Bill Bailey: Dandelion Mind

I can take or leave Bill Bailey at times. Sometimes I have found him brilliant other times his comedy leaves me feeling unmoved; I think the difference is that at times I can really get into his specific brand of imaginative nonsense while others I can't and am left looking in from the outside. With Dandelion Mind I was sort of in both places but generally I found this show very funny and enjoyable. It is a very big venue to do comedy and at the start I didn't like the large screens behind him because they just seemed to exist for the sake of filling space – they are used during the show but it did still give me this impression.

There are times during the show where Bailey does and says things without links or development and for me these are the bits that don't work as well. By contrast when he gets into a flow of building up a funny image or situation, or has running jokes then he works very well because he takes the audience with him rather than just dropping something in their laps. I'm sure many people will love both but for me he works better with a flow and with a consistency. His musical gags are as funny as his spoken ones and I think this show demonstrates the range of talents that he has.

Not a perfect show for me, but when he is going for it he is very funny, which is the majority of this show – just not all of it.