Des Bishop Talks Tayto

Comedy superstar Des Bishop is enjoying the fruits of a comedy career that has spanned three decades, and it’s showing no signs of stopping. Fresh off the back of an impressive run on RTÉ’s Dancing With The Stars, Bishop spoke to The Liberty’s Donagh Corby at a promotional event for Tayto Time in Dublin’s ‘CHQ building’.

Fresh off the back of an impressive run on RTÉ’s Dancing With The Stars, Des Bishop was in attendance at a Tayto Time event in Dublin city centre. The event was organised as part of a Tayto promotion that lunch should be about lunch.

Des Bishop // Twitter

“I got asked to do this event recently,” he told us in an exclusive chat. “I was delighted to meet the panel [John Kavanagh, Louise Duffy, Natalya Coyle, and Paul Galvin] who were such a diverse group. We’ve got a radio host, an Olympian, arguably one of the top MMA coaches in the world and an All-Ireland winner, that’s a good mix.

“Truth be told, Tayto for me is more for my jokes than anything else for me… When I grew up the big cultural thing was the immersion! It’s great that a company like Tayto can create such a connection with the people of Ireland. If I’m gigging abroad, and I make a joke about Tayto every single Irish person in the audience gets it!

“I’ve been doing comedy for well over 20 years and I remember doing a gig in Boston in 1999 and getting huge laughs from Irish people talking about Tayto crisps.

Bishop made it to week 6 of the RTÉ dancing hit, but feels he could have performed better with more time. “I was voted off too early! The voting has been a consistent issue throughout the series, unfortunately, but other than that it was great.”

When asked what his advice for young comedians, Bishop was intransigent with his answer. “You just have to gig. There is no other advice for comedy other than get on stage. All other advice is bullsh**.

“You have to get on stage and get involved at the start. You’re not going to be great, nobody is, but you’re going to get better. You can have potential at the start, but you’re not great. It takes time to learn, but the thing about comedy is there isn’t a gym like boxing, or a training ground like football, the only ‘gym’ in comedy is the stage.”

And what of the current Irish comedy scene? “I think if I had to say who has impressed me most lately I would say Joanne McNally and Alison Spittle. I was at a gig with Alison the other night at the 3 Arena and she was great in front of eight-and-a-half thousand people she just took it in her stride.”