Bill Bailey – Live Review – The Piece Hall, Halifax
By Steve Crabtree, August 2024
When Bill Bailey was announced as one of the acts at this summer’s live season, many asked if live comedy would work in The Piece Hall, myself included. And after a little break from the live music scene at this stunning venue, the time had come to find out.
Bailey is one of those comedians who pops up on a plethora of panel shows and always stands out with humour of the highest quality. So, I was looking forward to seeing this and watching him live for the first time.
My friend and I were up on the balcony for this one. We managed to get a decent spot above the West Entrance doorway, and enjoyed people watching from that vantage point prior to the main man coming on-stage. Down below, we had rows of seats as opposed to standing room only, so it was very different from the usual shows.
“He’s just funny. Clever and funny”
As the clock struck 9pm, the video at the back of the stage flashed up a number of photos of Bill Bailey as he was growing up, from kid to teen; from student to stand-up, and from musician to comedian. And that’s when he came on to applause and cheers, labelling Halifax (and the surrounding areas) as “the gateway to Hebden Bridge” to begin this leg of his Thoughtifier tour.
The thing with Bill Bailey is that his brand of comedy isn’t about gags. It isn’t about throwing levels of sarcasm into absolutely everything, and it isn’t about using crazy intonation to make something sound funnier than it is. He’s just funny. Clever, and funny.
His humour is intelligent, based on thoughts and explanations, with humorous twists entwined into what he’s telling you. He’s also a master musician too, as many of us know from his various TV appearances. We got a fine selection of all of his talents tonight.
I really enjoyed the way he proved to us that AI was rubbish, and that humans are better. His Saz version of a Turkish translation of ‘Yellow’ was more about his talent than it was funny, but still raised SOHHHHHH many laughs (if you were there, you’ll know..!)
Then he brought the audience into things by introducing something I NEED to own. Bluetooth Rock Balls aren’t as suggestive as they may seem. In fact, they’re absolutely brilliant…and after showing us how they can create a guitar track, he threw the drum balls into the audience, in an attempt to do that well-known drum solo in ‘In The Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins. And it was nearly very good!
“Thinking person’s comedian”
With original material, throughout the evening he happily poked fun out of himself – especially when it came to his hair being chopped off. And he took the mickey out of lovers, even entertaining us with bits of poetry…in the loosest sense of the term. But still…
I don’t get to see stand-up comedy enough, and when I do I usually levitate towards the one-liner kind of comedian such as Gary Delaney. But the more thoughtful stuff that you get from Bill Bailey is great. If there is a ‘thinking person’s’ comedian, Bill Bailey is probably it. He did chuck a decent amount of quips and cheeky jokes in there too, but again – he was just cleverly raising laughs throughout his 90-minute show.
So, back to that question I addressed at the start: Will stand-up comedy work at the Piece Hall? Well, Bill Bailey’s comedy does. It works very well. If I’m being picky, I think the people at the back and up on the balcony would have liked screens so we could see Bill Bailey a bit better in this vast space. We did miss out on his facial expressions, but other than that this show went down an absolute treat with everyone who was there. And I dare say tonight’s fantastic show will be the start of new funny things in the summers to come.
images: Cuffe & Taylor
