Noel Fielding On Why ‘Luxury Comedy’ Is More Than Just A Sketch Show

In anticipation of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy and the inevitable confusion that will no doubt follow, we thought we’d attempt at understanding the genius behind the crazy and find out Fielding’s inspiration behind characters that include ‘Roy Circles’; a games teacher suffering from severe shell shock who is also a chocolate finger!

Noel Fielding In ‘Luxury Comedy’
Noel Fielding In ‘Luxury Comedy’

The ever more eccentric Noel Fielding is back on our TVs tonight with a new yet characteristically psychedelic show that the Talent Management team can’t wait to see.

Named ‘Luxury Comedy’, the 7-part sketch show promises to be classic ‘Noel Fielding’, i.e. nonsensical unadulterated comedy that’s probably going to take a while to get our heads around if The Mighty Boosh is anything to go by.

In anticipation of the show and the inevitable confusion that will no doubt follow, we thought we’d attempt at understanding the genius behind the crazy and find out Fielding’s inspiration behind characters that include ‘Roy Circles’; a games teacher suffering from severe shell shock who is also a chocolate finger.

Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy isn’t your bog-standard sketch show, is it?

“[Laughs] Not really, no. It’s kind of like a hybrid. We didn’t want to make it just a sketch show, because I find them a bit cold. And because people know me from Boosh and Buzzcocks, I thought it’d be good if I played a sort of version of myself as well. So it’s all centred around a jungle hut where I live, and I’ve got my brother in it, playing my ant-eater butler, and Andy Warhol’s my cleaner, and then there’s a girl who’s just an annoying trendy who lives next door. I just wanted to get that sitcom element in as well, and then have the weird sketches in there, and try and link them all up in some way. So I guess it’s a bit more than a sketch show, but it’s not a full-on sitcom either. And it’s also a mixture of animation and film. It’s all over the shop, really.”

Where do you get your inspiration from?

“Usually not other comedy. Nature. I love going to the zoo, often that really sparks me off, for some reason. The woods as well. I always love The Jungle Book, I reread it over and over again. And paintings. I like Henri Rousseau, and Dali. I like some really freaky films, like Jodorowsky’s films, stuff like The Holy Mountain. A writer called Richard Brautigan – he’s a lesser-known beat writer, he wrote a book called Trout Fishing in America. I really like his stuff. I dunno really, I just go about and gather up ideas as I go, and just scratch them down in a notepad.”

Luxury Comedy looks like complete visual feast. Was that always the intention?

“Yeah, totally. We’re both art students, and we wanted to make something that looked beautiful as well as being funny. But then we were really conscious of putting loads of jokes in it, so people wouldn’t just say ‘Oh, it looks really good, but it isn’t very funny’. That would be the worst thing. But we wanted to make something beautiful. People like Ardman and Disney still make really beautifully crafted stuff, but they have a lot of money. I’m really excited about it, I really love it, but I’ve been working on this for so long now, I’m not quite sure what it is that we’ve made. I’m looking forward to some feedback. It’s so experimental as well. Hopefully even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, they’ll appreciate the amount of craft that’s gone into it.”

Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy starts tonight at 10pm on E4, watch along with Talent Management and let us know whether it’s your ‘cup of tea’!