For the past year Des Bishop’s been in China, learning Mandarin in order to perform comedy in front of the largest possible audience. The audacious pursuit wasn’t just wishful thinking; Bishop (an American ex-pat living in Ireland) previously succeeded at learning and performing in Gaelic. Thankfully, tonight’s show wasn’t in Mandarin. Rather, Bishop detailed various experiences during the language-learning sabbatical, which lead to illuminating cultural peculiarities and intriguing differences specific to his profession.
Highlights included Bishop’s explanation of how easily his adopted Chinese name is confused with the word for ‘vagina’ (or other, more vulgar variants), emphasising the feeling of racial vilification when the Chinese mock his lousy accent and detailing his fortunes looking for love at the Chinese marriage market.
Bishop also revealed that now his language skills are sufficiently developed he’s become involved with the fledgling Chinese stand-up scene. He sharply countered the general presumption that political censorship would truncate Chinese comedy; reminding us that Western comedians can say whatever they want, yet still devote large chunks of stage time to penis-talk.
Bishop’s characteristic combination of American extroversion and Irish earnestness made you take note of everything he said. Also, drawing from a topic as broad as modern China allowed him to keep everyone guessing where the focus would turn next. Occasionally it felt a little scripted, but for the most part the results were hilarious and truly-compelling. And, as you might expect from Des Bishop, the show came with a heartfelt subtext.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
