Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of the Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside his comedy partner Noel Fielding.
Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Barratt attended the University of Reading and first performed stand up comedy while at university. In 1997 he first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Noel Fielding when he attended one of Barratt's solo stand-up gig's at the Hellfire comedy club. After this Barratt and Fielding began performing regular solo stand-up gigs together and they soon realised that they liked each other's stuff and began writing and doing the gigs together. Sometime around 1998 they then performed their first comedy show together in London which was a mix of both stand up and sketch comedy and then in 1998 they took the show, The Mighty Boosh, to the Edinburgh fringe festival and returned again in 1999 with Arctic Boosh and in 2000 with Autoboosh. In 2001 The Mighty Boosh became a six-part radio show on BBC London Live, called The Boosh later transferring to BBC Radio 4. This was followed by the television show The Mighty Boosh, which ran for three series on BBC Three from 2004 to 2007. The show generated a cult following and won a variety of awards. From February to April 2006 they went on tour around the UK with the stage show The Mighty Boosh Live and then toured the UK for a second time from September 2008 to January 2009 with The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour.
Alongside Fielding, he has starred in Unnatural Acts, Nathan Barley and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Barratt also co-wrote and starred in the 2017 film Mindhorn. He starred in the Channel 4 black comedy-drama sitcom Flowers.
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Early life and education
Barratt was born Julian Barratt Pettifer in Leeds, West Yorkshire, where he grew up. His father was a science teacher and a fan of jazz music. Barratt's father made an appearance in the first series of The Mighty Boosh, and both his parents appeared in the second series.
As a teen, Barratt played in a band, and has described how when he was 17 he wanted to begin playing in a jazz band in London, but was not successful.
He began studying a course in American studies at Reading University, but left before graduating. Barratt adopted his middle name as his surname to distinguish himself from reporter Julian Pettifer.
Career
Stand Up
On his beginnings in stand up Barratt has commented that "I was never like Noel [Fielding] or Lee Mack, who are just funny all the time. No one ever said to me, you should be a comedian mate. But I watched a lot of stand-up at uni – people like Mark Lamarr, Sean Hughes, Eddie Izzard, just standing on a stage doing these phenomenal routines. And I could see how you could do it. So I started doing it myself, and I was so shocked when it worked. I remember one time I completely forgot what I was about to say, and I just ran out of the venue." It has also been commented that this occurred "...during his first standup sketch at Reading University..." and that he "...ran through the back door mid-act and through fields to a lake." Barratt has further commented that after he left the venue "...the manager came out after me and said: 'Get back in there, it's going well.' So I went back. I suppose that was a big turning point for me."
Barratt has further commented on his beginnings in theatre that "I'm looking at a big poster of myself now and I know my 16-year-old self would see that and think, what is going on there? He would be amazed that people actually like what I do. When Noel and I started gigging together and found people were really enjoying it, it was such a thrill. It was a validation of what felt like a long process of growing up, coming up against all these difficulties if you're shy and you have all these dreams and thoughts you can't communicate. It was very exciting to finally find a way to express myself, and seeing people enjoying that. I suppose I'm interested in communicating a pretentious, pompous person a lot of the time, and I have to recognise there is that in me. I did a few serious things before I got into comedy, which make me shudder now. I remember having my mate film me, all shadowy, doing performance poetry. My goodness."
He first met Noel Fielding when he attended one of Barratt's solo stand-up gig's at the Hellfire comedy club and Fielding approached Barratt after his gig had finished. After Fielding entered The Daily Telegraph open mic award and attended the final at the Edinburgh comedy festival he was signed to Avalon talent agency and through Avalon began performing on the same comedy bills as Barratt. Whilst performing on the comedy network together on the same bill they realised they liked each other's stuff and began writing and doing gigs together.
In 2006 Fielding commented that "We were doing stand-up and were on the same bill together. I was on first and usually you can only have about one weird comedian on a line-up. He'd been doing it a bit longer than me... [Barratt was like]'...Let's write together'. I've been stuck with him ever since and that was about eight years ago or something." Whilst Barratt and Fielding were on The Jonathan Ross Show, Ross asked them "And did you perform as solo acts ever, did you do like stand up..." with Barratt responding "yeah, yeah, that's how we sort of met really on the circuit, doing stand up, yeah.", with Ross responding "But, but was it similar to the Boosh stuff, 'cos the Boosh stuff it seems to be so much of a partnership I can't imagine it being taken apart and being served up separately.", with Barratt responding that "We were both doing quite surreal stuff, eh...", with Fielding adding "It was quite weird wasn't it, alot [sic]weirder than the show in a way...", with Barratt continuing "...but we sort of, when we first met we kind of liked each others comedy but we didn't know that it would work, we didn't know whether it was gonna cancel each other out and make....", with Fielding responding "Yeah, too weird to make sort of, straight...", with Barratt continuing "...might just become geography or something else or... this sort of thing, but it worked for some reason...", with Fielding adding "We had quite a good chemistry straight away."
