Bill Bailey: The day Sean Lock and I played to one punter

...and it was another comedian

comedy Bill Bailey has been recalling the rite of passage that every comedian seems to have to go through at least once: playing to an audience of just one person at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The comic recalled the moment he and the late Sean Lock, who was in the show with him, realised what was going on.

Speaking to Chris Moyles on his Radio X show today, Bailey said: ‘Me and Sean, we wrote this show called Rock, and it was about this old rocker who was trying to make a comeback, and I was the rocker and Sean was my faithful roadie.

‘So, what would happen is at the beginning of the show, Sean would go out there as the roadie character and he would gee the audience up a bit… And he would do this thing, "Right, oh I’ve got to do security. Come at me, come at me, just come at me, I can handle it, I can handle it!" And he would do all these kung fu moves,,,

‘Anyway, so he went out there in character, and I was backstage, and he was going, "come at me!" and then he said, "come at… Oh for goodness sake.’

‘And he went, "Just come out, Bill.’ And I was in character still… I was a West Country rocker, and I was going, "What do you mean, Big Sean?" That was his name, we didn’t think too much about names. "What do you mean, Big Sean?"

‘And he goes, "No, Bill. Honestly, come out, mate. There’s no one here."

‘I went, "Don’t be daft, don’t be daft, Big Sean." And he went, "No, no. It’s just me, Bill. There’s no one here."

‘So, I came out, and there literally was just one person in the audience, and it was the comedian Dominic Holland. Our mate.

‘He was just sitting there in the audience, and he said, "No just relax, lads. Just enjoy yourselves, do the show.’ And we went, "No. No, Dominic. We’re not doing it for you, this is weird.’"

In the end they decided to to take him to the bar talk him through the highlights…

.@BillBailey and the late Sean Lock performed in Edinburgh to just one person, @domholland ???? pic.twitter.com/TfeTve5aYy
— Radio X (@RadioX) February 27, 2024

• The Chris Moyles Show is on Radio X weekdays from 6:30am to 10am and on Global Player.

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Published: 27 Feb 2024