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Bill Bailey
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Genre
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Humour
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Media
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Blu-ray
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Studio | Universal Pictures Video | ||
Language | English | ||
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Reviewer
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Simon
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Description
Featuring Bill's trademark musical interludes, observations and stories of the road, Dandelion Mind will be based loosely on the theme of doubt (or will it?), as we follow Bill from his real-life saga of being trapped by the ash cloud, to his barely contained rants about celebrity, TV, creationism and Michael Winner.
He demonstrates new instruments, both ancient and modern, he sings an internet love song, a lament about punk heroes, Iranian hip-hop, and plays a mean folk-bouzouki. Thomas the Doubter gets a new look, and Darwin's curious obsessions and the myth of intelligent design are all worked over in Bailey's own surreal style.
He revisits the music of his youth, with a brand-new French Disco re-working of Gary Numan's hit, Cars, played in his own inimitable way, and maybe some Wurzel-based remixes of classic German techno. Just your normal Bill Bailey gig, then.
Review
The theme of this stand up show was apparently meant to be "Doubt". Or was it?
Ahhh - do you see what I did there?
This is certainly an improvement on the shaggy haired comedian's last "proper" gig - Tinselworm, from 2008 and in my opinion marks a return to form. Maybe it's the more intimate venue (O2 rather than Wembley), that helps and though some of the surreal moments here may not be for everyone (some messing about with a Middle Eastern instrument called an oud - similar to a lute - fell into the category of "maybe you had to be there" for me at first), but for some reason, the whole audience chanting "Oooooood", as if it was some kind of religious symbol, was after a time, stupidly funny.
Also, I think that in demonstrating more unusual instruments like this, including playing a tune on a Japanese instrument called a tenori-on, he does show he is a talented musician and very creative. There is certainly much of his musicianship to enjoy (a love song based round the Internet, and Kraftwerk meets The Wurzels which is hilarious).
There are some opinions and rants about Simon Cowell (that one was certainly accurate!), the coalition Government, US President Barack Obama, and the England World Cup team, and surreal observations, often typical of his performances, that just make me laugh in their oddness (What if the Nazis had established a Reich in Western Australia?)
Overall this show was very funny and enjoyable to watch, and when Bailey indulges in musical mash-ups and flights of fancy, it frequently shows how clever he actually is (another great example is the routine where a version of Gary Numan's hit "Cars" is played on actual old car horns). Bill isn't a classically trained musician for nothing.
The performance on Blu Ray looked very good to my eyes and the music certainly benefits from a DTS soundtrack.
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