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From Dandelion Mind

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Born and raised in the West Country, Bill Bailey showed an early passion for music, forming the school band Behind Closed Doors.  It was also at school that he acquired the nickname Bill, thanks to a geography teacher who was a fan of the song Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey?

He seemed destined for a career in music; being the only pupil at his school to study the subject at A-level, before attending the  London College of Music.  In his early years, he performed with an 'enthusiastic if unsuccessful', four-piece band called The Famous Five. But he says he always felt the urge to slip jokes into the set.

Bailey also had a passion for theatre, and he spent much of the Eighties touring with a Welsh experimental theatre company, which he combined with a job as a lounge pianist and a keyboard player in a jazz trio. But one night Bailey saw comic poet John Hegley, who inspired him to combine music and comedy.

In 1986 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth, who was replaced in 1988 by Martin Stubbs.  Around this time he was also performing with  London topical comedy team Newsrevue.

Once the double act dissolved, he formed the pub band Beergut 100, and started performing stand-up solo.  In 1994, he performed  at the Edinburgh Fringe with Sean Lock with the show Rock, about an ageing rockstar and his roadie

The following he returned with his debut solo show, and in 1996 earned a Perrier nomination for his show Cosmic Jam. The show was later recorded for TV, but it took until 2005 for it to be released on DVD.

His Perrier success landed him several TV appearances, including a captaincy on the ill-fated Channel 4 sci-fi panel game Space Cadets. But three years after his Perrier success, Bailey was writing and starring in his own BBC Two show Is It Bill Baile?y, featuring  musical parodies, surreal sketches, and stand-up.

He continued to tour and  won the Best Live Stand-Up award at the 1999 British Comedy Awards. In 2001, he toured with Bewilderness and in 2003, he took to the road with Part Troll, following its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2007 he made the move to arenas, with the live show Tinselworm.

In 2000, he took the role as long-suffering Manny Bianco in Dylan Moran's sitcom Black Books, which cemented his burgeoning TV fame.

Now he is probably most famous as a team captain on comedy pop quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks, taking over from Sean Hughes in 2002. Bailey has also appeared regularly on QI, Spaced, and as a guest on the likes of Room 101 and TV Heaven, Telly Hell.

Bailey has also been a straight actor. During the 2003 Edinburgh Festival he starred in a production of Twelve Angry Men, alongiside other comedians and two years later appeared opposite Alan Davies in an Edinburgh Fringe producton of The Odd Couple. He voiced the sperm whale in 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie  In 2007, Bailey appreared in a West End revival of Harold Pinter sketches, Pinter's People, which he helped bring to the stage.

He is also a wildlife campagner and presented Wild Thing I Love You which began on Channel 4 on October 15, 2006.

He became a father in 2003, and named his son Dax after the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 character.

Bill Bailey: Dandelion Mind (Work in progress)
Live Review
Leicester Square Theatre

Comedy-goers, you’re in for a treat. Even at this stage, Bill Bailey’s next tour is about as perfect a stand-up experience as you could hope to get. And this at merely a ‘work in progress’ gig, before a month-long run of preview shows in the West End’s Wyndham Theatre, announced this morning, and the tour itself.

This is a show that has everything: politics, whimsy, music, passion, fun, rap, poetry, speed bazuki, a history of art lecture about the various interpretations of The Incredulity of St Thomas… all performed with the skill, wit, intelligence and originality of a true maestro of comedy.

There’s surprise at every turn, with such an embarrassment of exquisite jokes, imagery and ideas you can’t help but be enchanted. While the show title suggests a flighty brain (‘one pffft and it’s gone’), there’s no doubt that behind that acid-casualty exterior lies a super-sharp operator.

If, as the aphorism goes, a comic says funny things, while a true comedian says things funny, them we’d better make a new category for Bailey. Not only can he get a laugh just from mumbling ‘Thank you for coming’ at an unusually brisk pace, getting the ball rolling straight away, but there’s a richness and depth to all his material, which means that each one of his plentiful laughs is uniquely earned.

