COMEDY: DES BISHOP

BY AMELIA GROOM

Fresh from Edinburgh Fringe and following a successful debut at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year, Des Bishop is bringing his latest show to Sydney. With an outspoken, honest and observational style of story-telling, he delivers hilarious takes on things like immigrants, poverty, his own battle with testicular cancer, and his experience moving from America to Ireland as a teenager.

‘When I was fourteen I got kicked out of school in New York and went to boarding school in Ireland. Obviously it was a culture shock, but it was the best thing I ever did because still to this day I’m there,’ he says.

‘At college I was in the drama society and I was into performing. We started to go to this comedy club where we knew the MC and he fancied that I would be a decent comedian, and started to get in my head about doing a spot there. So after a few months I finally gave in and once I did I was hooked.’

You’ve done a bit of touring, I say to him, do you notice a big difference in how audiences around the world respond to comedy’ ‘My stuff’s really story based so, you know, a story’s a story. I do notice Australian crowds are a bit less critical than an English crowd, an Irish crowd is a bit more rowdy than an English crowd, and Americans tend to like their stuff more obvious or blunt. But there’s no huge difference.’

For his one-man TV show The Des Bishop Work Experience, Des spent four months travelling around Ireland working in a succession of menial, low paying jobs. From serving kebabs to packing shelves, he exposed some hard-hitting facts about life at the bottom of the wage ladder. ‘What I learnt from the experience is that people who work in low paid jobs get a lot of disrespect in their working day. I didn’t come to any great conclusions about the economics of minimum wage or whether or not it’s doable, I just saw how demeaning and lonely it can be.’

With a special guest appearance from Australian comedian Dave Williams, Des is performing for three nights this week, presented by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Des Bishop
The Gaelic, 64 Devonshire St, Surry Hills
September 23 ‘ 25
Tickets: $20 – $32, 1300 438 849 or www.moshtix.com.au