British comedian Bill Bailey has been coming to New Zealand for 25 years, but never has he headed over to our shores in such unique circumstances.

His latest tour is named ‘En Route to Normal' as the world tries to find its footing in the Covid era. Since exiting quarantine in New Zealand, that route has been accelerated.

'It is a bit surreal, if I am honest,” Bill admits ahead of his Trustpower Baypark Arena performance on Thursday, March 25.

'When I got out of quarantine I didn't know what to do. Do I shake hands? Stand back? Get two metres from someone? It was just weird, but great.”

Bill first visited as part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival in the mid-1990s and quickly found himself falling in love with Aotearoa.

An avid birdwatcher and lover of nature, it is no surprise that the country's flora and fauna turned out to be a winning combination for Bill.

'I came with my girlfriend at the time and we hired a car and just drove around. Firstly there was just hardly anyone here. We kept thinking there was some sort of civil emergency. There's just not that many people.

'It's a wonderful place. The kauri trees are just extraordinary, while the tui, bellbirds and saddlebacks are all wonderful birds that we just don't see in Western Europe.”

Bill has since been a regular visitor to New Zealand and tries to make his way over every two or three years. The fact the comedic palette of Kiwis and Brits overlaps certainly helps matters.

'It was a great experience, so I came back every year after that to perform here as part of the Comedy Festival. Over the years I have come back regularly.

'The sense of humour is quite similar to the UK's take on life. We like the absurdity, the surreal nature of life and have a healthy disregard for pomposity or authority.”

Travelling to New Zealand on such a regular basis could be construed as tiring by those unaware of Bill's intrepid nature.

A regular traveller, the nature of a locked-down world throughout 2020 and 2021 might have harpooned a lesser spirited comedian's material.

But Bill has steered into the skid.

'There's quite a bit in the show about my own experiences of lockdown, because I haven't been anywhere,” Bill laments.

'Normally, my shows are all about trips and overseas, being on tour, but I have just been in my back garden.

'I do a whole thing about people narrating a wildlife documentary and getting jealous because the animals are getting to travel. Like, look at these lucky sods!”

As well as travel, Bill, who is well known for his appearances on UK comedy shows Black Books, QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, is a music aficionado.

A classically trained musician, including with some of the more bizarre melodic apparatus of the world, it is another part of his act that has been impacted by the current state of the world.

'There is a lot of music,” he says. 'Music that came about through the circumstances of what we were doing, like video calling and listening to the sounds of the ringtones of video calls, Skype and phones. All our devices and tech took on a new and much greater significance.

'This is how we communicated over the year. So it is also about how that has inveigled its way into our lives.”

As the title of the tour suggests, getting back to normal forms the backbone of Bill's act, but he openly ruminates on whether that previous normality deserves the nostalgia attached to it.

'Trying to get back to whatever normal is,” states Bill, 'but maybe examine that a little bit and ask: ‘do we want that?'

'What was normal? What is normal anyway? Do we want to go back to that? Maybe we have figured out better ways of doing things.”

If that sounds too heavy for a comedy act, the surrealist is also riding the crest of a wave of popularity back home as the winner of 2020's Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC - the UK's version of Dancing with the Stars.

So if things do take a darker comedic turn, there is always the chance of a dance breaking out.

'There will be a bit of dancing, of course. You can be sure there will be. Maybe a bit of Charleston. I will try and get everyone to join in but that might be a bit harder.”

Bill Bailey is playing Trustpower Baypark Arena on Thursday, March 25 at 8pm. Tickets are still available at: www.ticketek.co.nz