Owls about that, Bill Bailey bringing new show to Civic Hall

Top comedy talents including TV star Bill Bailey and established talents like John Fothergill, Jenny Eclair and Gary Delaney will headline venues across the West Midlands during an action-packed week.

Bill Bailey will headline Wolverhampton's Civic Hall tonight and tomorrow. His latest show has the all classic Bill Bailey elements, trademark musical mash-ups, multi-lingual riffs, films, songs, philosophizing and silliness on a grand scale. Fans can also look forward to meeting an amazing owl.

Professional Grumpy Old Woman, writer and panto star, Jenny Eclair will play her first gig at The Public, in West Bromwich, tomorrow.

The star is instantly recognised from her role on Loose Women where she is happy to be one of 'The Coven'. She is also a Pilates Ninja and a disgrace in her own kitchen.

Public spokesman David Wright said: "Touring as a stand-up gives Eclair enormous pleasure. It also gives her dreadful varicose veins, but most importantly it gives her partner (St Geof) a bit of a break."

John Fothergill will continue a three-night residence at Birmingham's Glee Club tonight and continue until tomorrow.

Fothergill hails from Crawcrook, a small village in the North East of England. He spent the majority of his childhood trying to convince the rest of the community that he was a very special child, they finally agreed and after the traditional tar and feathering banished him to the nearest city – the vast cosmopolitan metropolis that is Newcastle upon Tyne.

Employment varied from cleaning the deck and galley of a gas rig in the middle of the North Sea, to being the sound man at a quakers meeting, which consisted mainly of silent contemplation.

However, it was while working as a casual scenery mover at a local theatre that he found his true vocation as a pirate in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Unfortunately John was far less adept at the singing and acting part as he was at the general behaving like a drunken sea farer, so this was to be short lived.

Gary Delaney will play three nights at Birmingham's Glee Club from Thursday to June 22.

The razor sharp one-liner comedian, who is widely regarded as being the most quotable comic on the circuit, will offer an evening of high quality stand-up.

Delaney regularly plays all the big clubs including The Comedy Store, Komedia, Glee, Rawhide, The Frog and Bucket, Hyena, Baby Blue, The Stand, Comedy Café, Lee Hurst's Backyard, Banana Cabaret and headlines at clubs throughout the UK.

He has appeared on Dave's One Night Stand, Comedy Central's Comedy Blue and Channel 4's Robert's Web, as well as Radio 4's Loose Ends and Radio 2's Russell Kane's Whistle-Stop Tour. Delaney has also written for other stand-ups including Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Roadshow (Perrier Award nominee in 2007), Jason Manford and for Micky Flanagan's appearance on the Royal Variety Performance.

See tomorrow's The Weekend (15th June) supplement, in the Express & Star and Shropshire Star for an exclusive interview with Bill Bailey.