Comedy

I’m sitting in a café in Hammersmith, waiting to interview Bill Bailey. I’m here to talk to him about a charity gig he’s doing called ‘OrangAid’ to raise money for an organisation that supports the endangered Sumatran orang-utan. In the distance I see Bailey walking towards me with his slightly rolling gait. It occurs to me that there is a little of the orang-utan about him, if you squint a bit and picture him with orange hair. I choose not to mention this. And as we chat I discover there’s far more to his passion for these animals than a passing physical similarity.

‘I was over in northern Sumatra on sort of a part-work, part-holiday thing,’ Bailey recalls. ‘We went over there six months after the tsunami because me and a friend had put some money into a foundation to rebuild a village.’ He looks a little awkward talking about this. ‘The two of us and my wife went over to meet the villagers. They gave us some lunch and made some speeches. All very nice.’
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It’s immediately obvious from his body language and the way he skips over this matter of factly that this was no mere publicity stunt. It wasn’t something dreamt up by a PR agency to boost his approval ratings. This was the genuine action of someone who had been moved by the plight of other people halfway round the world and found himself in a position to help.

‘Anyway, while I was there I met Lucy Wisdom; she’s the founding director of the Sumatran Orang-utan Society and runs this centre in the Leuser National Park where the orang-utans are still free to move around. It’s this amazing primeval rainforest.’

Increasing enthusiasm emanates from Bailey as he talks. ‘We actually got to see an orang-utan roaming in the wild. It was fantastic. But this small area in northern Sumatra, where they are, is under constant threat because it’s being encroached on on both sides by the drive for biofuels. Great big swathes of forest have gone and in their place there are palm oil plantations, because that’s what’s making money. It’s insane. Eco-friendly fuel that requires you to cut down prime rainforest to grow it – it’s so obviously wrong-headed and mental.’

Although he’s as charming and warm as ever, the fieriness of Bailey’s zealfor the cause is striking. ‘All the money raised from this gig will go to the project. A little money goes a long way there.’

Surely he must get loads of approaches to do similar events. How does he choose which ones to support? ‘It’s very hard. I get a lot of requests, about five a day. There are so many things you could get involved in. You have to be quite ruthless and just say to yourself: “I can’t divide myself between all these things.” ’ He has obviously considered this at some length. ‘It would dissipate the time and effect I have and that wouldn’t benefit anyone.’

Sitting here talking to him, it’s easy to see why Bailey would be a coup for any campaign. Honest, intelligent, beloved, a card-carrying carer for the planet, funny without straying into offensive territory. Presumably it’s not just the charity sector who’d want him. Has he ever been tapped up by ‘The Man’?

‘I was asked to do an ad campaign for a supermarket once. I was baffled. It’s strange when you realise your popularity or reputation is a marketable commodity; it’s a stock, a currency.’ He laughs, slightly bemused. ‘I think they’d had some bad publicity at the time and it was like playing a trump card – let’s cover up that unpleasantness with that popular comic. That’s the way things work.’

Does it feel odd, though, knowing there’s Bill Bailey ‘the man and comedian’ and Bill Bailey ‘the brand’? ‘Yeah, but you have to acknowledge that’s what it’s about. You just have to be careful about what you do.’

And he’s acutely aware of the pitfalls that others have taken. ‘We have an odd relationship in this country with celebrities supporting charities. People think that you’re doing it for some ulterior motive, “He’s got an album out” or something. But you don’t have to do it. You could just sit at home and watch the box set of “Heroes”, eating Maltesers.’ He smiles. ‘In the end I just have to go with my instinct – with something I can relate to. With the orangs I thought, “I’ve been there.’’ ’

Bill Bailey is appearing in ‘OrangAid’ at the Lyceum Theatre on May 12. For more on the work of the Sumatran Orang-utan Society, visit www.orangutans-sos.org.