The last time I spoke to British comedian Bill Bailey, back in 2016, he had been mistakenly declared dead by a news outlet.
The news spread like wildfire and no one was more surprised than Bailey himself who was, in fact, alive and well.
This time around, again on the eve of an Australian tour, he has shaved his head and rid himself of his trademark "skullet" and the reaction was, again, swift and far reaching. Hysterical, even.
"It was!," Bailey says.
"Within 10 seconds of me posting it on Instagram it was on five major news sites and I'm thinking 'Really? Bill Bailey's cut his hair? Is nothing else going on in the world?'.
"Somebody sent me a message asking if my hair was a national monument, like a protected area, and shouldn't there have been a committee meeting about it?
"People were losing their minds over it and I kind of understand it because it's been part of my trademark for the past 20 years."
Bailey hasn't had a haircut "since he was a young man, back in my 20s".
"My family is still trying to come to terms with it and my son keeps doing these massive double takes every time he sees me," he tells Weekender.
"I feel a strange breeze on the back of my neck that I haven't felt in a long time ... and I like it."
He confirms, for the record, that his hair "almost did catch fire".
"I did this big hike up in Scotland and we were staying at a bothy, which is basically a little public-use stone cottage in the wilderness areas which is always open, anyone can walk in," he says.
"There's no facilities, no running water or power or electricity, it's just a roof over your head. If it's raining it means you don't have to put your tent up, so they're very welcome in the wilderness.
"Anyway, so I was cooking outside one, with a little grill, and I bent over and a wisp of hair nearly went up in flames and I thought, 'Well, maybe this is a sign'. Never mind the aesthetic change, this is self preservation kicking in here."
It followed on from another skullet-related incident of Bailey's that occurred on a train from Heathrow Airport last year.
"I was leaning against the door - it was a very crowded train - and my hair got stuck in the doors as they closed," Bailey says.
"I had to style it out, like, 'Oh Bill's just leaning his neck back against the door'. But in reality I had to wait until the train stopped to retrieve it, and it wasn't very dignified ... so I thought 'It's time to have a new look. Time for a change'.
"Also, I've been doing a lot of outdoor activities and it makes life a lot easier, to be honest, in terms of maintenance."
Thoughtifier is the name of his new tour and the promotional material defines it as "a magical, musical mystery tour of the human mind".
"You get these odd start points for shows. I was reading some philosophy books about the Stoics, and I thought it was a great way to conduct yourself, you know, accepting what life throws at you and dealing with it," he explains.
"The show has evolved into a celebration of what we are capable of, as humans, and also what we as comics are capable of getting crowds to do - singing in harmony, singing a melody, trying to create rhythms there on the spot - and to say 'Wow, what an amazing bunch of people we have, all strangers, in one place, and we're able to create these things in a minute'."
Every night is, he says, slightly different - and that's what he loves about comedy.
"I've had to streamline the shows a bit as they were getting out of hand, I mean, I did one show that was three hours long," he says.
"As always there will be lots of music. I've taught myself the bagpipes and it's incorporated into the show, and I've bought along my laser harp. It's like a harp, with lasers that you put your hand through, and you play it like an instrument.
"It looks fantastic. There's always a visual element in my shows. Plus I've got some Bill Bailey AI chatbots that are really quite disturbing."
We have a chat about the US "presidential" debate ("It would have been better if he [Trump] was interrupting all the time because he wouldn't have been able to help himself, he would have looked the kind of boorish oaf that he comes across as") and UK politics ("Rishi Sunak always looks as if he doesn't know what to do with his arms, swing them, keep them still ... he's a very odd fellow") before venturing into the universality of comedy.
"It's what the whole show is about, basically, what we can do as humans when there's this creeping fear of being taken over by AI," he says.
"We all need a laugh, now more than ever."
But it's the story of his run-in with a dodgy dishwasher that I must share. Bailey admitted last time we spoke that he wasn't a DIY guy.
"I fixed a dishwasher, right, so that in itself is a major win for me. I followed the instructions on YouTube and managed to install the new part which I was very, very chuffed with, although I almost got stuck in the dishwasher while doing it.
"I was right in the dishwasher and they're very dark inside, so I was using my phone as the torch and also the source of information. Very difficult. I was banging my head, cursing, banging my head, cursing, and all the dogs were sitting there watching me, wagging their tails."
And getting his hair caught?
"Yes, getting my hair caught in the millions of spinning blades. Just another reason to get rid of it, really."
