Project Description
BILL BAILEY
@ PCEC RIVERSIDE THEATRE
04/10/18
(Live Review)
Reviewer: Karen Lowe
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There are those people out there that know of Bill Bailey as a comedian who has appeared in many movies and TV series – especially Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Then there are those that know of Bill Bailey as Manny from Black Books. Regardless on how people first discovered him, they were all gathered together at the Riverside Theatre at Perth Convention Centre last Thursday night to hopefully have a great time and a good laugh.
It took awhile for everyone to find their seats but as soon the majority were finally seated, Bill Bailey came out on stage and got straight down to business. Nothing was safe – not even Nutella.
There were some familiar instruments on stage and one that looked like a fancy Weber – his tool to help him tell his bad ‘dad jokes’. As Bailey eased into the performance (whilst having the theatre in constant laughter), we heard how his day had started badly when he managed to kick himself “in the bollocks.” which had got him thinking about the time that former East 17 member managed to have an even worse day when he managed to run himself over with his own car.
When it came time to audience participation, Perth did not disappoint. Bailey asked what Thursday’s mean to us. Not quite understanding the question (and let’s face it – it was the first thing that popped into the minds of most of those that are Perth locals) someone called out “late night shopping!” Bailey theatrically placed a cloth over his hands and sunk to the floor in despair.
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Another person called out one of the most typically Australian thing that they could think of “show us ya tits!” and even offered him a tenner. Bailey obliges, did a little strip tease and then gets the guy to shove the money into his trousers. You’ll just have to head to the show to find out what the meaning of Thursday was.
Bailey, being an avid fan of music wowed the audience with a couple of songs and a little tirade about how Twitter should be fun instead of people using it to attack. A prime example he used was the Big Ben account and how Big Ben posts “bong” on the hour/every hour. He finished Act One by heading to the keyboard to test us on our Australian Bird knowledge and the reasons that a puffin is never used in music – especially not in a Nikki Minaj song.
Act Two started with Bailey prancing on to stage and telling us how they keep asking him to appear on Strictly Come Dancing before playing a jazzed up version of Old McDonald (and also bringing it into the 20th century).
Bailey walked over to the guitar rack that he had set up and picked up an Appalachian blues guitar that had been fashioned from the Holy Bible and then proceeded to sing a song about beating Satan on it. “Please hold the line. Your prayer is important to us.”
We also had a lesson on the major and minor key. Major being the “like me” tune and minor being the darker, more powerful tune and convinced us why this was the case using several different pieces – including a German version of You Are My Sunshine played in a minor key. We were even regaled by Theresa May speeches to 90s house music.
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A table was brought out, covered by a cloth which, when removed, revealed a whole table of different sized cow bells which he played Iron Man (Black Sabbath) and Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) on them. You need more cowbells Bailey…
The night finished with an Irish ditty on the ukulele and live looping – “in your face Ed Sheeran!” and finished the night playing AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and showing us that he’s a rocker at heart by playing the guitar over his head before taking his leave.
Bill Bailey really knows how to work the audience and everyone left with their faces hurting from laughing so much. His comedy is clever, thought provoking in some places and no one was safe from his jokes. And just when we thought we had seen it all… Bill Bailey finally ‘showed us his tits’ as he ran back on stage with his top off and rounding the night off perfectly.
Check out Karen Lowe’s photo gallery of the show HERE
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