With the recent announcement of comedian Russell Brand bringing his stand-up show down under, this week another British comedian has announced he'll be returning to New Zealand. Following a successful season at this year's Edinburgh Festival, Alan Davies is returning to New Zealand after a 15-year absence, for a seven-date tour of the country, which begins in Auckland on February 1.
The well-loved star of dry comic shows Jonathan Creek, Bob & Rose, QI and most recently Whites (due to air here later this year), will be presenting a show entitled Life Is Pain.
"There is a plenty of pain in life," he explained to TimeOut, "and some of the pain in my life, when I was a child, is now creeping into my stand-up a little bit in a way that it didn't in the past when I was in my 20s. I used to shy away from difficult subject matter. When you're older you realise that everybody in the audience has a story of some sort about something, so why not just include all of life in your show. But the show still has a fair amount of scatological nonsense, whimsy and outright filth."
Despite being a much-awarded and critically acclaimed comic in his early years, Davies hadn't performed stand up in Britain since 1999 until last year, but after successful shows there and in Australia, he's keen to keep the ball rolling.
He'll be playing two shows in Auckland - at the Town Hall on Friday, February 1, and at the Bruce Mason Centre on Saturday, February 2, before heading to Whangarei, Hamilton, Christchurch, New Plymouth, and Wellington. Pre-sale tickets go on sale Monday, with all tickets on sale from Thursday, September 27.
