British comedian Bill Bailey returns to Hong Kong to tickle our funny bone

“It was an extraordinary time to be there,” he says. “I fell in love with the place. I loved the hustle and bustle; the energy of the community. I enjoyed being by the water and the Star Ferry. And I liked the contrast of old and new; the junks and the skyscrapers.”

The experience left the star of the TV sitcom Black Books wanting more. He has since made multiple trips to the city, and his next visit will see him perform at Kitec in Kowloon Bay on December 14 as part of his Larks in Transit tour. The show looks back on his 20 years as a travelling comedian.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post ahead of the gig by telephone from Australia, it’s clear that Bailey thrives on exploring the world. During his Qualmpeddler tour in 2013, he joked about his forays into China, where he made often fruitless attempts to practise his Mandarin.

As he relayed one anecdote, he mocked his own poor attempts to speak the language, and compared the sounds he made in Mandarin to the noises he might make in moments of “revulsion”. He also highlighted the difficulty of understanding tones. “Ma”, he suggested, can mean “mother”, “hemp”, “horse” or “disappointment”. He mused on the potential confusion if he had mixed up the tones: “Since your horse died, I’ve been smoking a lot of your mother.”

To those who are unfamiliar with Bailey, it might sound like his stand-up performance was mocking Chinese culture, but he was just revelling in his own linguistic ineptitude. He is actually a huge fan of China and particularly enjoys visiting Yunnan province, he says, because he can go fishing and cycle through the fields.

“China is hugely diverse,” he says. “It has all manner of landscapes – it is just so varied. Although in China, there is the idea of getting rid of old buildings. It is a quirk that I can’t get my head around.”