Bill Bailey – comedy genius and curious museum curator

If you haven’t yet tuned in to the BBC Radio 4 series The Museum of Curiosity, you should.. It’s a “must listen” for me every week, along with Just a Minute, The News Quiz, Dead Ringers and the current run of Alan Partridge.

The Museum of Curiosity is like Room 101 in reverse. Guests come on each week and bring an object that they present to the curator of the museum (Bill Bailey) which they believe should go into the museum’s collection. The criteria for inclusion of an object is that it should inspire curiosity.

Bill Bailey is just the best in this kind of show. The piano is his Sideshow Bob and his musical introduction each week is a mini classic. He plays the theme tune and then adds a totally random flourish at the end which cracks me up.

Love his one liners as well. In the opening to this weeks show, the presenter (John Lloyd) asks Bill if he read a news item about two American cosmologists talking about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle*. They believe that by “gazing at the dark matter of the universe, we are hastening it’s demise”. Lloyd thinks Bill should play some “dark matter” music, and Bill obliges and comes out with this classic :

“I’ve never actually accompanied dark matter on the piano… Actually, no, I did a gig with Chris De Burgh”

Check it out at The Museum of Curiosity Website on BBC.

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