Des Bishop Likes to Bang in Shannon

COMEDIAN Des Bishop’s latest show will be staged at the Oakwood Arms this Friday night. The show is entitled Des Bishop Likes To Bang and despite the connotations, the title is actually about learning to play the drums.

“It’s going to be silly, a bit musical,” he says of the show.

 

“The title comes from being given an electronic drum kit as a gift recently. I started messing around with it and ended up behind a set on stage. It went really well, so I’ve put together a comedy show with a bit of rhythm in it.”

Bishop’s last show, My Dad Was Nearly James Bond, was a huge hit, combining poignancy and humour and was well received all over the country. He released a book with the same title and RTÉ aired a documentary on the subject.

Other TV series include the Des Bishop Work Experience (2004), Joy in the Hood (2006) and comedy documentary series In The Name Of The Fada (2008), while he has released four stand-up DVDs.

Speaking to The Clare Champion earlier this year, he said the current show is very different to its predecessor.

“That [My Dad Was Nearly James Bond] was more like a narrative. It was somewhere between stand-up and a play. It’s quite restricting. When you’re stuck with this narrative, if anything happens on the night, anything with the crowd, you don’t have time to indulge it, nor can you really stray from the energy for too long.

“I wanted a show this time where I could have the freedom to do whatever I wanted on any particular night, deliberately engaging in audience participation and messing around with people in the front row. I just wanted to be able to do that because I enjoy it.”

His own battle with cancer and the death of his father are subjects he has wrung laughs from in the past and in some of the Des Bishop Likes To Bang shows he has spoken openly about his alcoholism, without any inhibitions.

“I stopped drinking when I was 19 and I’m certainly not going to be concerned about some judgement that someone wants to make about me for something that I did 20-odd years ago and something I took responsibility for 17 years ago.

“I couldn’t care less if someone wants to judge me on that, you know. At the end of the day, it’s a common story. I feel like I’m talking about another guy when I talk about that kid so it doesn’t bother me in the slightest to talk about it,” he said.