He has made thousands of people laugh during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and now it's time for him to take a bow. The king of improvisation, Englishman Ross Noble, 25, is wearing two crowns after winning the Barry Award for the outstanding show and The Age Critics' Award.

Noble was a Barry nominee for the past two years but finally clinched the award and $3000 for his show, Slackers Playtime.

It is the second time that the two awards have gone to a single comedian; last year's Barry Award winner, Brian Munich and Friends, also won the inaugural Age award.

Noble won the Barry over six other finalists: The 4 Noels in A Night at Fat Willy's; Daniel Kitson; Chris Addison in Port Out, Starboard Home; Damian Callinan and Lawrence Mooney in Proxy Heroes; David Woods and Jon Hough in Ridiculusmus Say Nothing; and Aidan Fennessy, Jim Russell and Marty Sheargold in The Trade.

The awards were announced last night.

Noble, who comes from Cramlington, in Northumberland, and cites Billy Connolly as his hero, has wowed crowds with his ad-libbing during Slackers Playtime.

Age reviewer Olivia Hill-Douglas said of his performance: "Scruffy-haired Geordie Ross Noble was born to be a performer. He bursts on to stage full of energy, and has the audience in stitches immediately. His stream-of-consciousness, improvised comedy is refreshing, intelligent and bloody funny."

His antics during The Great Debate were also a crowd pleaser. When arguing for the negative team - "That there's nothing more sexy than the naked truth" - Noble resorted to amusing props: an old man in a wheelchair, a "sexyometer", and a lie detector.

In a new award this year, Clare Bartholomew in One Man's Business won a grant to attend the Edinburgh Festival after winning the ABN Amro Foreign Exchange Award.

The Age - 20 April 2002

Englishman Ross Noble is fascinated with Weet-Bix. Inspecting his breakfast with the scrutiny of a scientist, he displays the inquiring mind required of a comedian.

It's all about details. Back home, the Weetabix Noble eats have round corners and small wheat flakes. Our Weet-Bix have square corners and big flakes. "They absorb the same amount of milk but not as quickly," he explains.

It is the morning after the 25-year-old won the Barry Award for best show and The Age Critics Award.

After being a Barry nominee for the past two years, it was a relief to win. Mimicking the judges deliberating, he said: "We'd better give it to him so he'll stop coming back."

Noble is a renowned improviser who scribbles ideas for his show Slackers Playtime on a napkin or his hand. "Because it's not a scripted show I stand in the wings and think 'What the f --- am I going to talk about?'

"The theme of my show is whatever is in my head at any given night."

Noble has come a long way from the 15-year-old boy with the chubby face and rosy cheeks doing stand-up at Chirpy Chappy's Comedy Cafe in Newcastle, England.

The Age - 21 April 2002

Reviewed by John Shand, The Basement, June 16 June 18 2002

Lock up your daughters and lock up your dogs - especially those with long, curly hair. Paul McDermott is back on the prowl and he has a self-confessed fetish for ringlets. He may well be the cleanest-living boy in town, but I wouldn't take any chances, what with all the talk of bestiality and drugs, liberally peppered with expletives.

Barely visible since the Good News Week juggernaut ran aground on the reef of over-exposure, McDermott has a new act. It's called GUD.

This has inevitable parallels with his old team of the Doug Anthony Allstars, a trio which combines comedy and music.

McDermott may be the star, but this is already much more than front man and backing musos. Chemistry is a dangerous word to use in the context of all those drug jokes, but between McDermott, Gadflys' guitarist Mick Moriarty and Club Luna Band keyboards player Cameron Bruce, there is a nifty balance of onstage personalities which could easily see the trio as a whole becoming the star.

Moriarty is cast as the laconic dope head. He knocks out a very clever routine where, after a running gag of trying to play a love- song and continually being foiled by McDermott, he is allowed his turn, only for McDermott to push imaginary fast-forward and rewind buttons with brilliantly contrived consequences. Bruce is the brash pornographer who slides into X-rated ditties whenever a suitable hole appears.

McDermott is as hyperactive as ever. Those arms still flail when he sings, while the stand-up is abrasive and charming.

There were songs about such diverse characters as Ivan Milat, Chopper Read and legendary gardener Allan S-S-Seale.

But Osama bin Laden was the clear winner on the night with "We don't know where to find him" sung to the tune of I Don't Know How to Love Him.

Subtitled Hard Core Cabaret, the show would shrink alarmingly without the copulatory and scatological jokes, but GUD was still very good.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/17/1023864402539.html