A Minute With: Bill Bailey and his remarkable Orchestra

LONDON (Reuters) - Bill Bailey is a comedian familiar to millions of British television viewers from his appearances on TV pop quiz trivia show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

His long hair, bald crown and bulky figure have led some to liken him to a hobbit with a cracking sense of humor and his popular stand-up shows combine comedy with expert musicianship.

As well as being a regular on "Buzzcocks," Bailey has won praise for his role in the award-winning cult sitcom "Black Books" as an increasingly psychotic ex-accountant at an ailing bookshop.

He is currently touring Britain with his Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra, a show where he performs alongside some of the country's top orchestras, showcasing a gift for combining surreal comedy with music.

He has set up his own production company Glassbox Productions to produce his shows and is currently developing ideas for more television shows.

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: "Everyday at least (there is) something, a curious oddity, an incongruous bit of prose or announcement or something in the news that lodges in the brain. All of those things feed in. It's all grist to the mill. It's amazing how you can train yourself to recall all this stuff. Everything's potentially a joke."

Q: You like to put a lot of music in your shows, did you ever think you could have made as a professional musician?

A: "I was in bands when I left school. I played a lot of music. At one stage I thought I could have a musical career. My dream was that David Byrne would make me keyboard player for Talking Heads. I don't know why he didn't, he probably wasn't in Combe Martin (his home town in rural North Devon) at the time I was there. But I love the spoken word. Just a straightforward music career wouldn't have allowed me to expand on the spoken word. So I ended up with the perfect job for me.

Q: You are touring the country playing with the best orchestras, what's it like?

A: I play a piano, guitar, the alpine horn, the alpine bells, its a bonanza. It's the ultimate gig. I've used my own keyboards and guitars, but having an orchestra is a huge palate of sound that you can draw from. It means I can recreate an entire 1970s cop show episode with the music, bassoons playing. It's having fun with an orchestra. There's a little tiny bit of educational stuff that goes through under the radar.

Q: Why did you start your own production company?

A: I like being able to have control. It's a natural progression. I've been doing comedy for around 15-20 years I like to have more control over what projects, when I do them and how I do it.

Q: Do you encourage audience interaction?

A: "I always like to keep a bit of room in the show that's not written or set in stone. In the stand up, it would be a question that I ask the audience. I don't like humiliation of the audience. It's a cheap laugh. I like to see and celebrate what they know. I prefer things to be open-ended. You don't quite know where the conversations going to go."

Q: What was your favorite heckle?

A: "(The performer was) a bloke who had a guitar and a strawberry. The heckle was "Why do you come on stage with a stupid prop like that then?" And as he started to answer the bloke said "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the strawberry."

Q: Has the recession changed what comedy audiences want to hear?

A: "There's a style of comedy that people want to see, it's a bit more nostalgic, more accessible. They've got a few quid to spend, want to know that they're going to get a good night out, so they might be a bit more conservative in their tastes. But recessions are good for comedians, people need to laugh."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)