The Mighty Boosh: A Mighty Interview

By Jeff Kreisler on 07/27/2009

The Boosh Are Coming! The Boosh Are Coming!

The latest British talent invasion picked up pace last week as cult sensation The Mighty Boosh buzzed through New York on their way to Comic-Con. The group's show has been a worldwide hit on stage and on the BBC, and now it's a recent addition to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Their appeal and fan base is definitely growing -- whether or not it'll be enough to make them a crossover hit in the U.S. still remains to be seem, but in the meantime founders Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding are certainly enjoying the ride.

I got a chance to speak with the Boosh duo the day after their rockstar reception at an event in NYC. We talked comedy, influences, horses, and, of course, Harry Potter.

Since you're just making your debut here in the U.S., can you give us some basic background -- how did you come up with the name "The Mighty Boosh"?

Julian Barratt: We wanted a name that didn't sound like a comedy act or a double act. We were in England and a lot of the double acts were like "Hopkins & Johnson" or "Peterton & Graham" -- they all sound like solicitors [that's lawyers, US peeps] -- so we wanted something like a band. A name which people didn't know what it was. We wanted to be obscure, to have it sound strange, so when people said it, it made them sound a bit strange, a bit silly, too.

Now, Noel's brother -- who's in the show -- had a friend who had BIG hair and he called it a mighty boosh [sounds like "matted bow-shhhh"]... and he said it in that way, "matted bow-shh," very Portuguese. We thought that was pretty funny and said "Let's call it that." We loved "Monty Python" and thought it was just a strange name that didn't really have to mean anything.

You got to prove yourself based upon what you did, not what you were called.

JB: Yeah, the whole thing started out because the clubs we were playing in, doing stand-up... it was all a bit boring, comedians talking about relationships and their girlfriends, this very macho material. We didn't want to do that, but we couldn't get gigs anywhere. So we said "why don't we just set up our own club," and we did. That's sort of how it all began. And that was about ten years ago.

Did you always know that you wanted to do stuff that was so absurdist?

JB: I think so. We were well nicked to that sort of stuff, growing up on it, Python and all that. And because we both were doing stand-up in that same vein before we met, when we came together it was a sort of happy accident that we had styles that clicked. We were both "weird," but there was a good status between us on stage, we didn't cancel each other out, which could happen if people are the same tone of voice, the same type. We had very different personas, but the material worked well together. It was just a happy accident.

We had the chemistry pretty much straight away -- a more classic type of double act, very bickering brothers-type relationship thing. That came without any work at all, then around that we had all that weirdness. Noel's a painter, I'm a musician, and we brought all that in. We started doing music and strange painted things and masks. We had lots of things in the show. It's not just comedy.

Since you do have a great chemistry, what is your process, both "then" and "now"? Do you sit and write things out, shoot the shit, or just hit the stage with an idea and improv it out? How do you create the worlds of "The Mighty Boosh?"

JB:We don't just go out cold, though there's always some improvisation on stage. We initially started doing voices and characters we liked, and tried doing them on stage to make them work, improvise a little, try to remember good stuff and make it part of the script. It depends on what we're writing for, too -- stage or screen or...

Do you guys have a favorite medium to work in? Stage, TV, film, there's a book...

JB:We want to make a film. Radio's good for music and you can go places and it doesn't cost you any money, just a sound effect. Then we were off into TV and we had to build all this stuff we talking about and it became a bigger issue. There were complications, but it's also a great thing. We wanted to make a TV show before anything, right from the beginning, but we had to prove to people that we could do it. So we went live, then radio... it's a tried and tested route, actually. They haven't got a lot of radio here, but in UK you do radio before TV.

A lot of your early success came from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (I'll be performing and reporting from there in August, IFC'ers.) Do you have a favorite festival -- you've done a lot -- or a favorite memory from Edinburgh or Melbourne or any of those?

JB: Melbourne was fantastic. We won the Barry award for our show. We just had a really good time out there, they got the show, they got it immediately.

Last night [in NYC] was actually pretty incredible. We put it together last minute. We thought we were just going to be doing DJ sets, but then realized people were queuing up and, well, they weren't going to be pleased if we just turned some records. We cobbled together a show from bits and pieces and a few cues from our computer, making a 45-minute set. And an amazing response... one of the best of those nights we've had.

The festivals, though, were great, especially early on because you're just convincing people to come. They would snowball. The beginning of the run no one would come, then gradually it would increase, and then you'd have sell-outs. That was a pretty amazing feeling. And now we go back to Edinburgh and look at those rooms and they feel tiny, but at the time they felt epic.

You mentioned the great crowd last night, and people always ask about the differences between the UK and the US audience. It may not be mainstream but it seems there's a growing audience in the US for absurdist comedy. Do you think you'll have any trouble building an audience here?

JB: Well, we've only just started. We're finding that if you do something well then people will come to you, that you find your audience. There are people out there who like what we do, it's just finding them, getting them to our show.

