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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Cosmic Jam

Bill Bailey

Channel 4 · 1997 · 83 min

A musical hour featuring a customized keyboard and a massive gong.

Before he was a fixture on British television, Bill Bailey was a struggling comic with an X-wing-shaped keyboard and a giant papier-mâché ant hanging from the ceiling. Cosmic Jam is his debut solo set, an hour built around his ability to slip jokes into music. He questions the structural integrity of Bryan Adams’ rock anthems, demonstrates how classical composers lifted heavily from Cockney knees-up tunes, and periodically hits the second-largest gong in Britain.

The performance was taped at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in 1996 and broadcast on Channel 4 the following year. It captures him at a clear pivot point in his career. Just a few years prior, a fringe show with Sean Lock had drawn audiences so small that occasionally only a single person showed up. He was reportedly close to quitting stand-up for a telesales job before staging this material, earning a Perrier nomination, and abandoning the telesales idea for good.

The set list

3 bits

  1. Bryan Adams as a rock anthem exponent

    Explains why Bryan Adams is perhaps the greatest ever exponent of the rock anthem while taking shots at him.

  2. Cockney influence on classical composers

    Demonstrates the seminal influence of Cockney knees-up music and singalongs upon the great classical composers throughout history.

  3. A world ruled by insects

    Warns of the perils of an insect invasion while playing the second-biggest gong in Britain.

How it plays

Tone
Surreal, whimsical, and playful.
On stage
Whimsical, lyrical, ludicrous, and unrepentantly hirsute; described as blending verbal whimsy with musical innovation.
Pace
Laid-back, rambling late-night felicity.
About
classical music, cockney music, rock anthems, insects

What the critics said

Praised as a 'comedy gem' and a 'feast of laid-back late-night felicity' that demonstrated Bailey's dexterity in blending verbal whimsy with musical parody.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, themoviedb.org, comedy.co.uk, channel4.com, independent.co.uk, twoshedsreview.blogspot.com, chortle.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org.

Details

Released
Taped
1996, Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Runtime
83 min
Where
Channel 4
Director
John Kaye Cooper
Honors
Perrier Comedy Award nominee (1996)
Topics
After
Part Troll (2004)

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