Boosh Interview Part 2

I notice the polos obsession is intensifying!

J we should get sponsorship or something shouldn¹t we
N we tried but they said no
J its like with the white stripes when they did that video and it was Lego
and they said to Lego do you want to get involved in this cos its going to
be a video and they said no, we only do stuff for 7 o 13 stars, and then the
video came out and it was like a massive hit and then Lego rang up and went
­ maybe we could get involved and they went get lostŠ too late.
N we used to eat them
J we used to use them to make props when we were making stuff on stage
N IŒm trying to think why I used them ­ cos they were in our house
J there were those big plastic ones that we used to use
N there were some in the house that I¹d moved into and I needed to really
quickly make some eyes cos i was trying to makeŠ Tommy¹s mask. Do you
remember that? I was trying to paint and it looked shit and then I was
thinking I need to rings or something and then I saw these polos and thought
oh they¹re great. And then we started having jokes about the fact that they
were polos and people started going are they polos and really laughing. And
in the reviews people kept going polos for eyes and minty vision and all
that stuff so then we started using them all the time like Pedro he had
orange ones cos they brought out the orange ones
J and then in the show we decided to try and keep that in it and even with
Rudi we did that on stage so that he could be behind the board and we
thought well what¹s the point in changing it even if its TV we may as well
just have it. Just to maintain some of the stage stuff
N just a lot of things like that are to do with the look like the catfish
tendrils occasionally sort of quite like the polos for eyes and a few things
like that we¹re trying to keep as little motifs just so its got a bit of a
weird look and I really like that all that artificial kind of weird stylised
stuff. Actually all the stuff that people when we first started said
wouldn¹t work on TV., all worked on TV. They were going yeah but what¹s that
going to look like on telly? It¹ll look shit and we go it looks great, it¹s
the best stuff and pretty much everything that everyone ever said to us
wouldn¹t work worked. Talking to cameras great, having costumes made out of
bits of glue and wood is great, you know, all those things, so I think
that¹s another thing in this series, well just do exactly. We did kind of do
that in the first series but I think we know what sort of techniques work
better now.

Did you have much input in set design/costume

N yeah a lot, its great actually. There¹s a woman called Christine who¹s a
really great make up lady and we¹ve worked with her before. She¹s amazing,
we wouldn¹t even want to do a show without her now cos she¹s so good, she
really understands it and we work really well together. I had loads of
drawings and she did loads of drawings and on the day she¹ll let you get
involved just helping out, that needs to be a little bit more like this.
Brian ferry we did on the day, just got Julian in, we were trying to make it
in make up look like Nigel's animation and she was just kind of let just
stick bits of the magazine on his face so we just did it there and then on
the day didn¹t we and then Julian had an idea to keep the price tag on which
was just a bit of paper that we were using, so it was all pretty much an
hour before we went on and actually one of the most successful costumes
probably. When we did it in rehearsal there was only blue gaffer tape on
the side so I gave Julian blue eyebrows but not cos I thought blue was good
but cos there wasn¹t any black and so we though that looks quite good
actually. I think I¹d like the costumes to be more like that this time ­ I
think they look much more interesting. When its all too good it just looks
like a film or advert and you cant compete with those things cos their
budgets are massive. The only way you can compete is by having quite lo-fi
stuff that looks goodŠ

Do you still have the old props from the live shows?

J We¹ve got some yeah. When we got back from Australia and had a look at
them there were all sorts of creatures in them.
N Yeah there were all spiders in them, We brought them back from Australia
and did a gig here and when we got them out there were all little spiders
crawling out of them.
J we were putting the masks on and all spiders crawling up your nose
N so we probably brought poisonous spiders to England. And they stank ­ and
a tom cat pissed on them in Julian's shed so they all stank. (Julian laughs)
J People in the front row were like "oooh" musty old cats piss (laughs).
N Also the Boosh logo ­ you know the monkey head thing ­ that was the yeti¹s
head

J you seen the CD thing?
N have you seen the CD cover? The radio thingŠ

YesŠ

J how¹ve you seen that?

It¹s on the BBC shop website

J is it? Lets have a look at that then
N can you buy it?
J let me have a look at that
N Nigel, Julian finds dates funny ­ 1st November he finds.
J (laughs falsely)
N march?
J BBC shopŠ
N we tried to keep hold of everything, like the music, not just the songs,
but the music, the costumes and the make up ­ trying to keep it how it was
when we did live, cos that was what we were good at. Nige¹s and ...
animations and my brother was Naboo so it was all very much in the family

It was funny to watch the show and spot your friends and family and other
familiar Boosh faces.

N that¹s what¹s good about it in a funny way. As soon as it becomes too
polished on TV it looks a bit wrong. The set designer was James Dillon and
he was really good as well, he was brilliant, he did some amazing stuff like
I really love the ape of death stuff and the Hitcher's box was incredible,
he¹s really good. They¹re all really amazing people that we¹re using.
ChristineŠ and James DillonŠ and Paul, I think Paul did quite a good job.

Yeah, brilliant

N yeah.

Why did Paul King direct the series and not Steve Bendelack?

N Steve Bendelack just didn¹t couldn¹t do it so we had to get someone new
anyway but Paul¹d been to see all the shows, he¹s young, knows about the
boosh ­ better to get someone like that than some old war-horse that¹d done
27 comedy series, do you know what I mean. I did like Bendelack and what he
did in the pilot but Paul¹s a bit more young and you know, sort of, one of
our contemporaries rather than someone who knows how everything works. He
was sort of finding out himself, I know some of it¹s a bit all over the shop
but at least we¹re all learning together which I think is the best way. I
think the second series he¹ll be much better as well and be more confident.

Noel ­ will you be doing more stand up?

N id like to I¹m skint so I¹d like to do some. I haven¹t really written that
much stuff but I have got a charity gig coming up, I¹ve got a gig in
Brighton, I¹ve got another one at Sohoho ­ more at the store, the moose want
me to do some, especially cos when I did that gig I did some new material.,
I haven¹t had the opportunity to write some new material cos we¹re doing
this. Its so much stuff as well, it¹s like 4 hours of stuff, writing a TV
show that you haven¹t got any time to do anything else. And I don¹t really
like doing stuff badly ­ like when I did voodoo hedgehog I had to rally
concentrate on it for 6 months or 3 months and write some good stuff but I
get really frustrated just writing bits and bibs of stand up. I don¹t have
any time to develop them. The only way to get good stand up is to write some
ideas, try them out, rewrite them, they evolve and you keep doing them and
then you have new ideas but you really need a lot of time. You cant just do
it every now and then or it doesn¹t work, especially when you¹re putting it
in a set with stuff that¹s really honed. I¹d love to do a tour after, but we
want to do a live thing. Maybe I could do some stand up then,10 mins at the
beginning, Julian could do his 5 that he always did ­ then the show then
some music at the end. I¹ve been doing a bit of touring with the band I AM
X.

Yeah, Julian mentioned you¹d been playing bass in New York!

N LA yeah, then I¹ve been to Belgium. Chris corner from the sneaker pimps,
its his band, they¹re called IMX, I¹ve been doing a bit of that so that was
quite good fun. But I do like live stuff, I loved that gig at Sohoho cos I
hadn¹t done one for ages, I was really nervous, I really enjoyed it. It was
bit surreal cos everyone was laughing at everything. Its hard to judge it.
That¹s another thing is that I couldn¹t really tell if they were laughing
cos they like the show or whether theyŠits just difficult, people start
getting to know you and they really want you to doŠ when you start everyone
wants you to be rubbish. I think they were all going we love your show ­
what have you got to say