Famed for his inspired nonsense, Ross Noble is back in his home county this week. What’s On talked to the funnyman about ad-libbing, scoring a big fat zero on Have I Got News For You and his bizarre TV date with Harold Bishop.

The tour’s called Brain Dump. Where does the title come from?

I got it from a customer review on Amazon for one of my DVDs. They wrote, “This is just like a massive brain dump,” and I thought: “Oh yeah, that’s exactly what my stuff is! I’ll have that.”

Your ‘brain dumps’ are largely improvised. Is it still a risk?

No – it’s like driving a car. After 25 years you don’t get in a car and go, “What if this goes wrong?” If you hit a few bumps in the road you just think: “Oh, this is fun, let’s bounce around for a bit!”

How has your comedy developed over the years?

Because I’ve built up this really loyal audience, there’s more of a shorthand. When I first started, if I was talking about something a bit left field people would go, “Oh god, where’s he going with this?” whereas now that’s what people want, they go, “Oh right! Where’s he going with this!?”’

Your acting CV now includes horror movie roles – that’s serious.

It’s definitely easier for a stand-up to do straight acting than an actor to do comedy. In the horror movie Stitches – it sounds mad because I was playing a killer clown – I wanted to play it as truthfully as possible. I didn’t want people to go, “Oh, that’s just Noble dressed as a clown.”

Which was weirder: playing a murderous clown, or going on a date with Harold Bishop (which you did in the Australian comedy, It’s a Date?)

Oh, the date! That was my idea, so I only have myself to blame. It was a mate of mine’s show – he asked me to write and be in an episode. Afterwards I realised that I could have picked pretty much any Australian actress to date! I could’ve written myself a love scene. But when he asked who I wanted to go on a date with, I said, “Ian Smith, who plays Harold Bishop in Neighbours.” We laughed about that for about an hour. But he agreed to it.

You’ve clocked up 17 appearances on Have I Got News For You. Do you particularly enjoy it?

I absolutely love it. I was still at school when the show started. It’s still the top panel show on telly. On one show me and Paul Merton got every single question wrong and scored zero points. We did it on purpose! I jokingly said to Paul: “Why don’t we just see if we can score no points?” It’s actually harder than you think, because when an obvious story comes up it’s really hard not to say the answer.

Paul Merton was ranked at 54 in Channel 4’s poll of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. In 2007 you came in at No.10, but when they revisited it in 2010 you were bumped to number 11. What happened?

Ricky Gervais. When they did the first programme, he hadn’t done stand-up. By 2010 he’d started, so he was put in the top 10 which pushed me to 11. Which is fair enough – it was voted by the public, and he’s popular. But it’s like those 100 sexiest men or women lists – it’s never won by someone who works in a chip shop in Loughborough.

DETAILS

Ross Noble: Brain Dump will be at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, on Tuesday, November 15, at 8pm. Tickets cost £25. To book visit assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk or call 01892 530613.

Ross will also be at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, on Saturday, February 11, 2017. For details visit marlowetheatre.com or call 01227 787787.