Bill Bailey Tickets

A classically trained musician with an apprenticeship from the London College of Music, Mark Bill Bailey (born 24 February 1964, Bath, Somerset) is an English comedian, actor, and musician known for his stand up comedy and appearance in Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, Have I Got News For You, and Black Books. He is a self proclaimed confused hippy known for his thin goatee and long hair. Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, in 2003.

Bailey began touring the country with other comedians such as Mark Lamarr and Phill Jupitus. In 1986 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth who was later replaced by Martin Stubbs in 1988. They achieved a certain amount of success on the club circuit, partly due to their rigorous schedule ? sometimes as many as three or four gigs a night. It was here that Bailey began developing his own unique style, mixing in musical parodies with deconstructions or variations of traditional jokes. According to comedy folklore, after a reviewer once criticized his act for its lack of jokes, Bailey returned the following night to perform a set composed entirely of punch lines.

Stubbs later quit pursuing a more serious career, and in 1994 Bailey performed Rock at the Edinburgh Fringe with Sean Lock, a show about an ageing rock star and his roadie. It was later serialised for the Mark Radcliffe show on BBC Radio 1. However, the show's attendances were not impressive and on one occasion the only person in the audience was comedian Dominic Holland. Bailey confessed in an interview with The Independent that he almost gave it up to do a telesales job.Bailey spent the majority of his childhood in Bath where he attended King Edward's School. Although he excelled in music, but also claims to have been good at sport, which often surprised his teachers. It was here that he was given his nickname Bill, when a music teacher, Ian Phipps, once sang the song Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey in class.

He spent his early years listening to Monty Python records, and rehearsing with a band called the Famous Five, who he himself confesses were very bad but still much better than him and who, unexpectedly, had only four members. Despite this, he always had the temptation to be silly with music and this trait later influenced his stand-up shows.

Though he had not won the Perrier in 1996, the nomination was enough to get him noticed, and in 1998 the BBC gave him his own television show, Is It Bill Bailey?This was not Bailey's first sortie into television. As early as 1991, he was appearing in stand-up shows such as The Happening, Packing Them In, The Stand Up Show, and The Comedy Store. He also appeared as captain on two panel games, an ITV music quiz pilot called Pop Dogs, and the poorly received sci-fi quiz show, Space Cadets. However Is it Bill Bailey? was the first time he had written and presented his own show.Bailey often mythologizes his early years in his stand-up. In his show Bewilderness, he claims to have attended Bovington Gurney School of Performing Arts and Owl Sanctuary. He talks about a succession of jobs he had before becoming a comedian, including lounge pianist, door-to-door door-salesman and accompaniment for a mind-reading dog.

In 2001, Bailey began touring the globe with Bewilderness, which became a huge success. A recording of a performance in Swansea was released on DVD the same year. A modified version of it also proved successful in America, and in 2002 Bill released a CD of a recording at the WestBeth Theatre in New York. The show contained all his trademarks, popular music parodies (such as Unisex Chip Shop, a Billy Bragg tribute which he actually performed with Billy Bragg at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival), three men in a pub jokes (including one in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer) and deconstructions of television themes such as Countdown and The Magic Roundabout. A 'Bewilderness' CD was sold outside gigs, which was actually just a mixture of studio recordings of songs and monologues Bill had performed in the past - it was later released in shops as Bill Bailey: The Ultimate Collection... Ever! That same year he also presented a Channel 4 countdown, Top Ten Prog Rock.