“Come with us now on a journey through time and space... To the world of the Mighty Boosh...”

‘The Mighty Boosh’ was created and written by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, who star in the show as Vince Noir and Howard Moon (as well a host of other strange and bizarre characters and creations), two downtrodden zookeepers who work for a very strange manager named Bob Fossil (played by Rich Fulcher). Vince is vain, flighty and fashion-obsessed: he loves wearing outrageous and ultra-trendy clothes, listening to ’70s retro music and partying with his über-chic friends; he gets all the gossip and news from ‘Cheekbone’ magazine, the hottest publication ever, which is delivered by ninjas every three hours. Vince also often gets mistaken for a woman. Vince’s polar opposite is Howard, a man with unnaturally tiny eyes who sees himself as an intellectual, a ladies man and a “jazz maverick”; in fact he is anything but – everything he attempts fails, his success with women is non-existent and his fashion sense would make a geography teacher look cool; as a result Howard has very few friends, and even those he does have wouldn’t admit to it in public. Howard also often gets mistaken for Vince’s dad.

’The Mighty Boosh’ debuted in April 1998 at the ‘Oranje Boom Boom Cabaret’ club at ‘De Hems’ pub in London’s Soho, where Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt introduced audiences to their unique mix of comedy, adventure, surrealism and zoo employment; they then took the show to 'The Edinburgh Festival Theatre', where they won the prestigious Perrier Award for ‘Best Newcomers’. This was followed by a series of sketches for the Paramount Comedy Channel’s ‘Unnatural Acts’, in which Noel and Julian built on their characters and comedy routines; here they met Rich Fulcher, who joined them as the bizarre Bob Fossil. The Boosh then took up a residency at the 'Hen & Chickens Theatre' bar in Highbury and Islington, where they continued to develop their routine and earn a cult following with their audience. In 1999, Noel, Julian and Rich were joined by Dave Brown and together they went to the ‘Edinburgh Festival’ with their next show, ‘Arctic Boosh’, which was nominated for a Perrier Award (but lost to Al Murray’s ‘Pub Landlord’ act). For their third stage show, ‘Autoboosh’, the gang were accompanied by Noel's brother Michael and his friend Pete Kyriacou; this was performed at ‘The Pleasance Theatre’ in Islington, the ‘Melbourne International Comedy Festival’ (where it won the ‘Barry Humphries Award’) and the ‘Edinburgh Festival’.

In October 2001, ‘The Mighty Boosh’ moved to radio for a series of episodes produced by Danny Wallace. Set in ‘Fossil’s Fun World’, it featured adaptations of ‘Arctic Boosh’ and ‘Autoboosh’, together with four more original adventures written by Noel and Julian. As well as the ever-disturbing Bob Fossil, the shows featured Naboo, a hippy extra-terrestrial Shaman played by Michael, and Bollo the Gorilla, played by Dave. The show was very well-received, winning the prestigious ‘Douglas Adams Award for Innovative Radio Writing’, and was also nominated for a ‘Sony Award’.

A pilot for a television series was broadcast on BBC3 in May 2003: Vince and Howard still worked for Bob Fossil’s, but now in a park called the ‘Zoo-Niverse’, and the story used elements from ‘Artic Boosh’. It was produced by Steve Coogan's production company ‘Baby Cow’, co-produced by Edgar Wright (‘Spaced’), and directed by Steve Bendelack (‘League of Gentlemen’ and ‘Little Britain’). When a full season was commissioned the episode was stripped of its laughter track, re-edited with new material, and shown in May 2004 alongside seven new episodes, some of which were adapted from the radio series. The television show was a great success, winning the ‘Time Out Comedy Award for Outstanding Achievement’.

After a new stage production tour in 2006, a second season of ‘The Mighty Boosh’ television series was transmitted from July 2005, which concentrated on Vince and Howard’s life outside of the ‘Zoo-Niverse’. The unlikely duo now shared an upstairs flat with Naboo and his familiar Bollo, and their six new adventures were even stranger and more surreal than before. A third (and - so far - final) season of six episodes followed in November 2007, in which it was revealed that Vince and Howard’s flat was situated above Naboo’s second hand shop, the ‘Nabootique’, where they now worked for their living.

The gang’s most recent outing was in ‘The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour’, a stage-show written and performed by Noel and Julian, along with usual suspects Rich, Michael and Dave, as well as the ‘Boosh Band’. The production premiered at the Riverside Studios, before touring the United Kingdom and Ireland from August 2008 through to January 2009.

Since then there have been no more outings for the Boosh. Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt have pursued other avenues for their creative talents and appeared in many other entertainment shows. Hopefully one day soon we will see the return of Vince, Howard, Naboo and Bollo – if not, it’s an outrage!

The Mighty Boosh - Stage Shows
The Mighty Boosh - Radio Season 1
The Mighty Boosh - TV Pilot
The Mighty Boosh - TV Season 1
The Mighty Boosh - TV Season 2
The Mighty Boosh - TV Season 3

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Legal Bit: 'The Mighty Boosh' is a registered trademark of BBC Worldwide. The 'Mighty Boosh' logo and all images from the television series are copyright BBC Worldwide unless otherwise stated; no copyright infringement is intended. All specially created images and text are copyright © Clive Banks; please do not use these without my permission. All rights reserved. No profit is made from this website, and any revenue made from using the banner-links featured goes straight back into the costs of maintaining it, which comes out of my own pocket in the first place. No profit advertising is accepted. This website was created purely to entertain and amuse, and any references to persons living, dead, comatose, in suspended animation, not born yet, or a figment of someone's imagination is purely coincidental. All opinions expressed are my own, so there...

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