BILL Bailey is taking his hit live show Larks In Transit back on the road with a date at Sunderland Empire on Tuesday, 28 May. The show is a compendium of travellers’ tales and the general shenanigans of 20 years as a travelling comedian. With musical virtuosity, surreal tangents and trademark intelligence, Bailey tackles politics, philosophy and the pursuit of happiness. He also fashions a symphony from a ringtone, tells the real story of Old MacDonald and re-imagines the Stars and Stripes. It's two decades of touring larks from a comic described by The Telegraph as “the brainiest comic of his generation.”

British Comedy Award winner Bailey 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”. His most recent live show, Limboland, was arguably one of his most successful ever. Having performed the show to in excess of 230,000 fans, across 170 sell-out dates in the UK alone, including a six week run in London’s West End, the critics were unanimous in their praise.

Bailey has also performed at the Edinburgh Festival almost every year since his debut, Cosmic Jam, in 1995. His 1996 follow-up, Bill Bailey Live, earned him a nomination for the prestigious Perrier Award. In 2011 Bill performed one of the biggest comedy gigs in the world, performing to some 60,000 fans at Knebworth, when he headlined the Sonisphere Rock Festival alongside rock gods Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.

* Tickets available in person at Sunderland Empire Box Office on High Street West, from the ticket centre on 0844-871-3022 or online at www.ATGtickets.com/Sunderland.