During his tenure Down Under, Bailey has had enough time to keenly observe the Aussie way of life and was quick to open his show by addressing Australian senator Cory Bernardi’s recent controversial comments and resignation. He then went on to tear into American presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and the Pope before moving on to discuss celebrity and popular culture, all while keeping the audience in stitches.
Bailey has a fluid and hilarious flow to his comedy, happily crowd sourcing answers to questions and pacing the stage energetically. His razor-sharp wit was on full display as he lambasted everything from David Cameron to British ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ contestant Chantelle Houghton to tourism campaigns.
His show is about everything and nothing all at once. He seems concerned with the ‘moronification of society,’ the cult of celebrity and cognitive dissonance. He can move from speaking about acronyms, to the Danish show ‘The Killing,’ to Shakespeare without missing a beat.
Bailey is not only a highly intelligent and genuinely witty man, he is also a skilled musician and we were lucky enough to be treated to some of his musical flights of fancy. These included a very surreal but ridiculously funny version of the theme tune to British television series ‘Downton Abbey’ being re-imagined as a dub step song, complete with a strobing light show.
After the interval we returned to more audio stylings as he made the audience guess the instrument he was holding and gave us a brief history of music. His enthusiastic demonstrations on his keyboard and guitar were infectious and turned the auditorium into a concert as he rocked out while playing the “Chord of Satan.” He closed the show with a story of an owl rescue while travelling, followed by a medley of songs played entirely on car horns.
Like an eccentric professor, music teacher and comedian rolled into one, Bailey’s show is smart, funny and certainly delivers the LOLs.
Written by Miranda Boyce
Copyright : Comedy Central New Zealand