By Caitriona Murphy and Karena Walshe
Renowned funny-man Des Bishop was greeted by a rapturous audience at the Edmund Burke Theatre during the Trinity Fringe Festival held this December. One of the star guests of the festival, which was run by the Players theatre and the Comedy Society, Bishop delivered a performance that was both touching and entertaining. His performance was preceded by a brief stand-up sketch from Trinity’s own red-headed comedian, Valerie Lynch, whose musical performances including “Closet Ginger” got the laughter underway.
Bishop’s show entitled “My Dad Was Nearly James Bond” came with a serious tone. Bishop performed the show during the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received rave reviews, and his performance at Trinity was no exception. The show centred on the life of his model, turned actor turned shop-assistant father who had to deal with the reality of not quite achieving the ‘American Dream’ and facing terminal cancer in his later years.
Bishop proved to be a master of his craft as he delivered this morbid information in an ingenious fashion with hilarious tales of catching his father watching porn and his days of being a child model himself for the suspect magazine “Children’s Business”.
The comedian did not fail to acknowledge who his audience were and took numerous interludes throughout his story to have the crowd in hysterics as he poked fun at mature students, Irish mothers and people from Stillorgan.
His self-deprecating wit and his astute awareness of all things Irish ensured Bishop had the audience in the palm of his hand so that his contemplative message about the risk of getting “Smoker’s Cancer” were driven home, albeit in the most entertaining of manners.