Film and television
Barratt and Fielding have commented on the beginning of The Mighty Boosh, with Barratt commenting that "We performed together for the first time in ... was it in that show by Stewart Lee?", with Fielding replying "yeah, Stewart Lee's show, Moby Dick and King Dong (At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1997) ... Julian played King Dong's penis...", with Barratt replying "...an enormous penis...", and then with Fielding replying "perfect King Dong... then we thought let's do a show together."
Sometime around 1998 they then put on their first comedy show and it was commented by Nigel Coan with whom they collaborated with on Mighty Boosh that "They did their first gig at Oranje Boom Boom which is sort of in Chinatown in London, and ah, which was ridiculous, I mean it was really, like, ridiculous costumes and um, they didn't know what... they really [didn't] know what they were doing... ...It was very raw, but it was, it was hilarious... ...They thought lets do a show, an Edinburgh show. I think they started to think about doing that. So they got a gig at Hen and Chickens...". Dave Brown who also collaborated on the Mighty Boosh with them commented further on their time at the Hen and chickens which is a theatre bar in Islington, London, "They would use the Hen and Chickens as this kind of... place to, a platform to just try stuff out and it was just a great little place they could do a regular spot... ...where they would probably write and have ideas in the week, try stuff out for half of that and then for the rest of it, it would just be improv and mucking about. Then they took the, um, took The Mighty Boosh up to Edinburgh and then two more shows Arctic Boosh (1999), Autoboosh (2000)...". Both Michael Fielding and Richard Ayoade appeared in a performance of the Mighty Boosh at the Hen and Chickens in 2002 during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot.
Fielding and Barratt commented on their time at the Hen and Chickens, with Fielding commenting that "...cos it'd be stand up and people would come on and do straight stand up. And then we used to put potted plants all around the gig and music on... ...to try and make it into a sort of play... people couldn't believe the audacity. It got some sort of reputation as being sort of enigmatic but we're just really unprofessional. We didn't know anything about theatre or what you did." with Barratt responding to Fielding "Speak for yourself, I was in a Sartre play at university I'll have you know. Huis Clos." Fielding has commented further on their first live show, The Mighty Boosh, “Julian had a song about a mammoth that he wanted to sing to a girl in the audience, and I had a few ideas for some weird sketches... ...We started working on our ideas together... ...We were zookeepers and we got sucked through our bosses' eyes and into a magic forest..."
Stage
From 3 June to 9 July 2011, Barratt played the Mayor in a production of Nikolai Gogol's classic comedy The Government Inspector at the Young Vic Theatre. In October 2012, he returned to the stage in Lucy Kirkwood's play NSFW at the Royal Court.
Music
Barratt has commented that "At 16 I was into jazz fusion. Not even jazz, just jazz fusion. Rock instruments played like jazz. Really not fashionable in any way. People like Weather Report, Jack Pastorius. My dad was bang into it, so I thought it was normal. Until I played some to my mates. Then when I saw their reaction, it became my dirty secret. I could play guitar pretty well. Or pretty fast anyway. Me and my mate had duels, trying to outspeed each other to become the fastest guitarist in Yorkshire. That was all that mattered to me... ...I got into heavy metal because you could legitimately play solos. Van Halen was a big influence... ..And I played a lot of long, fast guitar solos."
Barratt and Fielding have commented on the end of one of the episodes of the Mighty Boosh with Barratt commenting that "There's a scene at the end of one of the episodes where I get to do a really long guitar solo for about five minutes. So fulfilling one of my childhood dreams..." with Fielding adding "...Roger Daltrey was there... ...He got to watch Julian's solo..." with Barratt replying "...Noel was playing bongos..." and with Fielding replying "Really badly" and Barratt replied "You can't play bongos " with Fielding adding "I was playing a bongo player... ...you did it really well and I did it really badly... We'd been hanging out with Keith Moon someone who can really play the drums and I couldn't play at all..."
In the early 1990s Barratt was in a band called Groove Solution with Dave Westlake. In 2012 he played jazz guitar live on stage with Tenacious D. He has also played bass with Chris Corner in IAMX, and played guitar for Little Chief during their European tour.
Personal life
Barratt is in a relationship with comedian and collaborator Julia Davis. The couple have twin sons, born in 2007. In 2010, they performed together in a production of Chekhov's The Bear for Sky Arts 2 and in Sally4Ever, which Davis also wrote and directed. Barratt is known to be shy, quiet, and self-deprecating. Unlike his comedy partner Noel Fielding, he prefers not to appear on comedy quiz shows or make similar public appearances, stating that he would rather "stay at home with a good book".
Filmography
Awards
2022 The Great nominated Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
2019 Killing Eve nominated Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series Online Film and Television Awards, Killing Eve 2018.
2016 Mindhorn nominated Best Debut Screenwriter British Independent Film Awards 2016.
2014 ABCs of Death 2 nominated Audience Choice Award Chicago International Film Festival.
2010 The Mighty Boosh won Best Live Show with Future Sailors at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2010.
2009 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009
2008 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
2007 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007.
2001 The Boosh, first on London Live, then on Radio 4.
2000 Arctic Boosh won the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
1999 Perrier nominee with Noel Fielding as Arctic Boosh
1998 Perrier Best Newcomer winner with Noel Fielding as the double act The Mighty Boosh
1995 Won BBC New Comedy Award
1995 Won Open Mic Award, Edinburgh
