On Saturday March 2nd the legendary Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson visited Ole Bull Teater in Bergen and made the capacity crowd grin with laughter for the close to three hours long event. Torgrim Øyre was there to report.
Words: Torgrim Øyre
Since the release of his autobiography What Does this Button Do? some 18 months ago, Bruce Dickinson has developed what started as a book launch event into a full-fledged one man show. The performance tour has taken him from the UK to Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and a bunch of other countries, before ending in Bergen, Norway on March 2nd.
Most of you know perfectly well that Dickinson is a man of many talents, but have you ever heard his impressions of Britain’s prime minister Theresa May or the Queen? Well, look no further.
Bruce Dickinson’s “What Does This Button Do?” show is Dickinson in full flight storytelling mode and he does it, as you would imagine, really well. From his vivid recollections of ordering two tons of manure to the front porch of his boarding school, to meeting Her Majesty, Bruce touches upon the serious matters of being disciplined by the teachers and bullied by his school mates as well as light hearted banter about his rather intoxicated days in Samson before landing the gig in Iron Maiden in the early 80’s.
Every story is delivered with precision and a punchline to make you burst out with laughter. Ever heard about Maiden’s fruit and vegetable years? Go figure.
Is there anything that button doesn’t do? Dickinson and his mustache in his Samson days, cirka 1980.
Armed with a Trooper beer and some slides, Bruce trod onto the stage with a simple “hello”, exuding the true down to earth, no bullshit persona he has always been. Far removed from the jet set, reality TV oriented lifestyle many of his peers have adopted once the platinum albums have started pouring in.
Bruce is concerned about the real world and his perspectives are colorful, paired with the classic British humor and a Monty Pythonesque bite. His way of communicating his stories are dynamic and highly entertaining. In short, this is a storyteller that has honed his craft since lecturing a Los Angeles audience in 1985 about what not to do if a bird shits on you, to a full-on evening with Bruce Dickinson some 30 odd years later.
If you want to know what an Airbus captain looks like when maneuvering his big bird, or what it is like trying to grow an impressive mustache at a young age, you might get the answer if you ever put your feet into a Bruce Dickinson show. You may even hear him sing the hymns from “Revelations” a cappella.
Now, that’s some time well spent for you.
Class act!
Maiden Revelations 
I was at Bruce’s evening in Stockholm. Great night full of laugh-out-loud moments involving, amongst others, women of the night and cosmetically boosted facial hair; hair-raising but darkly humorous stories from Sarajevo and equally hair-raising pictures of stagewear from earlier days, my personal favourites being the lizardy onesie from SoT, closely followed by the all-time classic harlequin tights!
Even had my question to Bruce chosen for discussion after the break. 😃
Another string added to Bruce’s bow (how big is the man’s bow, anyway?)!
Would definitely go see him again should he do a similar show. Interesting even for non rock/Maiden fans.
Money very well spent!!!🤘🏻🖖🏻
In case you didn’t make it to one of the shows, like unlucky me, and still want to get an impression of the mentioned voice imitations, I’d recommend the audio book of his autobiography. Yes, he read it himself. Actually, you can’t go wrong with that audio book in any case.
Excellent review. I attended the very first show in London and utterly recommend his one man show. Really funny.