John Bishop on how comedy saved his marriage

[Music] okay here we go hello everybody uh today's guest well it's somebody that i've um i've known for a little bit and we have this funny thing where he started this thing saying look i want to actually become a friend and i said great because we'd only ever run into each other you know at things he's a comedian first and foremost a writer therefore uh actor very adept sportsman which i i didn't realize quite how good a sportsman he is and he has a very interesting life history ladies and gentlemen enjoy john bishop [Music] there you are ah nice how are we you're a handsome man can i say that to you you can and i'll i'll gladly accept her to come to time in your life you've got to stop pretending stop hiding and go off stop it you know you go any compliment now i just i save there's a chance you're right you're not just being nice those things well it's an interesting question how's things i personally i found last week quite hard but but today the sun is out and that makes a big difference makes a massive difference uh i'm just there i'm putting some heel bomb on because that's how old i am [ __ ] you know i might as well utilize the hour to soften my heels all right well if we're going to start on health which wasn't my plan but hang on are we started john we started three days ago i've been filming you secretly you you have no idea is this like our first proper date it is yeah but we've done it on one of those channel four dating shows you know and we're we're cameras are watching it it's an interesting thing though rob because i know in some respects we we've been in the same circles moving around like a lot of people in the showbiz environments you it's different than normal jobs because you are placed in a position with somebody else who who your sole reason to be there is to get on with each other and to have a laugh hey come on we're getting over have a laugh we're mates i remember like doing me first graham noted shawn was thinking and then at the end i was waiting for somebody to say well come on we all go to the pub now and you know damn judy denzel jonah [ __ ] off in the cast and i'm going like why is no one going to pop out we all mates now i thought we seemed to really hit it off i i don't understand well i said to melon the only own money being me wife only this week i'm going to do what i've never done and i'm going to actively make myself go and join like a tennis club or something try and meet new people and make new friends because i still feel i can learn a lot from meeting new people and i still feel you know i want to socialize i want to i want to do that now our relationship with you is that we've crossed pattern we have a lot of mutual friends but we've never had that why don't we why don't me and you do something together why don't we do something with our wives together we met at the chelsea flower show by chance everybody seems to get on yo and i'm like this this could be a budding friendship that we could cultivate and develop and it's and for me it's a good friendship because i always like being taller than me mates [Laughter] well it's it's very it's very rare that i am the tallest person in the room now we may have crossed over it it occurs to me you ran a sales team for a pharmaceutical company yes yeah now in the mid-90s when i was trying to get work and i as an actor or a comedian i couldn't i started to pick up a few corporate jobs but one was to go to glasgow to a pharmaceuticals convention for bayer that made canister cream and i have to go out in front of hundreds of people and play a doctor a pharmacist and a salesman now were you at that conference no however within the pharmaceutical industry it's legendary the day that rob bryan came and played all three participants in a cream that sorts out thrush like it's bonkers i did the some of the experiences i've had like i've seen you know kidney transplants liver transplants organ retrievals are so you know one of the world's first live liver transplants in japan um i i've had this crazy life that when i when i started doing a stand-up you know i couldn't talk about it because it's none of it lends itself to comedy but it but it must have informed how you how you perform on stage because i remember the first few times i'd run into you and i remember thinking you were very self-assured now that must come partly from having had a job in which you were responsible for people it's very interesting in terms of trying to maintain a degree perspective because you know i i i'm now 40 it's 14 years this year 13 14 years this year that i left my job so i still worked in the pharmaceutical industry longer than i've done show business and i remember the first time with my current agent lisa but i remember my first meeting with a i was still in you know me pharmaceutical thing so i turned up with an agenda i had the printed agenda i gave it an agenda this is the agenda for the meetings no one's ever done that you mentioned mel a few times your wife there's a remarkable story you've told it before you were together you had three kids yeah well what happened i started doing stand-up because we split up and because i had the kids of a weekend then i wanted to do something on a monday night when i took them back now i've heard you say that and that that's such that's such a pragmatic it it was literally that and i you know i'm uh i'm a divorced i i'm on my second marriage um so i know about that thing of being with the children and the horrible feeling after it and this was a thing for you to avoid or to fill the time on the monday after having seen them at the weekend i'm not on monday night there's not a lot there's a few lap dancing bars open but you know you don't make real friends there so i thought i wanted to i thought you were about to say i thought you'd better say but you don't make real money there yeah i wasn't as good at it i am so is this comedy club the frog and book and every monday i saw that it was always open and i thought i'll go and and people sometimes doubt whether this is true but i was 35 and i've been to two comedy clubs in my whole life up to that