, we were never mean't to be playing the O2 and Wembley and being on the cover of Time Out and... ...being on Jonathan Ross I dont think we ever thought that would happen... ...We always sort of just made it in our bedroom and then brought it out and stuff happened. We were as surprised as anyone when we won the Perrier and we were surprised when it got put on telly. We were like 'Wow this is great' we weren't ever sort of planning it. Like... ..we didn't even know if we could make a living from it." Fielding has commented further that “We always thought we’d make one show and that’d be the end of it. But after we won the Perrier, everyone was telling us that we had to do another, which we did and brought it to Melbourne and won the Barry, and then we made a radio show that won the Douglas Adams Award. We won loads. It was manic. We always thought we’d do a couple of years together and go our separate ways. We went from stages to the radio show to television to live shows. It went on and on.” Barratt has also commented that “Me and Noel went to HBO once and pitched this really ludicrous idea about us driving around in a haunted car and they just stared at us. Literally stared at us!... ...Luckily, we were together so we could laugh about it..."

Fielding commented in 2015 that whilst creating '' Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy'' that "Originally I used to do all the paintings for the animations. This meant that I was filming in the day and staying up until 5 am painting. After three weeks of this I started to feel unusual so Ivana Zorn, who is Nigel Coan's partner, now does a majority of the painting and I just design the main characters. Nigel animates everything like a futuristic goose."
Fielding formed "Secret Peter Productions" with Nigel Coan who, along with Fielding and Zorn, helped to animate series 1 and 2 of the Mighty Boosh TV show, ''An evening with Noel Fielding'' and ''Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy''. Coan also directed ''Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy'' as well as helping to write it along with Fielding. Dave Brown also contributed to graphics for the Mighty Boosh including the DVD cover art for the ''Mighty Boosh Live'' 2006 stage show. Brown also "...designed and compiled ''The Mighty Book of Boosh''..." as well as all the publishing output for the Mighty Boosh. It has been commented that Barratt "...composed all the music for The Mighty Boosh." with Barratt also commenting that "I write the music, eh, but we both sort of write, we both write the lyrics, and we, I do the music mostly..." with Fielding replying to Barratt that "I have a go at the melodies then he goes away and makes it..." and then with Barratt replying "...tweaks, tweaks it a bit". Fielding also made drawings that formed a basis for the characters costumes and make-up in the Mighty boosh TV show. Regular Boosh collaborators include Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, Nigel Coan, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry and Ivanna Zorn. In 2002 during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot Richard Ayoade played adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4.

Fielding has further commented that "'I think our show is magical and fantastical. We tell very intricate, weird stories. Vince Noir is quite modern, a bit of an indie kid; Howard Moon is... ...eccentric... ...and we rely heavily on Julian's music and my animation... ...It's such a weird shambles of stuff.'" It was also commented that the Mighty Boosh "... almost didn't make it to television. Around 2000, Barratt and Fielding disappeared into development hell. They had done a sketch show for Radio 4, but no one was sure how to translate their act on to TV. That's until Steve Coogan, who had seen them in Edinburgh in 1999 when they were performing as Arctic Boosh, moved things along. His production company... ...sold the concept to the BBC simply by saying: 'If we were young, we'd want to be them.'" From August 2008 to January 2009 they went on tour for a second time with a new stage show of the Mighty Boosh.

After two years away from television, the Boosh returned in November 2007. Set in Naboo's second-hand shop below the flat, the third series drew approximately 1 million viewers with its first episode, and in light of its success, BBC Three broadcast an entire night of ''The Mighty Boosh'' on 22 March 2008, which included a new documentary and 6 of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from all 3 series. J. G. Quintel has said that The Mighty Boosh was a large influence on his animated series ''Regular Show''.

In June 2013, it was confirmed that The Mighty Boosh would reunite for a US festival called Festival Supreme in October 2013.

On 1 January 2020, Fielding posted an image of himself and Barratt on Instagram with the caption, "There really wasn't enough Boosh this decade ! let's try and rectify that in the next one ;) x".

Main cast

* Julian Barratt as Howard Moon
* Noel Fielding as Vince Noir
* Michael Fielding as Naboo
* Dave Brown as Bollo
* Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil

The cast members also play smaller roles throughout the series, the roles listed above are their most frequently appearing characters. For a full list of characters, see the List of The Mighty Boosh characters.

Theatre

Original stage shows

''The Mighty Boosh'' (1998)

The Boosh, then consisting of only Barratt and Fielding, conceived ''The Mighty Boosh'' whilst working on Stewart Lee's Edinburgh Festival show ''King Dong vs. Moby Dick'' in which they played a giant penis and a whale respectively.

In 1998, they took ''The Mighty Boosh'' to the Edinburgh Festival, recruiting fellow comedian Rich Fulcher, whom the pair had met while working on '' Unnatural Acts''. The show won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. During their residency at North London's Hen and Chickens Theatre the following year, they built up a cult following, introducing new characters whilst developing old ones.

''Arctic Boosh'' (1999)

In 1999, the Boosh returned to the Edinburgh Festival with a new show, ''Arctic Boosh'', with Dave Brown acting as choreographer and photographer, as well as playing a variety of characters. ''Arctic Boosh'' sold out every night and was nominated for the Perrier Award. The show was directed by Stewart Lee.

''Autoboosh'' (2000)

In 2000, the Boosh premiered their third stage show, ''Autoboosh'', at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, adding Fielding's younger brother Michael to the cast. ''Autoboosh'' won the festival's Barry Award.

Nationwide tours

''The Mighty Boosh Live'' (2006)

The Boosh returned to the stage in 2006, touring the UK for the first time. Though drawing heavily from their earlier material, the main story combined these elements into a new narrative. A recording of this show at the Brixton Academy was later released on DVD, before being broadcast on BBC Three on Boxing Day, 2007.

