John Bishop

For other people named John Bishop, see John Bishop (disambiguation).

John Bishop
Birth name	John Joseph Bishop
Born	30 November 1966 (1966-11-30) (age 57) Liverpool, England, UK
Medium	Radio, stand-up, television
Nationality	British
Years active	2002–present
Spouse	Melanie (1994–present)
Website	Official website

John Joseph Bishop (born 30 November 1966) is an award winning comedian. He has also appeared in the E4 teen drama Skins as Mr Fitch, father of twins, Katie and Emily. He also has a regular Sunday slot on Liverpool radio station Radio City 96.7 called Bishop's Sunday Service and has a regular slot on A League of Their Own with James Corden.

Career

John Bishop performed stand-up comedy for the first time in October 2000, and the following year made it to the final of all the major new act competitions, including So You Think You're Funny, the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards, the BBC New Comedy Awards and the City Life North West Comedian of The Year Award, which he won.

In 2002, he was named best newcomer by BBC Radio Merseyside, and in 2004 he won the North West Comedy Award for best stand-up. In 2009, he appeared as the first act on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow in Manchester. That year he appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where his show Elvis Has Left the Building was nominated for an "Eddie" (Edinburgh Comedy Award).

In 2009 he appeared in Channel 4's short series Comedy Showcase, and was a contestant on Celebrity Mastermind. In that year he also appeared in BBC Three sitcom Lunch Monkeys as fireman Terry. He has appeared five times on 5 Live's Fighting Talk quiz show, claiming four victories on the programme. He now doesn't appear on Fighting Talk anymore, stating that "he is much too big for that".

His material is drawn from his life's experiences, including fatherhood; cycling around the world; playing semi-professional football; and working as a nightclub doorman. His first television appearance was on the Channel 4 panel show 8 out of 10 Cats before he appeared on the BBC's Live at the Apollo. In December 2009 John started his own TV programme on LFC TV called John Bishop meets…, where he interviews former Liverpool football legends.

In 2010 he was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? along with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch. He has also appeared on BBC's Mock the Week, and Radio 4's Act Your Age.

Bishop's debut DVD 'Elvis has left the building', was released on 15 November 2010.

He has often been called Britains "Jeff Dunham" In series 3 and series 4 (2009-2010), Bishop portrayed Emily and Katie Fitch's father in Skins.

Bishop is currently a regular panelist on the Sky1 show, A League of Their Own, as well as a stand-up/sketch show for BBC One entitled John Bishop's Britain.

In 2010, Bishop took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

On 11 July 2010, John came runner-up in the second-ever game of 'How Many Peter Jones'?' on ITV's James Corden's World Cup Live.

He appeared on BBC programme Have I Got News For You and Would I Lie To You? as a guest, and chaired an episode of the 40th series of Have I Got News For You on 28 October 2010.

Awards

In the 2011 British Comedy Awards he won the Best Male Comedy Breakthrough Artist award.

As of Sunday 23rd January he is No1 star in a reasonably priced car on Top Gear after he appeared on the BBC2 show. He drove the Kia Cee'd around the test track in 1 minutes 42.8 seconds to become the fastest star in the latest reasonably priced car, knocking Tom Cruise off the top.

Personal life

Bishop is from Liverpool and lived in Runcorn, 15 miles from Liverpool, while he was a teenager. He is married to Melanie and has three sons. He now lives in Manchester. He is an avid Liverpool Football Club fan. His brother, Eddie, was a professional footballer with Tranmere Rovers and Chester City.

It was revealed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, on 12 February 2010, that John was a warm-up on the show, and also explained that he began going to comedy clubs in light of going through a divorce. After performing in some of them, he also explained that being a comedian had saved his marriage.

John has been vegetarian for over 20 years, he revealed this on BBC2's Something for The Weekend.

John has also worked as a Sales Director for a pharmaceutical company. In the late 1980s he worked as a Medical Representative for pharmaceutical company Syntex. When working on 'A league of there own', John reportedly to have said that he has a big penis, and he then followed that by saying the only person to have a bigger penis than him is nelson mandela, after the two of them measured each others.

Football career

Prior to his career in comedy, Bishop played semi-professional football for clubs including Southport, Hyde United and Winsford United. The former midfielder once won the Liverpool Senior Cup with Southport in 1991, seeing off a Liverpool side containing Jamie Redknapp in the final at Goodison Park. In total, Bishop appeared for Hyde 41 times, scoring 7 goals between November 1988 and February 1990, helping them to 2nd in the Northern Premier League, which at the time was one league below the Football Conference, and for Southport 35 times and scored 7 goals between March 1990 and April 1991.

Bishop turned out as a substitute for the Liverpool Legends in the Hillsborough Memorial Game at Anfield on 14 May 2009.

Stand-Up DVDs

• The Elvis Has Left The Building Tour (15 November 2010)

External links

• John Bishop at IMDb
• JohnBishopOnline.com — official website
• John Bishop on MySpace