point just two yeah so then i i i go to go in and the guy said okay it's four pound but it's an open mic night and this the bit that i've said before but i didn't i genuinely didn't know what that meant and he said well an open mic means anyone can get up and if you put your name down you don't have to pay the four pound and you know getting divorced i thought four quid four quid so that's four quid she's not having put my name down went in and then the story unfolds that instead of being 300 people in like i was expecting there was only seven people in yeah this life happened in the space of 15 minutes because i was called up second and had i been called up third i probably would have already left because you know the open mic experience is not necessarily a polished comedy experience there was a guy on doing chicken impressions literally his whole life was how does the chicken drive a van how does the chicken play football and i'm sat there like that oh my god and i'm looking around at the other people in the room there's only seven of them five have put the name down so they're all people who go on a regular basis go ha ha he's a bit better this week isn't he the last week and then i got called up and i just thought i literally i remember i walked those days the first thing i've ever said on stage was [ __ ] me these lights are bright i've never been on the stage i've never stood on an actual stage ever in my life and then i thought what am i doing and then i thought what literally what have i got to lose i could see the barman and i thought i could be sat at the bar now singing i can go on to an empty house and like does what i've got to lose there's only seven people here one of them thinks he's a chicken so i just started i said something that was half a joke got a little titty and i said something else and then i just paused and i just went i'm only here because i'm getting divorced and then i just started talking about getting the divorce and then then it all came out and these little funny bits look for whatever reason i was good enough to start getting called in to do actual proper slots and but i didn't tell anyone i was doing it and because we were like 12 18 months into the melody divorce obviously didn't sell melanie she'd moved off got a new job and and then there's one night on a daisy right the phone number said are you afraid because the middle spot's not not turned up so i turned up went in the back way uh i'm on stage she's i didn't know this she's there on a workstation with people from a new job so the people who didn't know me didn't know my name she's in the audience i uh i get announced on stage she's having one of those surprise surprise moments going and then she come over at the end at the bar because i normally used to shoot straight off and i thought i might as well face this house and i so stood at the bar and she came over she said it was just great to see you the way you were when a face met yeah she said well dude yo maybe we should talk a little bit more and so we ended up going to relate and started having you know we started having marriage counselling in order to settle the divorce and then realize that we didn't want to get divorced anyway and got back together and i've said the story a few times because people say how do you get into comedy and it's the only stories there's no word that that's the story but the truth is whatever you say about you know the rewards that you get from comedy or or a successful career in this field that's the reward all of this is secondary getting back together with the reward but the the line that stuck with me when i heard that story was her saying he was like the man i met because that's a big thing i think in anyone's life in in a relationship is when you think back to how you were when you met and especially once you've had kids and and time has passed by it's a very good piece of advice try and go back to a little bit of that um i've loved i've loved talking to you there's one thing i didn't realize um i know you've done a show with him in the title but you're a big elvis fan like me yeah yeah yeah yeah which period of elvis if you could only have one period i did this darling this and he said what were your songs and one of them was the wonder of you uh of all the songs i could think of it was the one that that would never change but the the vegas elvis the big suits the proper you know before he became too ill and so on that proper command of the stage what he held for me right was the ability to be the man you wanted to be and still be vulnerable wow yeah you know what i mean well that's that's very interesting for me okay i could just see so much of myself in him you know it was almost embarrassing [Laughter] but you know like when he was doing all the karate moves and all that and then and then when he sings you know that has to say well no one else is going to understand me and everything i do is wrong you think oh my god to hold those words in that way you can't pretend that he was a remarkable remarkable storyteller in the way tony bennett is another favorite of mine he's a phenomenal storyteller but i'm glad you say the vegas years because he's often maligned for that and i think there's there's so much to enjoy in that i'm glad you love him well listen john this has been a delight it's moved the relationship the next stage now of course is going to be in the same room you know physical thing i think that there's a danger that it's probably overshot our relationship because there's nothing left oh no no there's there is more we'll have to bring partners yeah so that we can do the same chat yeah it's been really lovely talking to you john thanks so much for doing it and um until the next time we meet thank you very much [Music] you

Channel: Rob Brydon

Views: 97,821

Keywords: Rob Brydon, British Comedy, Rob Brydon Impressions, Celebrity Interview, Rob Brydon Interview, Rob Brydon Stand Up, John Bishop, John Bishop stand up, John Bishop comedy, John Bishop Doctor Who, John Bishop Podcast, Rob Brydon Podcast, Rob Brydon Spotify

Id: Dah062gU0Vk

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 08 2021