From a bout of prawn rage to Pavarotti's funeral

Noble's packed Liverpool Empire gig was simultaneously beamed into Vue cinemas around the country to an audience of 10,000.

Watching Noble on screen, however, was a strangely distancing experience. While Scouse heckles prompted brilliant lunatic flights of fancy, we quietly scoffed popcorn.

You really had to be there, though thanks to high definition and a roving camera that picked out the ratty-haired rascal's slapstick jigs we occasionally felt we were.

As for material, Noble appeared to have torn up the script, scuttling off at umpteen tangents and delivering lightning-bolt banter inspired by gifts dumped onstage. A curly toupee doubled as an oversized pubic wig, while a teenager's glass eye must rank as the ultimate perverse showbiz present.

It was well into the second hour before any planned patter arrived to benefit from Noble's sideways perspective. He recalled how a special offer on shellfish resulted in a bout of prawn rage, recreated Pavarotti's heavyweight funeral and, in his closest thing to satire, suggested that magic bunnies giving away chocolate at Easter must make Muslims envious.

Instead of an encore, a interactive Q&A session involved an audience phone-in. It was an oddly old-fashioned finale, but Noble is actually an oddly old-fashioned comedian. It was apt that he chose Liverpool for Sunday's simulcast.

With his penchant for marathon gigs, manic digressions and mad hair, he has more in common with Mersey mirthmaker Ken Dodd than he might think.

Carling Apollo, 2 and 3 November. Information: 08448 444748, www.rossnoble.co.uk

Ross Noble
Vue West End