Controversial Bishop: Gotta be a comedy act
There aren’t many comedians that can sell out two nights running and keep an audience engaged for two hours in a one-man mammoth gig. Then again, there aren’t many Americans who come to Ireland, are embraced by the nations’ audiences as their own, and go on to become the very best of Irish-bred stand up comics.
Consider then, Des Bishop, a 26-year-old, who rallies on about the merits of Ireland and still manages to have the audience howling with laughter. "You guys really want to get more happy about where you’re from, Ireland is awesome man," he exclaims with an unmistakable cheeky New York chant.
Bishop moved from New York to Ireland when he was just fourteen. He went to boarding school in Wexford and later attended Cork’s UCC to complete a degree in History and English.
His involvement in the amateur drama society in the college quickly caught the eye of fellow comedian Frank Twomey (the same responsible for Mary O’ Rourke’s double in Bull Island) who in turn encouraged the young undergraduate to take to the stage in a stand-up capacity.
His first ever gig and one he remembers with an air of nostalgia was a twenty-minute slot in Gorbies comedy club in Cork. Those who were there on the night could scarcely have forecast the precedent he was setting, when considering most first timers can’t hold an audience for more than seven minutes in their opening show. Yet, it could only have been the signal of what was to follow.
Bishop’s gig leaves you with the impression that he’s given sweat and blood to the audience. He crosses the stage incessantly even running at times and envelops the theatre in a capsule of relentless energy, that’s just contagious. Aside from poking fun at the audience, his sketches run on for periods that don’t seem either set or structured.
There’s nothing staged or premeditated about Bishop’s gig, his accents are flawless, his material is accurate, indeed a lot of what he does seems so spontaneous that you get the impression it’s really improv you’re watching.
There’s an essence about the show that unlike most other acts, can be fully appreciated when you accept that scripts are not something he holds sacred.
In fact he admits to rarely using old material and instead tapes his own shows. "I get my ideas from my other gigs, stuff that’s come up organically - take those ideas and then flush them out. I’m not one to sit down and write stuff out in the middle of the day".
There are things you would never think of if you sat down to write them that will hit you while on stage. You’re at your most acute mentally when you’re up there".
Not surprising then that the young comic’s most admired comedian is Navan man, Tommy Tiernan. "You get the impression after a Tiernan gig that he’s just given everything he can give, you see him after the show and the guy’s exhausted. I admire that".
On the subject of Irish comedy broadcasting he believes that the entire budget is inadequate. "Good comedy needs a lot of good writers and for that you need money. You can’t possibly compare ‘Never mind the Buzzcocks’ which was recorded for three hours and aired for forty five minutes, with ‘Don’t feed the Gondolas’ which was recorded for forty minutes and aired for twenty
five."
Bishop thinks that he’s only beginning to become known for his own work now - earlier he feels he was associated with the RTE aired programme. He is a character who suits himself, someone who won’t necessarily do something because it will mean broader coverage.
"I was always an extrovert", Bishop says. "We used do this small time -tell a joke in front of an audience- type project in the college. I loved it from the start - I’ll do those corporate gigs as quick as I’d do some charity show - I don’t do it explicitly for the money - I do it because I love it".
He became well known to ‘Don’t feed the Gondolas’ viewers but feels that the show, in a sense, set him back. "I’m not a pop comedian," he explains.
"I realised while doing that show, that it’s all about doing what you want to do, if you keep that in mind and focus on that alone, then something’s going to happen for you."
The American comedian Billy Hicks who died from cancer is another comedian revered by Bishop. “I just liked his material " he was very outspoken about US affairs".
Bishop himself admits he has an agenda. " I hate right wing morality, I hate the hypocrisy of the political system in this country, I hate watching racism grow."
All of these issues are dealt with on stage in a hilarious manner be it a take on Dana’s abortion policies, a Corkonian speaking on a radio chat show or a documented example of a Dublin thug, all executed with domestic accents that defy his birth-place.
Though he doesn’t hold any allegiance to the US political system something that is evident in his sarcastic critiques of the Bush administration, he does, he says, have allegiances to the American people.
Bishop came to Cork last week and sold out the Triskell theatre two nights running. Self-deprecating though he may be about that small venture. There aren’t many of his age that can lay claims to the same feat, indeed there are none.
Still, he’s old to this game now and looks set to become larger than life itself in his relentless tour of Ireland, which is interrupted with gigs in Scotland, Brussels, Spain and New York.
Though somewhat covert about his upcoming plans, being as they are ‘under construction’ presently. There is talk of new projects on Bishop’s future agenda.
Following on from Rap Eire, the hip hop musical last year, there are plans to film a documentary about Ireland, with Bishop as commentator. No doubt the programme will have the usual mark of comedy inherent though, not overtly so. Hard to believe maybe, but it seems he may just have a serious side too.
Where to catch him:
Cathedral quarter arts festival, Belfast 9 and 10 May.
GPO, Galway 22 May.
Laughter Lounge, Dublin 23-25 May.
Thursday nights, International Bar, Dublin.
(New York 11-21 May.)
