INTERVIEW: John Bishop chats to us ahead of new tour

We chat to comedian John Bishop ahead of his Winging It tour, which comes to Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena on October 13 and 14.

So where did that excellent title come from?

“You have to come up with a title for every tour. I was in my promoter’s office one day, and he said to me, ‘We need a title so we can start selling this tour. What are you talking about in the new show?’ And I replied, ‘Nothing. I’m just winging it.’ ‘That’ll do!’”

This is typical of the delightful honesty and warm, open sense of humour that have made John one of our very best loved comedians. It is this sheer likeability that means he can sell out arenas in the blink of an eye.

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Reviewers have been queueing up to heap praise on the comedian. The Daily Telegraph, for instance, calls him, “Unimprovable. A comedy

superstar.” Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror says that, “His show easily confirms that John Bishop has finally taken on the mantle

of Britain’s top comedian.”

John is just as entertaining off stage as he is on it. He can be summed up by all those adjectives beginning with C: charming, charismatic, compelling, captivating and comic. An hour in his company is like being treated to a command performance – to an audience

of one!

The comedian, who turned 50 last year, manifests that quality that we Brits prize perhaps above all others: self-deprecation.

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He is winningly modest about his stand-up success, which came relatively late in life, as he only gave up his full-time job as a medical representative for a pharmaceutical company a decade ago.

It is very appealing that even today the comic can’t quite credit his luck. “I still can’t believe that I do this as a job!” John almost whistles in wonderment. “I still think, ‘This is amazing!’ I wrote a book four years ago about that very feeling – that’s why it was called, ‘How Did All This Happen?’

“But now I realise this is the reality. It’s not going to go away. There is no chance that I could never ever go back. Whatever

life I had in the past, I’m now officially in showbiz. I will retire from showbiz, or it will retire me!”

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John has never become jaded about his career as a stand-up. He still possesses an infectious passion for the job. And that’s why he cannot contain his excitement about the “Winging It” tour.

Despite establishing an extensive TV career, he declares that stand-up has always been his first love. “I sometimes feel that

maybe I don’t need TV. But I can never see myself not wanting to do live stand-up.”

The comic, who is now embarking on his fifth major nationwide tour, proceeds to explain the unalloyed thrill that he still gets from stand-up. “There is probably a real scientific explanation for it. I was recently reading a report about how people are hung up on social media. We get a dopamine rush when we get so many ‘likes’ on Facebook. Being on stage is the same.

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“When you say something funny on stage, you get your judgement instantly. You get joy and affirmation straight away. You don’t have to think about it. It’s either funny or not. You’re only ever four words away from joy or the fear that nobody will laugh. You’re always only four words away from success or failure. That’s a brilliant tightrope to walk. That gives me an absolutely huge buzz.”

John, who is happily married to Melanie and has three grown-up sons, goes on to reveal what subjects he will be covering in “Winging It”.

“The show has three themes. I start by talking about being 50. It never struck me as being a big thing before, but now I realise that being 50 is like being 5. ‘’At 5 people say things like ‘that’s good for your age’, they start saying that to you again when you’re 50. ‘That’s good for your age, you can carry your own bag, well done that’s good for your age.’”

The comic, who has also shone in straight acting roles in Fearless, Accused and Route Irish, says that, “The second part of the show is about all the kids leaving home. I admit, that was hard. We’re suddenly living in an empty nest, and it’s really strange. I was surprised as I wanted them to leave forever, but when they did actually leave, I went into an odd sort of depression. I thought, that’s over now. I can’t ever be a dad again. I’m just a bloke who they know. We’ve adjusted to it now, but there is still part of you that thinks, ‘Wow, you only get one go at being a dad, and that go was their childhood.’ As a parent, you’re busy building a nest to

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share with the kids, but sometimes you wish you’d done more sharing and less building. I really wasn’t expecting to have those feelings.”

John proceeds to outline the third part of the show. “The third theme is mortality, which is a thing you think about when you

know you have already passed half way in your life.”

Somehow, the comedian has managed to find the time to film the third series of John Bishop: In Conversation With, his enormously popular talk show on W. In the new run, he has fascinating, in-depth conversations with stars such as Dame Joan Collins, John Cleese, David Williams and Katie Price.

John says that, “I really enjoy shows like Inside the Actors’ Studio and Desert Island Discs, where you have no idea who is coming on each week. I wanted to make something with that intimacy and a guest list you couldn’t necessarily predict. I’ve absolutely loved doing it.

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“What really counts is the fact that I am one of them. There is an immediate empathy there because I’ve been through some of the things we’re talking about. And because we just sit and talk for an hour and a quarter, everyone relaxes into it. There is no agenda behind it. I don’t have any questions written down, and there is no producer talking into my ear piece. The second question is based on the answer to the first. It just flows. That’s why it is a genuine conversation. It’s a complete joy to make.”

As he approaches ”Winging It”, his first national tour for three years, John cannot wait to re-establish his tremendous rapport

with his very loyal fans. “I’ve built my career on not being someone from the showbiz world. Even at this stage, I spend most of my life doing normal things, and I am still learning this job. I’m very fortunate that people of all ages come to my shows. It’s great to have a relationship with them. The key is to remain plugged into the normal world. Once you start being removed from that, you run out of things to talk about.”

John proceeds to give an example of how he is still very much in touch with his fans. “I got on a flight and was sat next to an older woman and her husband had the window seat. ‘I thought you would be on a private jet,’ she said and I just laughed and said, ‘they all get there just as quick’. She smiled and said, ‘I knew it would be something like that, he said you were just tight.’

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“But I still get the Tube in London and I still have the same season ticket at Anfield that I’ve had for years. There are only

so many things in my life that have changed. There’s not a lot in my life that I’m unhappy with. People think there is a planet

called ‘Celebrity’, where everyone has a tan and white teeth, but I don’t live there!”

John reveals what he hopes people will take away from “Winging It”. “I hope that if people come in harassed, they soon forget their daily troubles and leave feeling a lot happier. The essence of comedy is to make people feel better. It’s not complicated.

“You’re not trying to change the world – you’re simply trying to make people feel a lot happier.”

Tickets for John Bishop’s UK tour, “Winging It”, are available at www.johnbishoponline.com.