''The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour'' (2008/09)

The Boosh toured the UK and Ireland for a second time from September 2008 to February 2009. The show featured characters from all three series as well as the Boosh Band.

They made appearances throughout the UK after their live shows, at after-parties held in different places in each city. The events were called "Outrage", after the catchphrase by Tony Harrison.

Radio

''The Boosh'' (2001)

From the success of ''Autoboosh'', the BBC commissioned a six-part radio series for the Boosh. In October 2001 ''The Boosh'' radio series, produced by Danny Wallace, was broadcast on BBC London Live, then BBC Radio 4, and later on BBC 7. The show focuses on the adventures of a pair of zookeepers at "Bob Fossil's Funworld": socially awkward, jazz enthusiast Howard TJ Moon, and ultra-vain, fashion-obsessed Vince Noir. This also included voices from Lee Mack, playing such characters as the Plumber or the Gardener.

Further appearances

The Mighty Boosh returned to radio on 22 October 2004, in a one-off comedy special for ''The Breezeblock'', a show on BBC Radio 1. Instead of the plot driven nature of their own series, this show featured improvised conversational comedy with Barratt, Fielding and Fulcher, combined with the show's usual mix of electronic music.

On 15 November 2007, as part of the publicity for the premier of their third series the same day, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding returned to Radio 1, this time on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge.

On 9 April 2019, it was announced that The Mighty Boosh will be the UK ambassadors for the Record Store Day at 13 April 2019, a show on BBC Radio 1.

Television

''The Mighty Boosh'' (2004–07)

In May 2004, after the success of the Boosh pilot,Steve Coogan's company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of ''The Mighty Boosh'' for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge's dilapidated zoo, the "Zooniverse", the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo's flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the "Zooniverse". This series had an even looser setting as the four characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo's home planet "Xooberon".

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling 'Bits & Bobs' in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

Although BBC America originally aired only series 1 in the U.S. (all episodes in their entirety), ''The Mighty Boosh'' began airing in North America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block (with up to 6 minutes cut from each episode), starting 29 March 2009 with the third series. In February 2016 series 1 of ''The Mighty Boosh'' was made available to watch via the online service BBC iPlayer for six weeks; this included every episode minus the final episode of the first series 'Hitcher'.

''The Mighty Boosh'' Night

On 22 March 2008, BBC Three broadcast a whole night of ''The Mighty Boosh'' from 9:05 pm, starting with a new documentary titled ''The Mighty Boosh: A Journey Through Time and Space'', documenting the history of the Boosh from their first amateur performances to their then-upcoming 2008 tour. This was followed by six of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from the three series: "Party", " The Power of the Crimp", " The Nightmare of Milky Joe", " The Priest and the Beast", " The Legend of Old Gregg", and "Tundra". The pair also appeared in live links throughout the night, in a similar style to the openings of Series 1 episodes. On 23 December 2008, BBC3 held a Merry Booshmas Party featuring the entire series 3 as well as a broadcast of '' The Mighty Boosh Live''.

Film

On 8 February 2012, whilst sledging, Noel Fielding said that he and Barratt had discussed plans to make a Mighty Boosh film.

Festival

On 5 July 2008, the Boosh held their own festival in the Hop Farm in Kent. It featured musical acts, Robots in Disguise, The Charlatans, The Kills, Gary Numan, and The Mighty Boosh Band, as well as comedy acts Frankie Boyle and Ross Noble.

Media

Audio CDs

According to an official MySpace page for PieFace Records (the fictitious music label mentioned throughout the series), Barratt and Fielding are to release an album of music from the show, "along with extras, versions, remixes and rare unreleased stuff all to be released later in the year on their own label—this one". In interviews since, The Mighty Boosh have confirmed they will be releasing an album of their music. On 21 October 2013 episode of ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', Fielding stated that the Boosh have recorded an album, but don't know when it will be released.

DVDs

Previously most of the DVDs were only released in Region 2 but as a result of a growing fan base in the U.S., the BBC rereleased in Region 1, Series 1–3 individually on 21 July 2009, and a Special Edition Series 1–3 Boxset on 13 October 2009.

Australian releases

*''Series One'' – 11 April 2007
*''Series Two'' – 12 April 2007
*''Series Three'' – 6 August 2008
*''Live'' – 3 December 2008
*''Special Edition'' – 6 August 2009
*''Future Sailors Tour'' – 10 November 2009
*''Series One: Episodes 1–3 (Comedy Bites)'' – 4 March 2010

Books

On 18 September 2008, Canongate Books published '' The Mighty Book of Boosh'', designed and compiled by Dave Brown and written by Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, Richard Ayoade and Michael Fielding. The book includes original stories, crimps, concept art, behind-the-scenes photography, comics, and various other things, featuring old and new Mighty Boosh characters. On 1 October 2009, a paperback version was released under the name ''The Pocket Book of Boosh''.

Awards

Particularly popular among followers of the indie and electro music genres catered to by NME magazine, The Mighty Boosh has been recipient of the Shockwaves NME Awards Best TV Show for three consecutive years, even though there were no new episodes broadcast for the latter two of the three years.

Controversy

In 2020, Netflix took ''The Mighty Boosh'' TV show, together with ''The League of Gentlemen'', down from their program roster because of concerns about blackface in some episodes. As of 2025, all episodes of the TV show remain available via other streaming services including the BBC iPlayer and Apple TV+.

References

External links

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"The Mighty Boosh PBJ Page"

BBC Mighty Boosh
Mighty Boosh at the BBC

UKTV Mighty Boosh
Mighty Boosh at UKTV
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mighty Boosh, The

British comedy troupes
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