Dates and venues for Bill Bailey's En Route to Normal tour

Bill Bailey has announced a new arena tour – taking him from Plymouth to London – for December next year.

The comic, who is about to go into BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing, has unveiled 12 big dates for the new show En Route To Normal, including a Boxing Day gig at Wembley Arena.

As the title suggests, material will include lockdown and how to “see a way through the strange unreality of our new world,” but the comic says he came up with the name “before we’d even heard of COVID”.

According the show’s description: ‘Tracing lines through chaotic moments in history, Bill seeks out parallels where human resilience and our ability to endure has got us through times of strife.’

Bailey says that for him the pandemic led to a greater appreciation of birdsong and how nature has inspired many great composers. Lockdown also prompted him to create dance remixes of video-calling ringtones.

Bailey’s last tour was Larks In Transit, which toured the UK, Australia, and New Zealand – including five-week residency at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre - starting in 2018 and playing to more than 350,000 people.

A final European leg of the Larks In Transit tour was pulled because of the coronavirus.

His new book, Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness, a collection of essays exploring the nature of happiness, will be published in November.

Bill Bailey is a comedian, musician, writer, author, director, presenter and keen stand-up paddle-boarder known for his live shows such as Part Troll, Tinselworm, Qualmpeddler and Limboland and his work on the television programmes Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI.

Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003.In 2007, and again in 2010, he was voted the seventh greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

He is a classically trained musician and anyone who has seen his live shows leave dazzled by his skill on any instrument he picks up.

He can deliver a killer punchline but his more high-minded, philosophical riffs are amazing, intelligent, accessible, thoughtful and hilariously funny.

The 2021 our dates are ...Sunday December 12 and Monday December 13: Plymouth PavilionsTuesday December 14: Bournemouth International CentreWednesday December 15: Cardiff Motorpoint ArenaThursday December 16: Bournemouth International CentreSaturday December 18: Leeds First Direct ArenaSunday December 19: Hull Bonus ArenaMonday December 20: Newcastle Utilita ArenaTuesday December 21: Birmingham ArenaWednesday December 22: Manchester AO ArenaThursday December 23: Nottingham Motorpoint ArenaSunday December 26: London SSE Arena WembleyTickets are available from Friday October 9 at 10am.They will be available online at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/ Ticketmaster.

Tickets can also be purchased from the individual venues.

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