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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Part Troll

Bill Bailey

2004 · 1 h 34 min

A whimsical set dominated by synthesizers and deadpan techno parodies.

Bill Bailey treats a MIDI keyboard like a comedic tool of mass disruption. He treats musical genres not as background noise, but as structures waiting to be stripped down and mocked. There is a deep-seated nerdiness to his stage setup, which is cluttered with synthesizers, guitars, and a projection screen, allowing him to jump from a political rant to a deadpan parody of Kraftwerk without dropping his casual West Country cadence.

Filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, the 2004 show caught Bailey at a career high point. He had just wrapped up his role as the long-suffering Manny Bianco on the sitcom Black Books and was a fixture on British television panel shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI. Part Troll took the momentum of that television success and channeled it into a sprawling tour. The live show relied heavily on MIDI technology to trigger visual gags on a screen behind him, marrying high-tech production with old-school stand-up.

The show’s centerpieces are highly musical and deeply silly. He maps the Scale of Evil by pairing musical notes with images of historical dictators, culminating in a jab at singer Chris de Burgh. For Drum ‘n’ Bush, Bailey samples speeches by George W. Bush over a booming drum and bass track. The most famous segment features Bailey and three colleagues dressing in black as a German electronic group called Augenblick, performing a translation of The Hokey Cokey. When he steps away from the instruments, he spends his time overanalyzing the logical flaws of classic three-men-in-a-pub jokes or arguing with a car rental company over what constitutes an Act of God.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Drum and Bush

    Samples George W. Bush's speeches and rhetoric over an energetic drum and bass beat to create danceable political satire.

  2. Portishead plays Disney

    Performs a dark, spooky, trip-hop parody of 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' in the distinct musical style of Portishead.

  3. Kraftwerk parody

    A deadpan German electronic rendition of the 'Hokey Cokey' performed in unison with Kevin Eldon, John Moloney, and Martin Trenaman.

  4. Three blokes go into a pub

    An expansive intellectual subversion of the classic bar joke featuring the Holy Trinity, Werner Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle, and a 'Remains of the Day'-themed pinball machine.

  5. West Country Madonna

    Explores the lack of funky West Country accents by performing Madonna's song 'Music' in a Wurzels-style brogue.

  6. BBC News theme remix

    Transforms the BBC News theme tune into an upbeat rave track.

How it plays

Tone
Whimsical, charming, and eccentric, laced with highbrow intellectual concepts and barbed political satire.
On stage
Dressed in black looking like a cross between Johnny Cash and a garden gnome; an eccentric, likable surrealist, and bewildered drifter alive with glee at his own humble foolishness.
Pace
Gentle, meandering thinking-out-loud cadence interspersed with high-tempo musical bursts, rhythm loops, and sudden abrupt pivots.
About
Philosophy and science, George W. Bush and foreign policy, Musical deconstruction and genre parodies, British eccentricity and craving disappointment, Drug laws and cannabis

What the critics said

Widely praised for Bailey's musical genius, singular imagination, and charming eccentric intellect, although some critics observed moments of waffling, rambling, and rehashed material between the show-stopping musical numbers.

In the room: Enthusiastic and intensely engaged, bringing together a broad cross-section of fans spanning diverse age groups.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, themoviedb.org, cinetvlocations.com, justwatch.com, chortle.co.uk, independent.co.uk, standard.co.uk, thenorthernecho.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org, thetimes.com, theguardian.com.

Backstory

Reflecting on feelings of being an anachronistic oddity ('part troll') and actively confronting post-9/11 anti-intellectualism and George W. Bush administration politics through comedy.

Details

Released
Taped
Hammersmith Apollo, London
Runtime
1 h 34 min
Director
Nick Morris
Topics
Before
Cosmic Jam (1997)
After
Limboland (2018)

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