Bill Bailey returns to New Zealand for a 13-show tour this year. Photo / NZME
Bill Bailey returns to New Zealand for a 13-show tour this year. Photo / NZME
UK comedian, musician and actor Bill Bailey is returning to New Zealand with a new show, including a stop in Rotorua.
Following a sold-out tour in 2023, Bailey brings his show Vaudevillean to 13 centres this October and November, a statement from organisers said.
Bailey will bring his “trademark wit,musical virtuosity, and wonderfully twisted sense of the absurd”.
Familiar to fans from his iconic roles in Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, In the Long Run, created by Idris Elba, and the award-winning Black Books, Bailey also hosted the debut season of New Zealand panel show Patriot Brains.
His creative range spans film, television, music, art and publishing – from voicing the animated feature Dragonkeeper, to writing the best-selling Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness, and winning the hearts of millions as the 2020 champion of Strictly Come Dancing.
“Bill Bailey returns with a show that celebrates this great tradition, as the versatile multi-instrumental, multi-lingual, purveyor of humour and musical prowess, who could lay claim to being perhaps the foremost practitioner of this great tradition, an entertainer, a performer, a modern Vaudevillian,” the statement said.
In 2023 Bailey brought his show Thoughtifier to New Zealand which included stops in Rotorua and Tauranga.
Bailey plays at Rotorua’sSir Howard Morrison Centre onNovember 21 and tickets are on sale now.
He was one of a growing list of top touring international comedians visiting the centre since it reopened in 2023 after five years closed for significant renovations.
UK comedian Sarah Millican’s performance in January sold out within weeks of going on sale.
Ben Elton, also from the UK, performed in April and Australian Heath “Chopper Read” Franklin visited in May.
Other upcoming comedy shows at the venue included two more UK performers - comedy hypnotist Frankie Mac performs on July 25 and Jimmy Carr’s Laughs Funny tour will visit in January.
Music fans would also be well served, with The Best of the Bee Gees yesterday becoming the latest tribute act to announce a Rotorua show.
A media release said the Australian act would bring their two-act Greatest Hits and Saturday Night Fever Show performance to the Sir Howard Morrison Centre on August 12.
The North Island tour is the first time visiting New Zealand for the group, which has been performing for 26 years.
Other tribute acts visiting Rotorua this year include Creedence Clearwater Collective, Dancing in the Shadows of Motown, The Fleetwood Mac Experience, Queen: It’s a Kind of Magic, Tina: The Ultimate Tribute To The Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Taylor: A Tribute to the Eras of Taylor Swift.
