Bill Bailey is known for his comic and musical genius, but some lesser-known facts about him are that he’s a fisherman, diver and whale-watcher.
His love of wildlife is one reason the 58-year-old keeps returning to New Zealand, a country he’s now toured eight times.
He’s currently here until December on his longest New Zealand jaunt ever, visiting 14 towns and cities with his new show Thoughtifier.
He will perform in Tauranga on November 30, and for the first time, in Rotorua on December 2.
The last time the Londoner was in New Zealand was in 2021 with his post-Covid show En Route to Normal, for which, like now, he embraced Aotearoa’s open spaces.
“It’s breathing a bit of fresh air, walking on a beach, wind in your hair, kiwifruit under one arm,” he quips.
On his arrival here, he was presented with a sliced, green kiwifruit. He loves kiwifruit, a crisp sauvignon blanc, catching and eating fresh fish, road trips and the ocean.
Asked if he’d ever move to New Zealand, he says: “Don’t think I haven’t thought about that. I have considered it, yes. I’ve even looked at a few places.”
He wasn’t specific on where, but did say his ideal house would be “by the sea, quite remote, but somewhere where you could get Uber Eats and blow the bagpipes, and you’re not going to bother the neighbours”.
He has Kiwi friends - some long-time, some new.
He has been “fortunate” to go mullet fishing at Piha Beach.
He likes whale-watching.
“I never tire of seeing wildlife. There’s never a point where you see a whale and go, ‘Umph, yeah, seen them’. So, that might be a thing to do [here]; maybe get out for a dive. One of my great loves is scuba diving. If not, I’ll just get on the water, on my paddle board somewhere, and that’ll do me.”
Rather than “blow in and blow out” like some international performers, there’s too much to see and do, he says.
And he loves New Zealand audiences.
“I like the reaction I get from shows. I’ve had very supportive crowds over the years.”
In his Thoughtifier show, he celebrates “our own flawed humanity”, taking audiences “on a jaunt through the error-strewn, distracted, crumb-festooned, sometimes magnificent history of human thought, and how it might help us survive in this brave new world”.
Added to this are some other pressing matters about “whales, biophilia and unrequited love”.
As part of his performance, he’s working with local opera singers from throughout the country.
He tells the story of being asked to perform at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and inviting a friend, an opera singer, to join him.
“I started to write a song that she might be able to accompany me with, and I ended up writing a madrigal. It is a parody of a renaissance song. Then, I wrote another song about ‘What the hell is normal?’, because everyone was talking about the new normal and the old normal, and then I thought, ‘Well, it’d be great to get her to sing some proper opera’, so I did a modern translation of La Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen.
“There’s quite a bit of singing in the show that an opera singer can get their teeth into. When I realised I was going to be coming here and touring a few more dates, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do that.”
He will sing himself, albeit not opera, and play instruments, including a laser harp, which he plays by cupping his hand through beams of light that are directed at sensors.
“It looks quite arresting. You have these great, big laser beams that go off into the venue’s roof, and it’s creating sound as well, so it’s right in my wheelhouse.”
As to how many instruments Bailey can play, there’s no verified number.
“Some very kind soul, not me, has taken it upon themselves to figure this out, and they came up with the random number of 138,” he says.
It might sound crazy, but it’s not when he muses that if an instrument “has a keyboard, looks like a guitar, is a recorder-type thing, or if it’s electronics or percussion”, then he can make a tune.
He says music reinforces his idea that as a society, we need to work collaboratively.
“I try to demonstrate that by [having] lots of moments in the show where I’m working with the audience, and I need the audience to sing or get involved with me to make the piece work.”
During Covid lockdowns, people missed live shows, he says.
“It’s being in a communal situation, and I’ve sensed from doing live shows, there’s 10-20 per cent [more of a] reaction from people because it’s something that we’ve missed. When something is not available to you, then you realise how much you appreciate it.”
Tickets for his Thoughtifier shows are on sale at bohmpresents.com now. The tour runs until December 4.
