Des Bishop: Tongues

Des Bishop emerges from backstage, beaming, looking like your next door neighbour’s slightly hip-hop older brother. His voice is soft but clearly transatlantic - think Mark Wahlberg trying to keep a low profile in a Dublin pub. He asks the Irish in the crowd to raise their hands and the auditorium lunges, the air suddenly filled with Celtic arms.

Bishop is something of a major celebrity in Ireland. He first appeared on Irish television in 2000 and this year’s In The Name of The Fada was a successful mini-series that followed Bishop’s attempts to attain fluency in the Gaeilge tongue.

He is clearly an experienced comedian – at complete ease on-stage, he riffs and improvises, interacting with the crowd like a non-aggressive old friend. Something that is striking about his set is the sense that his material is honest. The section on his bout of testicular cancer is completely frank but evokes no pathos, as if he’s simply dishing out some amusing good advice.

He discusses Ireland but with the added vision of an almost outsider – he emigrated from New York at the age of 14. Thus, his criticisms of Irish society are balanced, sensible and often interesting snippets from the thinkings of a rationalist. With the exception of some material on drinking culture, Bishop’s performance is refreshing – an original (American sounding) Irish voice.