Bill Bailey Comedian Won’t You Come Home?

Ever heard the song “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey?”? Who is Bill Bailey? Perhaps another fictional character? – Yes, but not until a history teacher in King Edward’s School sang the wartime song in Mark “Bill” Bailey’s childhood. Since then Mark Bailey has become “Bill Bailey” – comedian, actor, and musician, and who also claims to be good at sports. But that was the kid Bill Bailey. Let’s see if he had changed just a little.

Bill Bailey comedian is an Englishman by birth; he was born in Bath, England in 1964. His love for humor was honed early in his homeland however his early stand-up career didn’t begin until he accidentally wandered into a John Hegley show. That’s when he wanted to take being stand-up comedian as a career, among his many mythologized job succession, and taking along the name Bill Bailey, Comedian he toured the US.

Bill Bailey Comedian toured with other comedians, Mark Lamarr and Phill Jupitus. In 1989 he formed a double stand-up act calling it the Rubber Bishops with Martin Stubbs, where Bill developed his unique style – a mix of his musical parodies with traditional jokes deconstructions. In 1994 he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with Sean Lock for the show Rock which is about an ageing rock star and his roadie. The show was later serialized for the Mark Radcliffe Show on BBS Radio 1 but audience attendance remained low. Bill Bailey Comedian almost gave up. But one year later (while starting a punk rock band “Beergut 100”), Bill took the shot at becoming a solo act. He succeeded. He put his first pebble in his career milestone as Bill Bailey-Comedian. Bill Bailey’s Cosmic Jam became a hit. It led to a recording at the Bloomsbury Theater in London and was broadcasted another year later on Channel 4 as Bill Bailey Live. (In 2005 it was finally released in its DVD uncut version.) In 1996 he came home to Edinburgh after he won a Time Out award only to receive more. He received a Perrier Comedy Award nomination for a critically acclaimed show where he took his Cosmic Jam charm of tying together classical comic music and post-modern gags combined with a whimsical rambling style. And all just rolled along – “Is It Bill Bailey,” “Black Books,” “QI: Quite Interesting”, “Bewilderness,” “Part Troll,” and “Never Mind the Buzzocks”. He’s still into his self-claims – a “confused hippie” and “part troll”. He will be appearing in the 2007 film Hot Fuzz and will be returning to America for his next tour before Edinburgh Fringe.