Bill Bailey - Comedian and Part Troll
Created | Updated Apr 10, 2007
In 1964 one Mark Bailey, a now famous British musician and comedian, made his way into the world. Born in Bath, Somerset he attended King Edward's School in Bath.
I spent my childhood scrambling round badgers and foxes and playing fantastic country kid games like knocking on people's doors and running away. God that was a good game.
One day in class his teacher began to sing the wartime song 'Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey.' The nickname stuck, and the young Mark Bailey has forever since been known as Bill Bailey a stand up comedian with big googly eyes, long though balding hair, a strange little beard and a generally confused hippie air about himself.
It's not a beard, it's an animal I've trained to sit very still.
The Start of Things to Come
From an early age it was obvious that Bill he had a natural ability with music.1 It enabled him to become an associate of the London College of Music however he was never destined to become a classical musician as his music was always tied together with humour and comedy. He'd spend much of his spare time with a band called the Famous Five and listening to Monty Python's music 2 which is not serious at any stretch of the imagination.
This is a song inspired by the work of Phil Collins; the nasty, whining little git.
After leaving school Bill like many people went to university. He completed the first year of an English and Drama degree in London before he happened to walk into a John Regley comedy gig one night. This changed his life and he decided to become a stand up comic. Comedians generally don't hit the big time at their first outing and Bill worked as a lounge pianist, a door-to-door door salesman and, perhaps appropriately for such a surreal comedian, the accompaniment for a mind-reading dog. He acted alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Frances de la Tour in a Workers' Revolutionary Party stage production called The Printers. Then in 1989 he paired up with Martin Stubbs to become a comedy double act called the The Rubber Bishops. Bill and Martin Stubbs were phenomenally busy comedians, sometimes playing as many as 3 or 4 gigs a night. This sort of dedication to the craft soon payed off and it became obvious that success was near. Bill crafted his routine into a strange surreal mix of jokes, music and parody. Then he discovered the Edinburgh Festival.
I'm English, and as such, I crave disappointment.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Beginning in 1947 little did the Edinburgh Festival Fringe know that during its life time comedy legends such as Alan Davies, Jenny Eclair, and Baddiel and Skinner would be embracing its environment and delighting millions of their fans. Bills first appearance at the Fringe was in 1994 when he and Sean Lock put on a performance called Rock. It was about an ageing rock star but the show was a flop so much so that in one performance only a single person turned up!3
Three blind mice walk into a pub. But they are all unaware of their surroundings, so to derive humour from it would be exploitative.
Bill was not discouraged though, the following year he supported Donna McPhail and won the Time Out award. 1996 was the year of his break-through. He returned to Edinburgh for a one man show, a critical masterpiece called Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam, which saw him nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. In the closest vote in the awards history Bill lost out to his future co-star Dylan Moran. As Europe's biggest arts festival it must be pretty daunting for many artists to give their first ever performance, whether performing comedy, music or alternative theatre, but for Bill Bailey like many others Edinburgh surely has him hooked. Ever since then Bill Bailey’s diary for August includes the line 'performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe'.
It's true. Hitler was a vegetarian. Just goes to show, vegetarianism, not always a good thing. Can in some extreme cases lead to genocide.
TV Star
Bill Bailey's nomination for the Perrier was enough to get him noticed and in 1998 the BBC gave him a show called Is this Bill Bailey. It wasn't his first foray into TV as Bill had appeared as a guest on various panel style quiz shows and stand up comedy shows, but this was the first show he'd written and appeared in. Then in 2000 Channel 4 commissioned a sit-com called Black Books. Playing alongside Dylan Moran and Tamsin Greig, Bill played the character of Manny Bianco, a sales assistant in a run down second hand book store controlled by a permanently drunk Irishman named Bernard Black 4. The series was written by Graham Lineham who co-wrote Father Ted and became a major success, spawning a further two series and making Bill as a household name. Bill's popularity increased and when Sean Hughes quit as one of the team captains on the popular BBC 2 quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Bill stepped in and remains a captain to this day. Bill's TV work forms a major part of his life. The list of shows he's been on is huge and some examples are; he's been a regular panellist on Stephen Fry's quiz show QI, he presented the Channel 4 show Wild Thing I Love You about designing and building things that helped animals, he has had a cameo role in Johnathon Creek with Alan Davies, Spaced with Simon Pegg and has made numerous chat show appearances.
I'm a vegetarian, I'm not strict. I eat fish. And duck, but they're nearly fish aren't they.
Hollywood
In perhaps one of the greatest pieces of casting in Hollywood Bill provided the spoken thoughts of the Sperm Whale in the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. His slightly confused tones resonated particularly well with the words Douglas Adams wrote as the whale crashed out of orbit. Since then he's started to get even more work, playing the part of the front desk Sergent in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wrights smash hit comedy film Hot Fuzz.
Beautiful ladies in danger
Danger all around the world
I will protect them
For I am Chris de Burgh
Comedy
With all his TV and film work Bill is still a stand up comedian. The general format to a Bill Bailey show would include Bill shambling on stage looking much like a lost roadie, he'll then proceed to mutter a few words and launch the audience into hysterical laughter before they realise what has happened. As well as his spoken humour Bill's gigs often include videos and alway include humourous music and songs based on his abilities with a number of instruments.5But how can I feel pain? How can I feel pain? How can I feel pain when you're being so supportive?
He has so far released three DVD’s of his stand up shows, the original Cosmic Jam Shows, 2001's Bewilderness show and the latest taken from his Part Troll tour in 2004. This tour was perhaps the longest and most political to date.
A feminist jumps out of a manhole - oh, and she didn't like that.
Part Troll was premiered in July 2003 at the Edinburgh festival and continued for a massive 52 gigs before finally closing at the Hammersmith Apollo on 1st January, 2005. At this final gig he appeared on stage after the gig with his Kraftwerk tribute band called Augenblick 6 to perform a selection of his favourite rock songs. He continues performing in all manner of guise such as with the BBC Symphony Orcehestra for Comic Relief in 2007.
Can't remember ever seeing any charity porn. "Farmyard Frolics 3: A portion of this goes to the Children's Literacy Fund in Eritrea"
As befitting his comic abilities Bill came in 7th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups TV Poll show. The future is rosy for such a great comedy genius even if he does appear such a strange troll-like figure.
A lot of people say there's a fine line between genius and insanity. I don't think there's a fine line, I actually think there's a yawning gulf. You see some poor bugger scuffling up the road with balloons tied to his ears, he's not going home to invent a rocket, is he?
