Bill Bailey, Part Troll

i love it i love it i love it. its so funny i wana turn my face inside out 3 times xD its the best

Bill Bailey, Part Troll = Genius. I swear that there is not a human being on this earth funnier than Bill Bailey. Accompanied by his 'Britney-Mic' and his wonderful selection of instruments, Bailey manages to serve a delightful array of comedy, to create more laughs than the idea that Boyzone really were a good band. And you think I'm joking? From the hilarious love ballad, where the snowflake on the eyelash of a startled deer eventually turns to puss and causes the deer to fall into a ravine to the image of Marilyn Manson on his knees screaming 'Milllltoooon Keyyyyynesssss'. You will be creased up with laughter every minute of the way!

Bill Bailey, Part Troll - I saw the show at the Brighton Comedy Festival when it first came out. Having seen Bill Bailey on the television before (Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Black Books, QI) and having already seen the DVD of his Bewilderness show, I had very high expectations - all of which were met and surpassed. There wasn't one joke which didn't work. Bill Bailey is as talented a musician as he is a comedian, so the comedy songs were fantastic. One of the best had to be the parody of a ballad, veering from lonely to infatutated to angry within two minutes, and with beautiful lyrics such as:

"I was alone, my heart was stone, I was a stone, I was alone, as a stone, there was no moss..."

"The duck lies shredded in a pancake, soaking in the hoisin of your lies!"

As well as the songs, there were variations on a classic joke format.

"Three men go into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and so the whole scene unfolds with tedious inevitability."

"Three blind mice go into a pub. However, they are unaware of their surroundings, so to derive humour from it would be exploitataive."

Along with these was a longer one involving the members of the Holy Trinity going into a pub, which turned out to be owned by the German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg...

There were both long, audience participation topics - 50 things to do before you die and swimming with dolphins - and quick blink-and-you'll-miss them one-liners (Bailey on the Abba musical Mamma Mia: "It was like being hit over the head with a piece of Ikea shelving - painful, but you had to admire the workmanship.").

When the DVD of the 2004 Part Troll tour was released a couple of months ago, I naturally ordered one straight away and was lucky enough to receive one of the signed copies. The show at the Hammersmith Apollo on the DVD had even more material that was not in it the previous year - two of the best had to be the Kraftwerk version of the Hokey Cokey and the section on Argos -

"The laminated book of dreams! You know why it's laminated, don't you? To catch the tears of joy! *cries* So many beautiful things! I cannot possess them all!"

So my overall verdict? The man is a God. Buy the DVD.