Bill Bailey returns to the live stage with 'Vaudevillean', a variety show of comedy, songs and musical skills.
Bill Bailey returns to the live stage with Vaudevillean, playing The O2 arena on Sunday 22 November. The title gives it away: it's a show that looks back at the variety stage that came before radio, cinema and television, with comedy, songs and a fair few different skills all on one bill.
If you've only known him from the telly, there's a bit more to the story. Born Mark Robert Bailey in Keynsham, Somerset, in 1965, he's as much a musician as a comedian. He played Manny in Black Books, a nickname he took from a music teacher at King Edward's School in Bath who'd heard him play 'Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey' on the guitar. In 1984 he formed the double act the Rubber Bishops, mixing musical parody with traditional jokes, and went solo in 1995 with Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. From there he became a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2002 and a regular on QI, and in 2020, at 55, he became the oldest winner of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Oti Mabuse. The O2 bills him as a versatile multi-instrumentalist and a modern Vaudevillean, and Vaudevillean is the show that puts all those strings together.
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It's a one-off night in a big room, and it's the start of something longer: the show moves into the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from December. Doors open at 6:00 PM, with the show starting at 7:30 PM.
