Topic: John Bishop

[Rowlands]

I saw Bridges on Apollo, and I quite liked some of his stuff.

[vrailaine]

I saw him at an after show thingy with Stewart Lee and thought he was pretty good too. May've been better having another year or two refining himself before going into the big time, but miles better than a lot of other biggish names.

[Braintree]

I'm sounding a bit "Braintree's World of Conspiracies", sorry. I'm sure they are both very funny men but the overnight thing and, what seems, sudden success of both without being on TV regularly just surprises me.

[Chris Chopping]

I saw Bishop in the latest series of Skins, reprising a role from the previous series, before I knew who he was. So I'm guessing he has been earmarked for success for a while now.

[An tSaoi]

Who exactly does he appeal to though? There are lots of people on panel shows I don't like (Russell Howard for example) who get good reactions off the audience, so I can see some people like them. But Bishop nearly always fares quite badly on panel shows; often the audience don't really go for him either. I've only seen a bit of his stand-up, but he struggled.

[alltalknotrousers]

bishop was in that "increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret" thing as well - a brief cameo but a bit odd.

[Utter Shit]

Who exactly does he appeal to though? There are lots of people on panel shows I don't like (Russell Howard for example) who get good reactions off the audience, so I can see some people like them. But Bishop nearly always fares quite badly on panel shows; often the audience don't really go for him either. I've only seen a bit of his stand-up, but he struggled.

Struggled in what sense? He's been well-received on 8 Out Of 10 Cats and Mock The Week in recent weeks, and went down a storm on his Comedy Roadshow/Live At The Apollo, whichever of those two it was. So I can only assume you mean he struggled in terms of your enjoyment of him, which isn't relevant in the grand scheme.

Kevin Bridges is excellent, I wa stunned to find out he's only 23.

[Little Hoover]

When he was on 8 out of 10 cats, the reaction to him sounded a little odd to me, it seemed like there was some slightly awkward, nervous laughter, and he just came across as being quite weird to me. But I guess there could be other reasons for that. (bishop I mean)

[koeman]

Someone at some point last year said that he was going to be the next big thing, but I forget who. I realise that sentence doesn't really help anyone.

He's been appearing on the Hawksbee and Jacobs show on Talksport every now and again for years, and I've always liked him on there.

Not seen his stand-up until recently, and then it was only on telly, but it was on Live at the Apollo, and I knew he wasn't going down too well with the people I was watching it with when I mentioned that one of the bulbs on one of the letters behind him had gone out, and they all said that the bulb was the only thing they were focusing on as well.

[An tSaoi]

Struggled in what sense?

I can only assume you mean he struggled in terms of your enjoyment of him, which isn't relevant in the grand scheme.

No, I mean the audience too. They were laughing alright, but not that much, and he was having to really dial it up to get big reactions from them. He seems like the type of person who really appeals to a certain group of people but leaves everyone else cold.

[mrfridge]

I saw Bishop a couple of years ago at a tiny venue and thought he was great. Not sure how his act will translate to arenas though, he seems to be more of a decent circuit stand-up rather than an all encompassing crowd pleaser like McKintyre or Kaye. I'm going to see his Edinburgh preview show at another small comedy club in June so I spose we'll see if he's upped his game then.

To badly paraphrase Daniel Kitson; "...the larger the number of people watching something the less I'm inclined to like it"... or something similar... I find stand-up on telly rarely works since you need to be there to soak up the atmos a bit. Funny is funny or course but for me stand up works best when viewed in person.

[An tSaoi]

He looks like a horse.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Oddly, Underbelly have announced today that some of their Edinburgh Fringe tickets have gone onsale from this morning (that's three months or so earlier than usual):

http://www.underbelly.co.uk/webpages/edinburgh/index.php

The opening line-up of 'comedy colossuses'?  Local hack Danny Bhoy, foul-mouthed Jambos manager Jim Jeffries and our man The Bish'.

Almost tempted to pop along to the Stand in two weeks time...

[Frobush]

I posted this link elsewhere on this forum...

John Bishop's Alphabet Soup Podcasts

...from City Talk 105.9 (Liverpool)

[SOTS]

Kevin Bridges did a set at our Fresher's Week at the Pleasance so... not that famous yet. His act is REALLY Scottish as well.

[DJ One Record]

I saw Bishop in the latest series of Skins, reprising a role from the previous series, before I knew who he was. So I'm guessing he has been earmarked for success for a while now.

He got to snog Ronni Ancona for about 30 seconds, so he's been more than earmarked.

Interestingly*, Mark 'Bez' Berry was in Skins the other week as a rickshaw runner named Rick Shaw and it wasn't until the credits that I actually twigged he wasn't John Bishop's character, or for that matter John Bishop.


_{* - ha, had you going there didn't I?}

[The Duck Man]

Interestingly*, Mark 'Bez' Berry was in Skins the other week as a rickshaw runner named Rick Shaw and it wasn't until the credits that I actually twigged he wasn't John Bishop's character, or for that matter John Bishop.

Ditto, intially. I presumed they were crossing over characters in different plotlines, in an attempt to establish a "universe". Didn't realise it was Bez until you said so here, mind. On that note, I rewatched 24 Hour Party People the other day and Chris "EastEnders paedo" Coghill looks a whole lot like Bez. Which is good, seeing as he plays him.

To add my two cents, I had never heard of John Bishop when he popped up  on Mock the Week earlier this year (not had I heard of Andi Osho, as it goes). Presumed he was a bright-not-that-young-thing MTW were championing Then within a couple of weeks I saw on him on Jonathan Ross and Skins.* Normally I'd have found that odd, considering a keep an eye on the circuit, but then we should probably get used to sudden ascents for comedians in the age of cheap stand-up telly.

_{*See, he must have been on Skins last year too, proving that I don't watch it much, honest guv. Didn't even watch the whole of his episode. Too cool for that.}

[Paaaaul]

I know nothing about him apart from his appearances on Radio 5's Fighting Talk over the last few months, and I think he's been the best new guest they've had on this season.