He's one of the biggest names in comedy whose gigs often sell out in minutes...
but John Bishop says he still wants to get at least one per cent funnier. Not content with the huge success since first picking up a mic 23 years ago which has seen him pack the biggest arenas, the Scouse funnyman says he’s now hired a comedy coach to help teach him how to get even more laughs out of his audiences. And he reveals he would have quit the comedy circuit two years ago if it wasn’t for his wife Melanie, who told him to get back on tour because he’d become a “miserable git” - a quip that led to him rediscovering his zest for stand-up.
John, 57 and currently selling tickets for a nationwide tour including huge arenas the O2 and Manchester ’s Co-op , says he’s more critical of his performances that people might expect. He says: “There’s also been multiple crashes, multiple times when I’ve gone ‘Jesus, that was sh*t’. “Most comics will sit with another comedian then and they’ll try and make the jokes funnier and they’ll try and write more jokes.
But I don’t need the comedian to talk to me about comedy. I need someone who knows about comedy to coach me, so I’ve brought a friend in, Cameron, as my comedy coach. He’s a producer, he’s produced a lot of my television shows.
“I said to him, ’I need you to come with that critical eye and tell me what’s gone wrong here’. And it’s been brilliant. And literally, my words to him were ‘I just need to b.