Noel Fielding

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Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding performing at The Mighty Boosh Live
Born	21 May 1973 (1973-05-21) (age 36) Westminster, London, England
Medium	Stand-up, television, radio
Nationality	British
Years active	1997 – Present
Genres	Comedy
Notable works and roles	Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh Richmond in The IT Crowd

Noel Fielding (born 21 May 1973 in Westminster, London, England)^[1] is an English artist, comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he also co-writes with fellow actor Julian Barratt.

[edit] Career

Noel Fielding performed regularly as a stand-up comedian during the late 1990s, and appeared repeatedly on the BBC television stand-up showcase Gas. His highly animated stand-up routine included surreal stories, characters, and songs, much like his later work in The Mighty Boosh. Fielding also appears in The IT Crowd as Richmond, but did not appear in series 3. He has also appeared in Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a guest captain in place of Bill Bailey, later going on to permanently replace him. He also co-presented Top of the Pops on Red Nose Day 2009.

[edit] The Mighty Boosh

Fielding is best known for playing the role of Vince Noir opposite Julian Barratt (Howard Moon) in the cult comedy series The Mighty Boosh. Fielding met Barratt when he was performing a gig. Impressed by Fielding's skill, Barratt offered him a place to perform, and the two went on to form a partnership.

Barratt and Fielding are said to have compared their relationship to a marriage: The character of Vince Noir is a kind, somewhat naive and loyal friend to Howard Moon. He can talk to animals, earning him the nickname "Mowgli in Flares". He is vibrant and flamboyant contrasting with his co-star who is more like a "geography teacher from Leeds".

Fielding plays various other characters in the television show including Tony Harrison, a small pink head with tentacles and member of the shaman council, and The Hitcher, a cockney hitch-hiker with a polo mint for an eye, who enjoys "cutting people up". Noel also plays Spider, a bongoist in Rudi's band, and Old Gregg, a transsexual merman with an obsession with Bailey's Irish Cream and water-colours, and an infatuation with Howard.

The Mighty Boosh won the Shockwaves NME Best TV Award for consecutive years (2007, 2008 and 2009).

[edit] Other projects

[edit] Television

Outside of his work on The Mighty Boosh, Fielding has also had bit parts in many of Channel 4's somewhat off-beat comedy programmes, including Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd, AD/BC: A Rock Opera and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, more often than not appearing alongside Julian Barratt. He also appeared in 1998 sketch show Unnatural Acts. In February 2007, Fielding appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a panelist, before going on to become a permanent team captain. Fielding also made a short appearance in the film Plunkett & Macleane as a bystander to Robert Carlyle's scuffle in a brothel. Fielding appeared on The Charlotte Church Show as a special guest.

He filled in for Bill Bailey as team captain for three episodes in the Season 21 of Never Mind The Buzzcocks at Bailey's request. Noel also achieved a record for the highest team score ever on the show. When Bailey returned, presenter Simon Amstell made various jokes about Fielding's departure. In 2009, it was announced Noel Fielding would become a team captain permanently, after Bill Baileys departure. According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Fielding was scheduled to appear in the film Stardust, but had to drop out due to ill health^[2]. He won an award for the sexiest man in 2008. He appeared twice with Russell Brand on the annual quiz show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

In 2008, Fielding appeared with comic partner Julian Barratt on C4's Transmission wearing his usual somewhat flamboyant attire, on this occasion including Cuban heels and polka dot trousers, exemplar of the daring style which won him Best Dressed Male at the Shockwaves NME Awards.

In 2009, Noel helped host Comic Relief Does Top of The Pops with Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton.

[edit] Radio

Fielding starred in the 2001 Mighty Boosh radio series as Vince Noir, and other characters. It was broadcast on BBC London Live. He also appeared on The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2 on 26 May 2007 and 13 October 2007, and Team Disgusting's show on Life fm as a co-host for one episode, along with fellow Team Disgusting members Melvis and Birdy.

In November 2007 Fielding starred in five episodes of BBC Radio 2 show Vic Reeves' House Arrest as a local vagrant who knocks on Reeves' door once a week to ask for work.^[3] His character is often given seemingly pointless tasks, such as building a galleon out of sausages, and is paid in small change.

[edit] Music

Fielding has appeared in several music videos, including Mint Royale's 'Blue Song', alongside Julian Barratt, Nick Frost and Michael Smiley. He also made a brief appearance in the video for Razorlight's 'In the Morning'. He appeared in two music videos for the Robots In Disguise songs 'Girl' (alongside Chris Corner who was, at the time, boyfriend to Sue Denim) and 'The Tears'. Recently, Noel has been involved in the Kasabian video "Vlad The Impaler", in which he plays the character of Vlad.

Fielding is friends with the members of Razorlight, and involved them in the 'The Priest and the Beast' episode of The Mighty Boosh. Fielding lent his voice to the Midfield General song 'Midfielding'. Fielding also sometimes plays bass live for Robots In Disguise. Furthermore, he has been known to DJ, often playing at The Barfly in London with the rest of The Mighty Boosh or with his DJ collective known as Team Disgusting, made up of six girls and the Rev (formerly of Towers of London). Lately, he has being DJing with Dave Brown, who plays Bollo in Fielding's TV show, the Mighty Boosh, under the DJing phenomenon, the Doctor and the Pencil, who first appeared in the Mighty Boosh episode, The Chokes.

