Bill Bailey - Riverside Theatre

Being the debut of his new show Limboland, Bill Bailey set the direction quickly, as front row late comers were treated to elevator music and a flute solo by the main man as he singled them out and played them to their seats.

It was this type of improve and musical breaks that constantly swooped in throughout the two-hour show to sow together low points or jokes that just didn’t work like they should have.

With his leg perched upon a fold back speaker like a rockstar and 10 instruments on stage to back up such body language, Bailey had a dig at the liberals, danced like c-grade celebrity impersonating a mermaid’s dance move. Accompanied by an old smoking pipe as a prop, he was so sophisticated that he’d rather listen to an audio book of Fifty Shades Of Grey narrated by Ozzy Osbourne than listen to One Direction, and it was Bailey’s narration of quotes from Tony Abbott that garnered some of the biggest laughs of the night, and confirmed how much of an embarrassment the PM is on an international level.

Musical highlights were presented in the form of a performance of Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball to the tone of German electro pop and ABBA’s Waterloo in the style of Rammstein. Knowing the content on offer hadn’t been rehearsed and fed to the ears of thousands of others across the world was a refreshing change of pace, despite a few longwinded rants that didn’t pay off as well as Bailey was probably hoping, but it was the raw delivery of those less-than-funny moments that gave the show its character and made it more engaging.

It hadn’t been a good week for Bailey – or so the great detail given to the "milky swamp of disappointment" his morning tea became suggested - but the debut of Limboland surely turned that around.