Review: John Bishop @ Bournemouth Pavilion 9th November 2010

The first half of the show seemed to be a free for all segment. By that I mean he had no set topics he would just see where the audience took him. From Madam Ray in the front row, to the 14 year old who was there on his birthday, John was able to garner plenty of direction and had plenty of material. He says he likes to get things off his chest in the first half, and boy does he.

He discussed the differences between those who have children, and those who don’t and how those different factions go about a Sunday question of “Wanna come out for Sunday lunch?” He said how he’s noticing that things he might have said in his twenties may no longer be acceptable coming from a man now in his forties and the perils of looking like Bez from the Happy Mondays.

The second half was the main bit of material for the tour and was clearly the more rehearsed part of the gig, compared with the apparent spontaneity of the first half. As mentioned, the basis of this tour was his last year as a comedian and how things have changed for him, starting at his decision to become a full time stand-up comic and quit his ‘real’ job (“Well you can tell the kids!”) to the desperate times of advert auditions. How the only bit of show businesses he wanted to do when he was a kid was to be John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever, but still he ends up [in his eyes] embarrassing himself in front of Jeff Bridges when he was asked to be on the Jonathan Ross show.

When he’s on stage, you can see a mixture of genuine excitement at doing this tour crossed with a “how on earth am I here” mentality which gives him, in the current climate of “rock star” comedians, a really modest outlook and demeanour.

The standing ovation at the end of the gig was thoroughly deserved, although wasn’t actually for him. John had told us of a couple he met on the train that day who had just met The Queen (“Liar! Only people with cats go to London to meet The Queen”). He found out they had actually done just that because the guy, Adam Swift, had just received the Military Cross for bravery. It was a slightly strange and surreal ending to the gig, but was very befitting of John’s overall humbleness (“they say my job is tough, but I don’t have machine guns firing at me!”).

In short, John Bishop really is a true comedic gentleman, a very down to earth guy in a world of increasing egos.

SL

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