John Bishop: I want people to leave with a smile

He worked as a medical rep for the pharmaceutical company Syntex for more years than he cares to remember. John Bishop was the archetypal late starter, a man who bumbled through life with his degree in social sciences from Manchester Poly, never really making his mark.

The youngest of four children, whose dad was a builder, was more interested in football than comedy and played for non-league teams Hyde and Southport. A terrier on the pitch, he made his team mates laugh when the games were over.

And so, little by little, he started to carve out a new career. John made his comedy debut in 2000 and within a year had made it to the finals of a number of national competitions. The BBC New Comedy Awards, Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards and So You Think You’re Funny all recognised in him a burgeoning talent.

Things have changed exponentially since then. After quitting his medical rep job in 2006, he became a household name. The clubs and pubs that witnessed his first gigs are but a distant memory. These days he fills arenas and this autumn he’ll play 51 of them, including three nights at Birmingham’s Arena from November 10-12, as well as playing a cheeky one-nighter at Wolves Civic on November 7.

But for the man who is now one of the nation’s favourite comics, it always felt a bit unreal, a bit, well, as though he was winging it. And so it’s strangely appropriate that the title of his tour is, indeed, Winging It.

He says: “When I start this new tour, it will be three years since my last live show Supersonic, which is the longest break I’ve ever had. I’m very much looking forward to getting back on the road – there really is nothing like performing stand-up in front of a live audience. The new show is called Winging It, and in some respects having come to comedy relatively late, it sometimes feels like that’s what I’m doing in life! But I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

Winging It will see John back on stage for his fifth UK tour, performing in his own inimitable style. His first tour was the ‘Elvis Has Left The Building’ show in 2010, for which he was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award, followed by the ‘Sunshine Tour’ in 2011. John’s 2012 ‘Rollercoaster’ was another sell-out and received huge critical acclaim. His most recent tour, ‘Supersonic’, was watched by more than 500,000 people. This show was subsequently recorded for DVD release at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

John has had an incredible career. Within three years of his first ever comedy gig, he was playing to sold out arena audiences across the country and released the fastest selling stand-up DVD in UK history.

He has achieved huge success with a number of his own comedy, entertainment and documentary shows including ‘John Bishop’s Australia’ (BBC One), ‘John Bishop’s Britain’ (BBC One), ‘John Bishop’s Only Joking’ (Sky1), ‘The John Bishop Show’ (BBC One), ‘The John Bishop Christmas Show’ (BBC One) and ‘John Bishop’s Gorilla Adventure’ (ITV1).

Towards the end of last year, John turned his hand to something completely different – interviewing. A new series called ‘John Bishop: In Conversation With. . .’ has seen him chatting, one-on-one, with some of the UK’s biggest names from the world of entertainment, sport and music to discover the people behind the public persona, in intimate and revealing one-hour interviews on the W Channel. The second series recently finished airing while a third series began in September.

All thoughts now, however, are on his new show. So where did that excellent title come from? John takes up the story. “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!’”

It’s a moment that typifies the delightful honesty and warm, open sense of humour that have made John one of our best loved comedians. His sheer likeability means he can sell out arenas in the blink of an eye.

But it is not just the critics who thinks so. Reviewers have been queuing up to heap praise on the comedian. The Daily Telegraph, for instance, calls him: “Unimprovable. A comedy superstar.” 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. He is winningly modest about his stand-up success, which came relatively late in life after ditching the job with a pharmaceutical company.

It is very appealing that even today the comic can’t quite credit his own luck. “I still can’t believe that I do this as a job,” he says. “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.”

John remains remarkably unjaded 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 says there is an unalloyed thrill from making a room full of people laugh. “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.

“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 his wife, Melanie, and has three grown-up sons, says Winging It has a number of themes. “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 five.

“At five 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, adds: “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 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.

“The third theme is mortality, which is a thing you think about when you know you have already passed half way in your life.”

Winging It remains his primary focus, though he’s been delighted to diversify into talk shows with his hugely-acclaimed one-on-ones.

The third series of John Bishop: In Conversation With, has fascinating, in-depth conversations with stars such as Dame Joan Collins, John Cleese, David Walliams and Katie Price.

John says: “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.

“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’, 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.”

His common touch, man-of-the-people style reveals itself in the most unlikely ways. “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.’

“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.”

If Winging It does have a purpose, it’s the simplest one of all. John hopes to send people away with a smile. “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.”

And nobody does it better than John Bishop.