Master of improvisational comedy Ross Noble tells KATHERINE MACALISTER why he decided to take a year off and why his audiences have nothing to worry about...

It’s hard to imagine comedian Ross Noble being nervous about anything. Having been packing out the country’s biggest theatres for decades, and having us howling in the aisles at his unique blend of ‘improvisational comedy’, you’d have thought he’d be impossible to flummox.

But having taken a ‘gap year’, Ross admits that at first he was quite apprehensive about returning to the live arena after his time away. “I began performing again in Australia earlier this year and when I started, I was thinking, ‘Do you have to be match fit like a boxer? What if I’ve forgotten how to do it?’ “But the moment I walked on stage and the light hit me, it came flooding back. It was like getting back into a warm bath. The fact that I have not been so caught up in stand-up means that I’m now in my best form for years. The break has given me a new hunger. I have recharged my mental batteries and come back with fresh energy. Having the year off has made me appreciate how much I love stand-up. Going back to it has just been such fun.”

So why stop at all? “I had been gigging solidly for 21 years, so I thought, ‘I’ll take this year off. I won’t tour, but I’ll spend the time doing normal things like an off-road motorbike race through Dracula’s home state!’” which of course he did, giving him a whole host of new material for his current tour Mindblender, which is blowing into Oxford on Saturday night.

Not that he needs much, because he always improvises as he goes along anyway. “What a lot of comedians do is write a load of jokes, see which ones work and then hone them. But I simply go on and improvise stuff which might spark the seed of the next idea, and that in turn might spark the seed of the next idea.

“I’m so keen to explore new ideas, that I don’t keep the original idea. My show is a constant work in progress. I’m not working towards something. It’s continually fluid,” Ross explains.

Isn’t the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach quite nerve-waracking though? “No,” Ross replies. “The best way to describe it is to say it’s like driving a car. When you first start driving, most people are nervous. They have to look at the gear stick and don’t know which pedal is which. But once they get to the point where they can drive without thinking, that’s when they can go much faster and really start to fly.

“Stand-up is exactly the same. Playing a rough club is like driving in heavy traffic – you’re constantly negotiating obstacles. If you skid off the road, you just deal with it. Yes, you might drive up a cul-de-sac, but then you can show off, do a handbrake turn and get back on the road!”

Which is certainly why the Geordie has such staying power, notching up 13 sell-out tours and seven top-selling DVDs in his time, as well as coming 10th in Channel 4’s 2010 poll of 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

“Bouncing off the audience is the most amazing sensation. Sometimes you can see that people who haven’t been to my show before are freaking out when I start talking to the audience. They’re worried because a lot of comedians rip audience members to pieces for other people's entertainment.

“But I don’t do that. I just want to get them involved. I don’t pick on anyone or make anyone feel excluded. My audience gets me. They realise there’s no malice in it. That allows me to go a lot further because people aren’t terrified. “I want to say to the people who are coming to my show, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all going to be fine.’ That should be the title of the tour!”

Which is why the 36-year-old never plans much before going on stage, because “that gets in the way. The way I do things is easier, because it allows me to play. If you get too caught up in the mechanics of what you’re doing or overthink it, that takes away from enjoying it. Because what I really love is creating images in people’s minds. It’s like reading a book – everyone sees it differently in their own head.”

So what does he get out of it then? “You know when you’re having a drink with a few mates in the pub and you say something funny and everyone laughs and says, ‘That was a good one!’ Making an audience laugh is like that, but multiplied by two thousand.”

Ross Noble’s Mindblender Tour reaches Oxford’s New Theatre on Saturday night. Call the box office on 0844 871 7627.