Media Release: For Immediate Release
Here Comes Bill Bailey
STAR OF BLACK BOOKS
NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2010
The UK’s best loved comedian brings his brand new live show to New Zealand
“Blissfully funny”
The London Times
CHRISTCHURCH TOWN HALL
FRIDAY 25 JUNE
Book at Ticketek 0800 TICKETEK www.ticketek.co.nz
WELLINGTON MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE
SATURDAY 26 JUNE
Book at Ticketek 0800 TICKETEK www.ticketek.co.nz
AUCKLAND CIVIC THEATRE
MONDAY 28 JUNE
Book at 0800 BUY TICKETS www.buytickets.co.nz
TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 10 MAY 9am
ALL TICKETS $79.90 (booking fees may apply)
Following his hugely successful 2008 New Zealand live tour of his hit show Tinselworm, British comic and musician Bill
Bailey returns to New Zealand with his brand new live show, Bill Bailey Live.
“Consistently Brilliant”
The Observer
Kicking off on Friday, 25 June in Christchurch, the tour will take in Christchurch and Wellington before culminating in
Auckland on Monday 28 June.
Are you sure about our world? How many things do you actually know for certain? There’s not much about the world that
is simply black and white, apart from pandas maybe and OK, skunks, but that’s about it. Most of our world is a grey
area, and this is where Bill Bailey is going on his next tour. A magical, musical, mystery tour through a human history
filled with doubt, to a place where certainty reigns and where religion, death, egg-custard, twigs, and giant African
land snails are here to stay. So do you refuse to accept there are things you don’t understand, do you desire to see
the world only in black and white, or do you accept doubt into your life, make uncertainty your friend, do you embrace
the greyness? There is also a complex subtext about clouds, squirrels and getting older, but you’ll have to figure that
out for yourself…
Following his performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the resulting critically acclaimed BBC2 television
broadcast, last autumn Bill enjoyed a very successful UK tour of his hilarious musical extravaganza, Bill Bailey’s
Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra. Performing alongside some of the UK’s finest orchestras, the show provided fans with
the opportunity to see Bill’s surreal comic and musical imagination at its best and was described by The London Guardian
as “sublime hilarity” and Stephen Fry as “wonderfully enjoyable… like driving a Rolls-Royce off-road.”
British Comedy Award winner Bill has enjoyed success on the live stage for many years. In 2001 he took his show
Bewilderness to New York for an eight week run at the Westbeth Theatre. The New York Times wrote of him, “Bill is an
unalloyed pleasure, a treat for the funny bone, the brain and the ear” and The Telegraph pronounced him “a hobbit with a
wicked sense of humour”. In 2004 he performed his show Part Troll at over fifty venues around the UK, culminating in an
extended run at London’s Wyndhams Theatre. In 2007 he embarked on a sold-out UK arena tour with his groundbreaking
audio-visual feast, Tinselworm. He took the show down under during the summer of 2008, touring Australia and New
Zealand, before returning to London in December 2008 for a ten week run of the show at the Gielgud Theatre. The summer
of 2009 saw Bill tour the UK once again with his live show, Bill Bailey Live.
Bill has also performed at the Edinburgh Festival almost every year since his debut in 1996 when he was nominated for
the prestigious Perrier Award for his stand-up show Cosmic Jam. The fringe has also seen Bill branch out as a dramatic
actor, firstly in an extremely well-received production of 12 Angry Men, as the restrained Juror 4, two years later as
the slouchy, unkempt Oscar in the equally acclaimed, The Odd Couple.
Having taken over from Sean Hughes in 2002, following eleven successful and enjoyable series, autumn 2008 saw Bill step
down from his role as team captain on one of the UK’s longest running music/comedy panel shows, Never Mind The Buzzcocks
(BBC2).
In addition to Buzzcocks, Bill’s TV portfolio includes three series of the hit black comedy Black Books (C4) in which he
played the increasingly deranged ex-accountant Manny Bianco opposite fellow comic Dylan Moran, acclaimed comedy Spaced
(C4) and Is It Bill Bailey? (BBC2). He appeared in the UK comedy drama serial Jonathan Creek (BBC1) as well as the edgy
teen drama Skins (C4). Bill has guest hosted the satirical panel show, Have I Got News for You (BBC1) and can be seen
as a regular panelist on QI (BBC1). Bill has also hosted both the wildlife series Wild Thing I Love You (C4) and the
more recent Bill Bailey’s Birdwatching Bonanza (Sky1), in which he tracked down some of the UK’s most elusive birds.
On the big screen, Bill appeared in the film Saving Grace, had a cameo appearance in the comedy feature Hot Fuzz and can
be seen playing Farmer Macreadie in the current comedy sequel, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Most recently Bill has
filmed roles in the upcoming comedies Burke and Hare and Chalet Girl.
“As perfect a comedy package as you could hope to find”
The Sunday Times
Bill has long been a supporter of numerous charities including International Animal Rescue, with whom he visited dancing
bear sanctuaries in India in 2005, as well as Stand Up For Animals, The Sumatran Orangutan Society, Comic Relief and
Bowel Cancer UK, for whom he’s appeared at various benefit gigs.
Bill is currently developing ideas for film and television with his own production company, Glassbox Productions, who
are responsible for bringing to the screen Tinselworm and Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra.
ends