Bill Bailey is also the name commonly used to refer to a popular song with the full title of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey", written by Hughie Cannon , published in 1902, and still a standard with Dixieland and Traditional Jazz bands.

Bill Bailey (born 1964 as Mark Bailey) is a British musician and comedian. He was born in Bath, Somerset. In 1989 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Martin Stubbs . In 1994 he performed Rock at the Edinburgh Fringe with Sean Lock, before going solo the next year with Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam.

Several Edinburgh shows followed and in 1998 he earned his own show on BBC Two. Is it Bill Bailey went out late on a Friday night and was a mixture of stand up comedy, music and sketches. It ran for 6 episodes but has never been repeated, recommissioned, or released on DVD.

Bill did some of the music and the theme tune for World of Pub (radio).

He now appears as a team captain on the BBC Two panel game Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Bailey played the character Manny in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books and also appeared as a comic book shop owner, Bilbo, in Spaced (another Channel 4 sitcom). He is also a regular panellist on QI, and delivery man Doug in Wild West. He was the winner of the Best Live Stand-Up award at the British Comedy Awards in 1999.

In 2000 he had a small role in British comedy film Saving Grace and in 2001 released his first stand-up video/DVD, "Bewilderness". A second DVD "Part Troll", filmed during his tour of the same name, was released in November 2004.

His live performances are a mix of traditional stand-up comedy and humorous music. The stage is covered with various musical instruments and he wanders between them all through the course of a show.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

External links

• Bill Bailey's personal site
• Tribute website for Bill Bailey