Tag: bill bailey

Contentment is knowing you’re right. Happiness is knowing somebody else is wrong.

Danish hygge could be considered as “cosiness of the soul”. The Danes insist though that hygge was never meant to be translated. It was meant to be felt.

‘It’s going quite well,’ says Bill Bailey, 30 minutes into his new show. ‘I think I’ll do my joke.’

Yep, Bailey is on typically bewildered form in ‘Limboland’, which has landed in the West End for a Christmas run after a year of touring. The closest the 51-year-old comic gets to a one-liner is a lengthy, meandering gag that starts ‘Lionel Richie walks into a bar…’ But quickfire jokes aren’t Bailey’s style, of course, and his trademark fanciful musings and musical deconstructions are out in force.

‘We’re in a strange time of extremes,’ he explains at the top of the show, before launching into a wonderfully playful routine about the post-election political landscape and the Labour Party’s current ‘experimental album’. As the show title suggests, Bailey feels caught in the middle; the long-time lefty’s not quite sure what to think or who to believe in.

From there, the grumblingly upbeat comic moves into jokes about typical British feelings or trying to explain Skype to his octogenarian father; and in the second half, there are more long-form stories as he explores what it actually means to be ‘happy’.

It’s Bailey’s beautiful turns of phrase and imaginative similes that bring each tale to life. There’s a whimsical poetry to every sentence; each observation is filtered through his fluffy brain like he’s in one long, extended daydream.

But it’s when he gets behind an instrument that the musically-dexterous comic is at his best. Remixes of iPhone ringtones, German death metal covers of Abba songs and ‘Happy Birthday’ reimagined as a 1930s Berlin cabaret number and a Moby masterclass are just a few highlights.

There’s a musical theme to his stories too, as he describes an awkward encounter with Sir Paul McCartney and a trip to see ‘boneless chickens’ One Direction at the O2.

It’s Bailey on top form; joyous, playful and effortlessly funny. ‘Limboland’ brings more festive cheer than Santa this Christmas.

Katy and I had a rare night out on Wednesday night when we went to see a Bill Bailey warm-up show for his new comedy project, Dandelion Mind. It’s described as follows:

Featuring Bill’s trademark musical interludes, observations and stories of the road, Dandelion Mind will be based loosely on the theme of doubt (or will it?), as we follow Bill from his real-life saga of being trapped by the ash cloud, to his barely contained rants about celebrity, TV, creationism and Michael Winner. He demonstrates new instruments, both ancient and modern, he sings an internet love song, a lament about punk heroes, Iranian hip-hop, and plays a mean folk-bouzouki.

Thomas the Doubter gets a new look, and Darwin’s curious obsessions and the myth of intelligent design are all worked over in Bailey’s own surreal style. He revisits the music of his youth, with a brand-new French Disco re-working of Gary Numan’s hit, Cars, played in his own inimitable way, and maybe some Wurzels-based remixes of classic German techno. Just your normal Bill Bailey gig, then.

It wad a great show because the venue – the Leicester Square Theater – was rather intimate (less than 500 people, max) and it allowed for some really good (and some not so good) heckling. I really have to give mad props for the man to be able to improvise so much and so well at the drop of a hat. At one point, we were having a barnacle penis length auction. You need a very quick mind to be able to handle that :)

The show was also a bit more raucous and raw than his normal material. It was interesting to see that.

I also managed to find some bootlegs of part of the show. They’re quite funny :D

Katy’s parents babysat doofus while were were at the show and spent the night. I took yesterday off and we went to see some bathroom designs. We topped off the evening with a BBQ and a couple of pitchers of spiked Margaritas. I had my first hangover in years this morning.

We got tickets to go see Bill Bailey’s Dandelion Mind in London in September, woot!

From the newsletter:

Featuring Bill’s trademark musical interludes, observations and stories of the road, Dandelion Mind will be based loosely on the theme of doubt (or will it?), as we follow Bill from his real-life saga of being trapped by the ash cloud, to his barely contained rants about celebrity, TV, creationism and Michael Winner. He demonstrates new instruments, both ancient and modern, he sings an internet love song, a lament about punk heroes, Iranian hip-hop, and plays a mean folk-bouzouki. Thomas the Doubter gets a new look, and Darwin’s curious obsessions and the myth of intelligent design are all worked over in Bailey’s own surreal style. He revisits the music of his youth, with a brand-new French Disco re-working of Gary Numan’s hit, Cars, played in his own inimitable way, and maybe some Wurzels-based remixes of classic German techno. Just your normal Bill Bailey gig, then.