[edit] Goth Detectives

In December 2006, Fielding appeared alongside Russell Brand in annual Channel 4 panel show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr. The pair won with 39 points after Carr jokingly offered 22 points for correctly answering one question, assuming that they would not know the answer. Following a question involving the winter sport Bob Skeleton, Jonathan Ross pointed out that this would be a good name for an 'Indie Detective', which led to Fielding and Brand describing a fictional scenario in which they were 'Goth Detectives'. Brand and Fielding later performed a Goth Detectives themed show for a Teenage Cancer Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 March 2007.

On a broadcast of Russell Brand's Radio 2 show, the pair stated that they were going to appear in the 2007 version of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year in a bid to defend their title. However, that year, they placed last, but produced many laughs along the way, referring to themselves as 'Goth Detectives'.

[edit] Art

Before going into comedy, Fielding studied Fine Art at Croydon Art College. He held his first exhibition, entitled Psychedelic Dreams of the Jelly Fox at Maison Bertaux, a patisserie in Greek Street, Soho in early 2008. He claimed that he was inspired by Henri Rousseau, Rene Magritte, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein and Dexter Dalwood.

[edit] Solo Tour

In 2010, Fielding was to perform a solo tour across the country. However, the tour was cancelled so he could concentrate on other projects.^[4]

[edit] Personal life

Fielding's parents are Diane and Ray Fielding, both of whom have appeared in The Mighty Boosh episodes. His uncle David Ford is a biology teacher at Kesteven and Grantham Girls School. His brother is Michael Fielding, who appears as Naboo on The Mighty Boosh. He also revealed on Russell Brand's radio show that his grandmother is French.^[5] He was educated at Croydon Art College and Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (Bucks New University).^[6]

Fielding has stated that he has no middle name, was never baptised and does not follow a religion.^[7] He has a penchant for celebrity clothing, claiming to have worn Johnny Depp's hat and Freddie Mercury's coat during the filming of The Mighty Boosh. He also mentions briefly on C4's Transmission that he is a vegetarian.

Fielding has the benign liver condition Gilbert's Syndrome, and has commented that if he drinks too much alcohol, it gives him slight jaundice. On 15 August 2009, Noel revealed in an interview with The News of the World that he had been taking drugs such as cocaine, ketamine and MDMA over the past few years, caused by stress due to his increasing fame. He also told the press that those habits were in the past, and he is now fully clean.^[8]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Acting roles

• The Bunny and The Bull
• The Mighty Boosh Film - TBA
• I Spit On Your Rave (2010)^[9][10]
• Boosh Live (2008 - 2009) – Vince Noir
• The Mighty Boosh Live (2006) – Vince Noir
• The IT Crowd (2006 - 2007) – Richmond
• Nathan Barley (2005) – Jones
• AD/BC: A Rock Opera (2004) – Shepherd
• Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) – Monkey Man
• The Mighty Boosh (2004- present) – Vince Noir
• Surrealissimo: The Trial of Salvador Dalí (2002) – Bauer
• Autoboosh Live (2000) – Vince Noir
• Sweet (2000) – Pete Sweet
• Arctic Boosh Live (1999) – Vince Noir
• Plunkett & Macleane (1999) – Brothel Gent
• The Transponder (1998) - Rabbi Ginsberg
• The Mighty Boosh Live (1998) – Vince Noir
• Unnatural Acts (1998) – Various

[edit] Television appearances

• Alan Carr: Chatty Man (2009)
• Shooting Stars (2009)
• Comic Relief Does Top of the Pops (2009)
• Harry Hill's TV Burp (2008)
• The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2006/2007)
• Comic Relief's The Big One (2007)
• The Charlotte Church Show

• Episode 2x02 (2007)

• Never Mind the Buzzcocks

• 21x02-21x04 (2007) Team Captain
• Episode 20x02 (2007)
• Permanent team captain, 2009-present

• The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2006)
• British Comedy Awards 2006 (2006)
• The Culture Show (2006)
• 1 Leicester Square (2006)
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

• Episode 11x10 (2006)

• The Secret Policeman's Ball (2006)
• Soccer AM (2006)
• BBC Breakfast

• interview (2006)

• TRL (2006)
• Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy (2005)
• BBC Breakfast

• Episode dated 26 July 2005 (2005)

• 28 Acts in 28 Minutes (2005)
• British Comedy Awards 2004 (2004)
• Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004)
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala (2003)
• Liquid News (2003)
• Brain Candy (2002)
• The Big Schmooze

• Episode 1x04 (2000)

• Comedy Café (1999)

• Episode 1x07

• Gas (1997)

[edit] Awards

• 2009 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009.
• 2008 2nd Best Dressed Man of the Year GQ Awards.
• 2008 Situation Comedy and Comedy Drama Royal Television Awards 2008.
• 2008 Best Dressed Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
• 2008 Sexiest Man Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
• 2008 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
• 2007 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007.
• 2003 Time Out comedy award winner for outstanding achievement.
• 2002 Solo Edinburgh show Voodoo Hedgehog nominated for a Perrier
• 2001 The Boosh, first on London Live, then on Radio 4.
• 2000 Arctic Boosh won the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• 1999 Perrier nominee with Julian Barratt as Arctic Boosh
• 1998 Herald Angel Award winner [1].
• 1998 Perrier Best Newcomer winner with Julian Barratt as the double act The Mighty Boosh (1998 Stage show)

[edit] External links

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[edit] References