Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Very funny |
| Disadvantages: |
Couldn't breathe I was laughing so much |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
You may recognise the most famous person to have come out of the West Country since The Wurzels in such programmes as Spaced, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Black Books. But he's also rather handy at the old Stand-up and earlier this year toured the country with his Part Troll extravaganza.
I went to see the Part Troll tour earlier on in the year and the showing of said tour on Channel 4 over the weekend inspired me to post my opinion on it.
"He looks like a medieval roadie"
So Mr Bailey was playing at the Hippodrome in Birmingham, which is really nice now it's all been refurbished, the seats are *so* much more comfortable. We were up in the 'nosebleed' seats high above the stage but with a good view (as long as he didn't perform the entire gig right at the front of the stage).
The set was nice and simple, three long backdrops of pictures of Bill; one of them a scary bald bust of him (Which unnerved the bejezus out of me!), an electric guitar, a electric-acoustic, his keyboard, a lute-y looking guitar and his theremin - it's a magical black box with two metal rods coming out of it, one's horseshoe shaped and that controls the volume and the other pole sticks straight up into the air and that controls the pitch. It's prog-rock devilry, I tells you.
After introducing himself on to the stage (an aside here: why do comedians do that? Can't they hire an MC or something?) he launches into a monologue on how insignificant human endeavour is. Just to set the gig in context.
"And how good are the tea & coffee making facilities?"
The conversational style Bill adopts is one of his strongest points, you know he has a set number of topics that he's going to talk about but he doesn't make it seem rehearsed; in fact, it's more like he's sitting down in the pub, supping on a big pint of cider waxing lyrical on things that have piqued his curiosity over the years.
"At home with an Orc, watching him do the washing up"
One of the many highlights of the evening was Bill mentioning that he auditioned for the Lord of the Rings - reckons he'd have made a great troll or Urak-Hai collecting his dry cleaning or doing the housework. He carried on to say that he actually auditioned for the part of Gimli, but they didn't like his West Country accent. He toddled off to see the film and lo and behold all the hobbits had West Country accents "Lord of the Rings? It was like a bloody cider festival!"
"Zip-pah-de-doooooo-dah"
Of course, it's not a Bill Bailey performance without music and the second half of his show was certainly musical including Portishead doing 'Zipadeedodah', the now-fairly well known remix of the BBC news theme and his Drum 'n' Bush mix (Dubya's 'best' quotes to a thumping beat).
"…Covered in the Hoi Sin of your lies"
It was over oh, so soon. He was on stage for more than two hours but it flew by so quickly. Unlike most gigs, (where I'm clock watching for the last half hour) I was totally absorbed all the way through. A testament to Bill's style and delivery.
But I have my swanky, shiny, very-expensive programme (although not a 'medieval roadie' T-shirt - I was sorely tempted though) and now the tour is out on DVD (available from all good DVD retailers) too so you can enjoy his performance from the comfort of your sofa.
If he’s on tour in your town, go see him; you won't be disappointed.
| More Reviews |
 I'm sure they mean Part Troll??
Review of Half Troll - Bill Bailey by
bethric
Advantages: All of it
Disadvantages: Pricey merchandise, pricey theatre food, the fact that it went so fast!
I’ve been a kind of half-arsed fan of Bill’s for a while, about two years I’d say, and I know him mainly through the comedic genius that is the Channel 4 series Black Books, whereby he plays Manny, the downtrodden assistant to grumpy Irish Bernard (Dylan Moran). Although I had some vague idea that he was also a stand-up, I hadn’t really heard much about his material apart from that it was pretty good, and so when I saw that his resurrection of the ...
...I decided to buy us both tickets to the last show in the run – 4th December 2004.
We turned up to the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue about 20mins before the show began, and, being a West End virgin, I was transfixed by the atmosphere of everything and above all the theatre itself, which was simply beautiful – especially the intricacy of the ceiling which was absolutely breathtaking. We bought a programme (which I have to say brings a small ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful |
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very helpful
16.12.2004
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Rock n Troll!
Review of Half Troll - Bill Bailey by
mark_allen71
Advantages: Great observational comedy performer.
Disadvantages: None
Bill Bailey is the caveman look-alike best known for his TV comedy on quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks and sit-com Black Books.
But the man, who claims to be “Part Troll” and bears an uncanny resemblance to the mutant love child of Peter Stringfellow and a lizard, is more than panel-fodder.
With this show of innovation, musicianship and wry observations on British and Amercian-ness the long-haired one has proved he is also a comedy genius.
He ...
...there is a cinema show in the Empire State Building where you pretend to be in a plane just missing the Twin Towers), a tour of Hindu sites in Indonesia and George Bush’s speeches, into a finely woven cloth of humour and music, for two hours of glee.
We hear about the eco-friendly branch of the Klu Klux Klan (keep Iceland white!), how the Taliban took its beliefs from British golf clubs and the only three “jokes” he knows.
His accounts of taking ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful |
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helpful
14.05.2004
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A joyous evening
Review of Half Troll - Bill Bailey by
halcyon
Advantages: Wonderful comedy and live music
Disadvantages: None
I have been a fan of Bill Bailey for quite some time. He had given a much needed breathe of fresh air to Never mind the Buzzcocks and I much enjoyed him in Black Books.
I missed out on getting tickets for his performances in London but was happy to travel up to Milton Keynes after I managed to secure a couple of tickets for his one night performance there.
I didn't realise until I checked the seating plan on the theatres web site that we had second ...
...humour, quite surreal at times. But always with a grain of truth. I used to be a large fan of Eddie Izzard but found him as of late to be rather tiresome with his stories of high heel wearing jam eating squirrels.Surreal humour needs to orbit reality before it goes off on its wonderful trajectory. Bill's stories of his attempts at trying to explain what England meant to him while on his world tours were delightful.. I would of preferred a little ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful |
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helpful
09.06.2004
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worth it
Review of Half Troll - Bill Bailey by
Hellspawned
Advantages: Absolutely hilarious
Disadvantages: none
Bill Bailey part troll was worth every penny I spent on it. Hours of laughter is what I recieved for my £13. If you like this one you also may want to think about buying Bill Bailey Bewilderness. Anyone who diagrees with the following statement is a fool; Bill Bailey is a genious! To give you a taster of what's in store for you if you decide to buy; Musical talent, quick wit, hilarious jokes and man who's not ashamed to agree with the press when ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful |
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somewhat helpful
11.02.2005
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A joyous evening
Review of Half Troll - Bill Bailey by
readfur
Advantages: Wonderful comedy and live music
Disadvantages: None
I have been a fan of Bill Bailey for quite some time. He had given a much needed breathe of fresh air to Never mind the Buzzcocks and I much enjoyed him in Black Books.
I missed out on getting tickets for his performances in London but was happy to travel up to Milton Keynes after I managed to secure a couple of tickets for his one night performance there.
I didn't realise until I checked the seating plan on the theatres web site that we had second ...
...humour, quite surreal at times. But always with a grain of truth. I used to be a large fan of Eddie Izzard but found him as of late to be rather tiresome with his stories of high heel wearing jam eating squirrels.Surreal humour needs to orbit reality before it goes off on its wonderful trajectory. Bill's stories of his attempts at trying to explain what England meant to him while on his world tours were delightful.. I would of preferred a little ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful |
|
somewhat helpful
19.12.2004
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