Bill Bailey: 'As long as there’s so much going on in the world, people will need a laugh.'

Bill Bailey – a comedian serious about freedom

Judy Murphy

Connacht Tribune

English comedian Bill Bailey has tackled the once Catholic preserve of Limbo, albeit in a secular way, for his latest show, which comes to Galway’s Black Box Theatre next month following its successful tour in Australia and New Zealand late last year.

In Limboland, Bailey explores the gap between people’s expectations of how life should be, versus the more painful reality.

That chasm “provides fertile territory for comedians”, says the thought-provoking funny-man, who was once described by The New York Times as ‘a treat for the funny bone, the brain and the ear’.

Limboland sees Bailey rail against a world that doesn’t live up to our expectations as he ruminates on the true nature of happiness.

His anecdotes include a saga of a disastrous family trip to Norway to see the Northern Lights. There is also a riff on British Prime Minister David Cameron – “a laminated weasel of a man” – and on One Direction, who come in for equally scathing and hilarious criticism. Some of that criticism is delivered in song, for no Bill Bailey show would be complete without music.

Raised in Somerset in England’s West Country, Bailey learned classical music at a young age and developed a love for most genres – boy bands are an exception! He later went on to become a member of The Famous Five, which he describes as “an unsuccessful group” with just four members.

Since embarking on a stand-up career in the early 1980s, the multi-instrumentalist has incorporated a huge variety of music in his performances. It serves a couple of functions, he says.

“It’s a way of incorporating popular culture and making jokes about music, and it can also break up the dynamic of a show and keep it as lively as possible.”

Music in Limboland includes Bailey’s unique version of a protest song, a heart-rending Country and Western ballad played on a Bible, a take on Abba’s Waterloo, and a new, melancholic, interpretation of Happy Birthday.

“It’s in the style of a dirge,” he explains. “It’s Happy Birthday for a terrible time.”