Review: Ross Noble's 'El Hablador' tour stops off in Cambridge

A near-packed Corn Exchange enjoyed surrealist flights of fancy into the Geordie comedian's wild imagination.

Ross Noble’s 16th touring show produced a great deal of laughter – though flagged a little at times – on Friday, November 16.

With Day of the Dead-style skeletons adorning the stage – and the Spanish language title of the show – one could be forgiven for thinking that there might have been a Mexican theme to it.

However, as Ross pointed out when fielding questions at the end, he merely liked the idea of coming out of a skeleton at the start and then not mentioning it again.

The performance began brightly. A man who was late to his seat was picked out by Ross, who then launched into an improvised – and often hilarious – story relating to the reasons the man gave for his lateness.

He also used the presence of a three-month baby who cried to provide further laughs – both vocally and with his clown-like physical movements.

The way his mind works is a joy to behold and the wildly creative pictures he paints make it easy to see why he once came 10th in a ‘top 100 greatest stand-ups’ list.

At one point he announced that someone in the auditorium had an envelope under their seat and that that person would get to be the new Brexit secretary.

The second half began brightly, but the star failed to maintain such a high level of laugh-inducing quips as in the first – though it was still enjoyable.

Having been unable to attend his Brain Dump tour in 2016, I was glad I got to see him this time around and would definitely go again.