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Noel Fielding

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Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding performing at The Mighty Boosh Live
Born (1973-05-21) 21 May 1973 (age 51)
Westminster, London, England
MediumStand-up, television, radio
NationalityBritish
Years active1997 – Present
Genrescomedy/icon
Notable works and rolesVince 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.

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. Noel also appears in The IT Crowd as Richmond, but due to a busy schedule, he did not appear in series 3. He has also appeared in Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a guest captain in place of Bill Bailey. He also co-presented Top of the Pops on Red Nose Day 2009 where his usually applauded blend of humour did not go down as well.

The Mighty Boosh

Main article: 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 & 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".

Vince has a very feminine aspect to his attire, often being confused as Howard Moon's "wife" or "lady friend" by supporting characters. This is due to his androgynous dress sense, which commonly includes lots of different coloured/print drainpipe jeans, boots with heels, a mirror-ball suit, faux-fur leopard skin jackets, capes, sparkly accessories and clothes from high-street store Topshop. [citation needed]

Noel plays various other characters in the television show including Tony Harrison, a small pink head with tentacles and member of the shamen 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, an 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).

Other Projects

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. 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. 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 Fern Cotton.

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.

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'. Additionally, 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 (comedian), 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.

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 a '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.

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.

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 (13 October 2007) that his grandmother is French. He was educated at Croydon Art College and Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (Bucks New University).[4]

Fielding has stated that he has no middle name, was never baptised and does not follow a religion.[5] 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.

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 the 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.[6]

Filmography

Acting roles

Television appearances

  • Episode 2x02 (2007)
  • 21x02-21x04 (2007) Team Captain
  • Episode 20x02 (2007)
  • Episode 11x10 (2006)
  • interview (2006)
  • TRL (2006)
  • Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy (2005)
  • BBC Breakfast
  • Episode 1x04 (2000)
  • Comedy Café (1999)
  • Episode 1x07
  • Gas (1997)

Awards

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References

  1. ^ "Noel Fielding". BBC Comedy. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  2. ^ Neil Gaiman - Neil Gaiman's Journal: Stardust news
  3. ^ BBC - Radio 2 Comedy - Vic Reeves' House Arrest
  4. ^ Jones, Sam (14 December 2007). "He's a Mick Jagger of comedy ... sweet but unbelievably mischievous and naughty, like a very cheeky puppy". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
  5. ^ Life FM – Team Disgusting Show 1 June 2007
  6. ^ Wootton, Dan (15 August 2009). "Boosh: Noel Fielding's mad year". News of the World. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  7. ^ http://www.ispitonyourrave.com/
  8. ^ http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/noel-fielding-to-be-crowned-zombie-king-at-big-chill-festival/

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