ANDREW BAILEY

Born in 1947 in Manchester, comedian Andrew Bailey is a veteran of London's original Comedy Store, Bailey describes himself as ''a clown who deals in the dark side of things''. Since the 1970s his stand-up comedy work has included many characters, including the manic clown Podomovski and Brian the finger puppeteer, who creates intense drama with finger-puppets heavily influenced by Pinter and Chekhov. Art Monthly once said: ''He trod with abandon the line between genius absurdity and juvenile nonsense.''

The element of risk sums up Andrew Bailey's stand-up comedians performance style. Regularly seen at the Comedy Store in the Saturday-night gong show, British comedian Andrew Bailey presented himself as somebody on a job-creation scheme for finger puppeteers. He is always very original. He is overlooked because he doesn't fit into any box - he is a comic, artist, performer and musician. The only box he fits into is Andrew Bailey. He is not very good at exposing himself and being hard-nosed either. He is a fleeting, flitting creature and hard to pin down, but he is a true comic and artist.