Bill Bailey talks ahead of Larks In Transit tour date at Arena Birmingham

It arrives at Arena Birmingham tomorrow night.

However, it has changed considerably since those earliest forays. “Actually, it’s a curious anomaly of the touring process I have. I tour quite a lot in the UK and in New Zealand and Australia, and the show sort of rolls along changing as it goes and eventually morphs into another show. There’s no sort of point where I say: ‘I’ve stopped doing this show and now it’s this show’. It just mutates into another. The show I was touring in Australia and New Zealand as Larks in Transit was completely different to the one I’m doing now.

“I came up with the name while I was in Australia, and thought, I really like this. But since then and over the last year, I’ve written a lot more stuff, incorporated a lot more stories and written a lot more music, so the show is completely unrecognisable from that one.”

The title came from Bill’s fascination with birds – and telling jokes. It follows the personal direction that his last show, Limboland, followed.

“Yes, and more so. In that show I told a story about my family going to see the Northern Lights which went wrong and that was really quite a watershed moment for me – I’m quite a private person, I’ve never really talked about myself or my family in my shows.

“It was a bit of a tough choice actually to include that story. It was a story I’d told around the dinner table with friends, but it had gone beyond that, it’s a more universal thing about holidays generally – the expectation of something being so great, and then you get there and it’s a complete disaster.

“I thought there’s something more here than just a story about my family – and that’s what encouraged me to tell more stories.”

Bill has had a fascinating career as a TV star, comedian, musician, actor and radio presenter. The surrealist was listed as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003, 2007 and again in 2010. He was voted the seventh greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

He became addicted to performing at the age of 15 when he realised the thrill of being on stage. He joined a school band called Behind Closed Doors, which played mostly original work, and gradually made his way into the world of performance. Gradually, he moved into stand-up and began touring the country with comedians such as Mark Lamarr. In 1984, he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth (a fellow former pupil at King Edward’s, Bath). And after enjoying a successful career on TV, he’s become a national treasure and the brainiest comic of his generation.

“When everything comes together and you think of an idea, a joke or routine that connects with people, it’s incredible. It’s the most amazingly satisfying experience hearing an arena full of people laughing at something you’ve thought up. It’s a tremendous buzz.

“The best of those times come when you’re laughing along with them. It’s like you’ve hit on a bit of funny. It’s a bit of funny that was out there, a bit of universal funny that you’re just lucky enough to have plucked and shared with everyone. Those moments are rare, but they are wonderful.”

Larks in Transit features a number of extended stories about the places Bailey has visited, including one to the jungle of Indonesia.

“We were on a birding trip in the jungles. I cannot tell you how remote this place was. It was like some sort of Eden. I was just standing there naked in this river. I was the only person there, and I was thinking, ‘This is one place where I won’t meet anyone’.

“Then out of the blue, a couple of Aussies just came out of the Bush and shouted, ‘Oh, look at that – it’s Bill Bailey! What the bloody hell are you doing here?” That just suddenly brought me back down to Earth.”

“The two elements of what I’m talking about in this show come together in that story. The show is about being lucky enough to have those kind of experiences where you get to think about the world and our relationship with Nature. But it’s also about how my life has led me to the point where people do recognise me in those same places.”