Preview: Ross Noble, Fizzy Logic, Grand Opera House, York, September 6 to 8

Ever since cutting his comedy teeth as compere of the Comedy Shack nights at the Bonding Warehouse, Ross Noble has had a bond with the city of York. So much so, he has booked into the Grand Opera House for not one but three nights. Charles Hutchinson hears the reasoning behind this Noble gesture.

You keep coming back for more at the Grand Opera House, Ross. How come?

"Well, it's just a great venue. That's the bottom line, you know. That room is one of the best rooms for comedy there is, it genuinely is.

"A lot of that has got to do with the audience; just the fact that they're an up-for-it crowd. And then there's the actual design of the room. It was designed to have someone standing on that stage, performing, but now you do these multi-purpose conference venues where the sound disappears off into the toilets, and that's where you get the full sound!"

Why have you developed this bond with York?

"The main reason is that every time I come here, I have a great timeand also people tend to kick off if I'm walking round town! If they can't get tickets, they give me grief, telling me You've sold out' and I'll say, sorry, it's not my fault'.

"It's happening all the time, like I've ended up doing a week in Manchester at the Opera House, where I'm too frightened to go out for a baked potato in case they pounce."

Where are you breaking in your new show?

"I'm doing a Highlands tour in Scotland at the moment, and you couldn't get further away from opera houses than that. Originally, I did it for a laugh, but I'm doing it for the third year now. Like doing Findhornand there's lots of Carry On gags to be had in that name.

"It's a fishing village on the north coast, and it's all renewable energy and crystals there, so you get people from the village and your more alternative types all turning up at this place called the Universal Hall, a hexagonal place with a big carved sculpture at the back.

"I get so hooked on it, thinking this is great', so I keep coming back."

What is a typical Highland experience for you?

"You bring our own equipment, and when you turn up to somewhere that turns out to be a hippie commune, you say We need power', and they say Oh, you need power'. You could have a little lad on a bike pedalling!"

What draws you to live work as opposed to the television studio?

"There's a sort of tendency for comics to get on telly and have telly as the main bulk of their work with the live work as just something to do as a spin-off, and that's the wrong way round.

"A lot of comics can't be bothered to leave London, but I think it's all about bothering to go where people areand I can never be accused of not turning up."

Is performing like a fix?

Maybe it is. Probably. Imagine having to go to a comedy rehab centre!"

Could you ever imagine stopping, many years down the line?

"The trouble is, if you had an old folks' home for comedians, you wouldn't know if they were joking or serious if they fell over."

Why have you called the new show Fizzy Logic?

"It basically sounded like a good title for a show. Fizzy Logic is a way of thinking about things: you apply fizzy logic. Fuzzy logic is kind of computer-like and well thought-out, and fizzy logic is the complete opposite of that with no mathematical logic whatsoever."

Five days into the tour, what subjects are troubling the Noble mind?

"I've just bought some cows in AustraliaAustralian Highland cows. My wife's Australian and we've just bought a new house north of Melbourne, and so now I have four cows and they're not to be slaughtered. They're pet cows."

Can you milk them?

"Yeah, you can, but I'm not fully sure about pouring fluid on to my cereal that's come out of my pet. There's something about pouring milk from a carton that's anonymous and just feels right.

"But I've been mulling over training the cows, as I have dogs that do tricks, and I'm messing about in the show with the idea of a performing cow team. So it'll be fairly heavily-bovine based material."

What other subjects undergo the fizzy logic test?

"Cows are more than enough to be going on with."

Do you have any radio work in the pipeline?

"I'm working on a new series. I can't say too muchnot because it's a secret but more because I haven't fully worked out what it'll be. It's a series of weekly half-hour shows that should be on Radio 4 at the start of next year in the 6.30pm slot, and I think it's going to be called Ross Noble On."

Ross Noble on what exactly?

"Well, we're recording these live shows, some from Scotland, some from elsewhere, and there'll be half-hour shows from that. Lots of people work out what will be in a show, then write it, then do it; I do it the other way round. Rather than having a script, I just do the shows. That's the way I prefer it."

Ross Noble, Fizzy Logic, Grand Opera House, York, September 6 to 8, 8pm, £18.50 and £16.50. Tickets update: Friday, almost sold out. Box office: 0870 606 3595.