Improv group Noise Next Door are winging it in the name of comedy

Given a last minute gig in a festival comedy tent, The Noise Next Door’s brand new troupe panicked. They didn’t have anything rehearsed or enough time to script something. Having just formed, they couldn’t even fall back on an old routines or favourite jokes.

So they did what any normal comedians would do under the circumstances and winged it. Looking back on their improved set eight years later, now performing in some of the biggest theatres and venues in the land, they are still winging it, every night.

And improv is still the name of their game, getting off on the thrill of the unknown and a different show every night: “Performing in front of 600 people felt amazing so we kept on doing it,” Sam Pacelli tells me. The University of Kent students soon had nights lined up all over the country and once they had graduated, five of them stayed together, turning professional, and have been on the road ever since.

“We were just trying to prolong going out into the real world,” he says. “But it’s still so much fun performing improv because people never know what to expect.”

Based on audience members throwing ideas into the ring, The Noise Next Door crew take the suggestions and run with them. “We love surprising one another,” Sam admits. “Because we have performed with each other so many times, that if I can still make them laugh and impress them then I’m doing well.”

Having all lived together after uni in Brighton, “which was like an episode of The Monkeys,” they now even own a people carrier to transport them around the country.

“We used to have to hire cars and drive to Glasgow in a tin can cramped up like sardines, so the people carrier was a big step forward.

“In fact when we went to buy it, the salesman said we didn’t fit the ‘usual demographic’ at all, and wanted to know what we were going to do with it,” Sam laughs.

“But when we have a tour bus with a driver called Jethro and a card playing space at the back, we’ll be in heaven.” And groupies? “Oh we are all too old for that now,” the 30 year-old laughs.

Described as ‘The One Direction of comedy’, the boys continue to charm audiences around the country, coming to both Banbury’s Mill and Didcot’s Cornerstone tomorrow and Saturday respectively.

The dream is to have their own TV show, but in the meantime they keep plugging away.

So eight years in, how do they keep the act fresh? “Most audience suggestions tend to be topical, but if the same idea is offered two nights in a row we just do it a different way.

“Donald Trump crops up a lot at the moment, but as there are five of us, someone can always run with it.

“We also have safeguards to make sure we don’t repeat ourselves, as well as being malleable, and that’s why we are still here. In theory the show could bomb every night.”

As for the One Direction comparison, Sam says they get baked a lot of cookies and cakes, but that’s as far as it goes – the Mary Berry’s of comedy then.

Where and when
Noise Next Door are at The Mill, Banbury, tomorrow 01295 279002 and Didcot Cornerstone, on Sat, 01235 515 144