Few performers can make people think and laugh like Bill Bailey.
From making music in Vietnam's remote highlands to mastering a typewriter solo at the Last Night of the Proms, Bailey reveals what it takes to be "a consummate professional".
He also shares the music that has inspired him throughout his career and why Australia continues to hold a special place in his heart.
When my son came out on tour and he wanted to go skydiving, I said: "All right, let's go."
It was up on the Gold Coast, a beautiful pristine morning with blue skies.
We hurtled earthwards and then we deployed the parachute, and we just sort of gently floated down and landed on the beach.
Burslem: You're touring all over Australia.
Bailey: I filmed a documentary in Vietnam, and we went up into the remote highlands up north, to a place called the Sapa Valley.
An instrument called the khèn.
It's a blown instrument that looks a bit like a bagpipe, but it's made of different lengths of bamboo.
There was one practitioner of it who didn't even speak Vietnamese.
I figured out the notation of the instruments and found to accompany him on my phone with a little app.
Burslem: You played at the Last Night of the Proms last year.
Bailey: That organ is a beast.
Burslem: You also played Leroy Anderson's The typewriter at the Proms.
Bailey: Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 because I played it with an orchestra when I was at school.
Bill Bailey is touring Australia in September and October 2026 with his new show Vaudevillean.