Following his previous, diluted, escapades with a full orchestra, here’s back to what he does best – even if it’s not exactly pared-down basics. The stage with littered with musical detritus, from the Iranian oud to the Tenori-on, an electronic gizmo that translates patterns into sound. You would expect him to put this one-man band to use for some of his trademark mash-ups; and he doesn’t disappoint, especially with his joyous French pop version of Cars. Bailey doesn’t need to change the words of a song to get a cheap laugh, he can change its speed a get much stronger ones.

However, the music – plus the classy videos that accompany some of it – is an adjunct to his sharp wit, not a replacement for it. Despite battling a rasping throat, Bailey is on top intellectual form tonight, his rationalist point of view perhaps more tightly focussed by the Pope’s visit, which gets plenty of tongue-in-cheek mentions. Bailey has a plan to get close enough to lunge at the Pontiff, by disguising himself as a badger, the perfect illustration of his mix of surrealism and sharp opinion.

In fact, Bailey’s whimsy is singularly grounded. He doesn’t string random ideas together for the sake of it, but has such expert command of the language that he can succinctly demolish anything he sees as ridiculous with the perfect heightened of its extremes that may seem bizarre, but makes a point.

Brevity is thus at the heart of his wit, with the Saw films boiled down to one or two brilliantly bizarre horror scenarios, or florid gastrobollocks perfectly parodied with flamboyantly imagined menu description . While spoofs of such things as cosmetics ads or James Blunt songs – easy comic targets by any measure – are so devastatingly accurate they transcend the ordinary.

Bailey’s in playful mood tonight, too, the intimate confines of the Leicester Square Theatre perhaps allowing him to be especially relaxed. Typically oddball hecklers, prompt his usual disclaimer: ‘I should warn you, I do attract a lot of nutters.’ But they give him rein to spin off into a mix of improvised silliness and snippets of back-catalogue to make for an irresistibly fluid performance.

Keen Bailey-watchers will spot a few of the prime routines from his last Tinselworm tour making their way into this set. This may be a part of the ‘in progress’ nature of this gig, but they sit seamlessly alongside the vast majority of new stuff, and are a delight to hear again in a show that’s perfect. Just perfect.

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Bill is funny, distinctive and he was in the same room as the truly gorgeous Melanie C in Never Mind The Buzzcocks. I want to achieve all those things. Meanwhile I'll sing his praises.

Michael Monkhouse, March 2013

I'm seeing Tinselworm in Sydney later this year. Can't wait! Have been enjoying his appearances as the father of Maxxie in the tv show Skins, especially his dancing dog routines!

Claire, July 2008

My friends and I were left distinctly underwhelmed by the Tinselworm tour. Something seemed to be lacking. Bill seemed distracted by the amount of technology on offer and favoured inferior skits revolving around the big screens over the genuinely witty banter that first attracted me to his comedy. t one point Bill performed a deadly serious mini-gig with a Hindi band, which was thoroughly bemusing and not at all humorous. The show was disjointed and lacked focus. I have seen Bill live several times but am not sure I'd bother again.

Charles Thomson, March 2008

Bailey is a comedy genius. His fantastic mix of comedy and music works wonderfully and puts a different spin on the normal stand-up skit. Unfortunately, i haven't seen him live but friends have said he is not to be missed. I have his previous DVDs but i think i need to appreciate his comedy genius in the flesh.

Stephanie Plowman, February 2008

Amazing guy, I've got all of his DVDs and he is the funniest bloke I have ever seen do stand up, what a legend.

Gareth, December 2007

Watched Bill in Cardiff on his Tinselworm tour and all I can say was it was the funniest thing I have seen. It's a must see tour

matt, November 2007

This man is a true comic legend. Worship him!

Rhys, May 2007

Just returned from a preview of Bill's latest show at the Pleasance, Islington. Highlights included his own version of The Da Vinci Code and a James Blunt take-off. All new material though some of the same recurring themes. Very funny indeed and rather more politicised than previously. Looks promising

Charles Thomson, July 2006

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