Do you think you'll have to adapt for a US audience or you'll just do what you do and they'll like it or leave it?

JB: We do what we do and if they like it, they like it. It's not like we don't want to do other things anyway. We've just come over basically to see how it is over here. It's been very encouraging, so I think we'll come back and do a live show and from there, we'll see. It's great so far. Now, have a talk with Noel.

Hey Noel. Let's repeat all those questions. Kidding. Do either of you have idols or heroes, role models or influences, either from the past -- like Monty Python -- or contemporaries... people you admire?

Noel Fielding: Lots of people, actually. In comedy, Spike Milligan, like him. Like Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor. We like lots of musicians: Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd. I like "The Jungle Book," actually. It's my favorite book. Lots of weird stuff -- paintings, writings. Not so much comedians, I guess.

Well, your act isn't necessarily comedy from the stand-up clubs, so it does sound like your influenced by a lot art forms.

NF: It's not that we don't like a lot of comedy, it's just that we really like other stuff. Films, and music, painters... It's good to have influences outside of comedy...

A few people have given that advice to other aspiring comedy folks. In addition to that "broaden your minds," do you have any advice for people who are starting out?

NF: When you're first starting, it's good to have lots of influences, acts you look up to, because you want to be in touch with how you can do it yourself, how you can get involved. But once you're off, I think it's best to just try to ignore everyone, to do your thing and shut yourself off. Me and Julian were often just in a room or studio somewhere, working on a show for Edinburgh, and it'd come out ready to go. We weren't really that aware of what was going on. We didn't watch much comedy while we were writing comedy. It's quite good to free yourself from those things, get back and concentrate on what you do. If you're watching other comedy while your writing comedy it's difficult not to be too influenced.

Yeah, well, it'd be difficult to copy what you guys do. It's very original.

NF: Ha, yeah. We have an idiosyncratic style of doing things. But we don't try to do that, it's just sort of what comes out whenever we get together.

When you write, do you ever think about -- I can't believe I'm asking this -- about what you're "trying to say?" Do you think there's a point or a message to your comedy, or is it just about enjoying life?

NF: [To Julian] Is there a point or a message to what we're trying to say? Julian, what are we trying to say?

"Gorillas are adorable"?

NF: Julian doesn't think we're saying anything. It's an interesting question. We're trying to make people escape from the real world. We're not very political or anything. We don't preach to people. We're not making any massive observations on life.

No, I didn't see a lot of sketch from you on the McCain-Obama election last year.

NF: I guess we just want to let people escape to a rich, fantasy world. We're trying to bring people a bit of joy, to feel good about escaping for a few hours into a strange place with a bunch of odd characters. We're trying to build an alternate world to the one we're in. It's always been quite important to us -- not to drag them by their hair, screaming, but invite them to come on a journey with us.

I didn't mean to get you guys all existential here.

NF: We're trying to bend people's minds into a different shape. I certainly don't have a problem with fantastical things, and off imagery.

Do either of you, or any of the guys in the group, have a favorite sketch?

NF: My favorite episode was the coconut episode. I loved that. Got one of my favorite jokes in it. Julian makes a coconut into a horse or something and we call it Milky Joe. Then I make a woman, and he hasn't thought of that so he puts a wig on his coconut and says it's a woman and I say "That's just Milky Joe in a wig. That's not a woman." And he's quite annoyed. I think that's a sort of zen joke, I like it, there's something pure about it...

I'm still hung up on what are we trying to do. A lot of shows get stuck on logic, that you have to understand everything, get what's going on here. But with our show, sometimes there isn't anything to get. It's just funny, it's just weird, it's just whatever it is. No reason.

Is there going to be Season 4?

NF: There might be another season. We're not sure. There might be a film. There's an album. A lot of things we'd like to do. We're still hung up on what we're trying to say. What message we're trying to get across.

I want you guys to think about it and get back to me in a couple days with a certified letter... figure out the meaning of life and get back to me.

NF: Well, the underlying message is we're trying to get people to kill horses. Eat more jam. And kill more horses. That's what's going on. The subtext. Don't know if you're picking up on that, but most of our stuff is about offing horses. Don't know if you'd get all that. I hope you are, because if that's not coming through, we've failed.

I felt a little of that in your Daniel Radcliffe Equus sketch.

NF: I think we met Harry Potter the other night. He's quite a big fellah now, isn't he?

I haven't seen him recently.

NF: Julian says we should meet him and say "Why don't you put me in your film, you stupid little wizard?" He's massive now. Have you seen him? He's about the size of the Statute of Liberty. He's carved in alfalfa, too, which I find disgusting-- I'm really just trying to make Julian laugh. He's laughing upside down on the sofa. We got taken out last night by a bunch of New Yorkers and we're very hung over.

So the UK drinking ability is a myth?

NF: We went out, caught the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We took 'em down, and Julian told a friend that he'd never be a chess master. And that bugged him all night, he keep saying "Julian said I'll never be a chess master." Well, he's quite right, he's not got it.