“WITH his divorce all but completed, sales rep John Bishop took to the stage at an open mic night. He made a gag about missing his soon-to-be former wife so much that he kept her “severed head in the fridge”. Sign up for the TV newsletter Thank you! Comic John Bishop performing in Austria in”, — write: www.thesun.co.uk
He made a gag about missing his soon-to-be former wife so much that he kept her “severed head in the fridge”.
Thank you!
Comic John Bishop performing in Austria in 2013Credit: Anthony Upton
John and Melanie at the London gala screening of Is This Thing On?Credit: Getty
Bradley Cooper attends the movie’s New York screening last monthCredit: Getty But unbeknown to the Liverpool-born comedian, she was right there in the audience.
You might think such an off-colour joke would be the final nail in the coffin for their marriage — but instead the routine led to the couple staying together.
The TV favourite, 59, has since sold out arenas, toured Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and is worth an estimated £15million.
Now, the remarkable tale of the beginning of John’s stand-up career a quarter of a century ago has inspired a movie directed by Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, which is out next Friday.
Bradley also appears in the film, called Is This Thing On?, but admits John’s story originally sounded too far-fetched to be believed.
Bradley says: “He was split from his wife, was at a pub one night, didn’t want to pay the cover (entrance fee). They said, ‘You can put your name down and not pay’.
“And then he realised that meant he had to go up on stage.
“So they call his name to go on stage and he just starts talking about his divorce and, like, a couple of people laughed and he just kept going back.
‘We just grew apart’ “And months later, he was still separated from his wife, and she came with her friends to that same pub and saw him doing a set about their break-up.
“If we made that up, if you were sending it to the studio they’re like, this doesn’t, you know . . . but it actually happened.”
Certainly, John’s rise to the top has everything you need for a movie. Having grown up on council estates in Runcorn and Winsford in Cheshire, he went on to study social science at Manchester Polytechnic.
After graduating, he played football semi-professionally for non-league teams including Southport.
But unlike older brother Eddie, now 64, who played for Tranmere Rovers, he did not earn enough from the game to give up the day job.
Instead, he found work in pharmaceutical sales and marketing, which paid a good wage.
John married Melanie in 1993 and they had three boys — Joe, now 29, Luke, 27 and Daniel, 25. But the stresses of life led the couple to split up for 18 months — and they almost signed their divorce papers in 2000.
John said: “There was no huge fight or a revelation about someone else. We just grew apart.
“Maybe it had something to do with having three kids so quickly.
Actors Will and Laura as Alex and Tess, based on John and his wife MelanieCredit: Alamy
Will with Bradley and Andra Day as his best mate Balls and his wife ChristineCredit: Alamy “For six years there was always someone in the house in nappies. Our marriage just faded.”
Feeling “depressed”, he went to the Frog And Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester, which has helped launch the careers of acts including Peter Kay and Jack Whitehall.
He did not want to pay the £4 entrance fee, so put himself down on the list of comedians for the open mic night.
John recalled: “I clambered up on stage, picked up the microphone and thought, what on Earth am I doing here? I had no jokes, and absolutely no material. I just talked about life.”
The audience laughed as he riffed on his marriage woes, so John was invited back to perform again.
One of the routines would make the audience go, “Aww!” — when he spoke about splitting up from his wife. He would then tell them: “Don’t worry, we haven’t divorced — I’ve just killed her.
“But I knew I would miss her so I’ve kept her head in the fridge for three months.”
Melanie turned up with workmates for one of those gigs in 2000, and when John saw her afterwards he started to apologise for his jokes.
To his surprise, she said: “The man I saw on stage was the man I married. Where did he go?”
The couple went for marriage counselling at Relate and are still together today, 25 years later.
John said: “The pain we had in our relationship, it sounds cliched but it made us stronger.”
He’s been my friend for ever and he was talking to me about this project he was working on and it just ignited something in me.Bradley Cooper
It then took John another six years to give up his job in pharmaceutical sales in order to become a comedian full-time at the age of 40.
The decision was the right one because he is now one of the nation’s most popular funnymen.
When John met Claudia Winkleman’s husband Kris Thykier at an after-party six years ago, he told him how he got into stand-up.
The movie producer thought it would make a great film and later pitched the idea to American comic actor Will Arnett, who was working on the Sky TV drama Riviera with him.
Arrested Development star Will also loved the idea and told his friend Bradley about it during a plane journey.
Bradley says: “He’s been my friend for ever and he was talking to me about this project he was working on and it just ignited something in me.”
The actor, who directed Oscar-nominated Maestro and A Star Is Born, rewrote the script and decided to set the story in New York. He also made the tale focus on a couple, rather than just a stand-up comedian’s life.
The names were changed, with John and Melanie becoming Alex and Tess Novak. Will plays Alex and Oscar-winner Laura Dern is Tess.
John did not object to the story being rewritten and was clearly thrilled to be part of a Hollywood project.
‘Get my head around it’ On the red carpet for the movie’s first UK screening last autumn, John said: “You couldn’t write it — you couldn’t line things up, like, that perfectly. It’s been odd trying to get my head around it.”
Laura met Melanie before shooting the film in order to understand the story better, while Will got some advice from John.
He needed that, because Will, who had never done any stand-up comedy before, performed before a real audience while preparing for the movie.
The couple also got to know the celebrities while attending film screenings.
When Bradley, who also plays Alex’s pal Balls in the movie, met Melanie at the London Film Festival premiere of Is This Thing On? in October, the heart-throb gave her a hug and whispered in her ear.
John later said with a laugh: “We come back to the hotel and I was saying, ‘This has been a mad few days’. I said, ‘What are you going to remember most about it?’
“She said, ‘Whispering in Bradley Cooper’s ear’. That kind of doesn’t make me feel great.”
Over the years, John has also branched out from stand-up.
He had his own talk show, John Bishop: In Conversation With . . . , had a regular sci-fi role as a companion to Jodie Whittaker’s Time Lord in Doctor Who, and raised £1.6million for Sport Relief in 2012 by cycling, rowing and running from Paris to London.
I never had the dream of being in showbusiness because I never thought I would do stand-up comedy.John Bishop
Four years ago he made an ITV documentary called John And Joe Bishop: Life After Deaf, about his eldest son Joe losing his hearing.
John and Joe also set up a company called Hears, which U2 drummer Larry Mullen invested in, to help people with hearing problems.
There was a point when he considered giving up stand-up, but he decided to return to the stage thanks to his wife’s encouragement.
Last year John did a tour to celebrate 25 years in the job.
He said: “I never had the dream of being in showbusiness because I never thought I would do stand-up comedy. I was a salesman.
“So, somewhere in the world, it feels like there’s a comedian who is now being a salesman, and I’ve nicked his life and he’s got my life.
“There’s a comedian standing up right now doing a PowerPoint presentation about his sales projections for next year while I’m doing his gig.”
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