Bill Bailey En Route to Normal review – a joyful reconnection

almost 4 years in The guardian

Bournemouth International CentreTree snails, Coldplay and the current cabinet all get the full Bailey treatment in a zinging performanceSometime around the second curtain call, you begin to wonder if Bill Bailey is ever going to leave the stage. There he is, bouncing up and down, leading the crowd in a singalong and bellowing at us about the value of the shared live experience. To all the established pleasures of a Bill Bailey gig, tonight’s adds the palpable sense of a man rejoicing to be back – however briefly – in front of in-person audiences.That those audiences now include a quotient who know him mainly from Strictly Come Dancing is all part of the fun. Bailey’s act, after all, is the anti-Strictly, a non-mainstream confection free-ranging tonight across Polynesian tree snails, Rammstein riffs and the difference between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness. His genius is to bring arena-sized crowds along with this stuff by the force of his quirky enthusiasm and by neither pandering nor ever pretending to be anyone other than his idiosyncratic, off-the-beaten-path self.At Bournemouth International Centre on 16 December. Then touring until 15 January. Continue reading...

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