Bill Bailey

Some comedians should come with a warning sign and some come with a sign saying “does what is says on the tin”. Bill is the latter. Bill is a man that’s just naturally interested and inquisitive. He is smarter than Einstein on an Omega 3 overdose, funnier than a pie in the face, and has more musical talent than a Mozart with 4 hands. Unfair really that all the talents have gone to one man when so many people have nothing at all.

This shoot was at his office, a home converted into a make shift storage/office space. It's hard to miss the larger than life cardboard cutouts of Bill, books, paintings, a couple of birdcages that are big enough to hold an albatross, plenty of plastic flowers and plastic trees, instruments, staff taking bookings for his upcoming tour, bicycle and many more things. Bill is a true hoarder, but a hoarder of the weird and wonderful. The place was a good representation of what it must be like to be in Bill’s mind; busy, filled with plenty of knowledge about everything unusual and fun…. and birds.

Shot for The Observer Magazine

Bill Bailey

With Bill Bailey, what you see is what you get. He is funny, has an expressive face, eyes that can at times look like they pop out of his head, musically talented and has a bunker in case someone should want to drop a bomb on Hammersmith. (Don’t all you paranoid Hammersmithians go flocking to Bill now to be his friend, I think the bunker will only hold about 3 people at the most.) Bill’s live shows have always been impressive in the way they are constructed, immensely funny, intellectual and wacky, so it was good to see that these characteristics are all represented in Bill as a person. His acts are in fact not really acts, but a projection of himself which is immensely reassuring. In fact, if I had to choose one item and one person to spend dooms day with in a small bunker then Bill and a keyboard would be good contenders. A touch of the ‘Cabin fever’ with Bill could actually work.