“A 12-time Oscar-nominated Tinseltown actor and a Scouse stand-up veteran most famous on this side of the pond might seem an unlikely combination.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
But it is this particular unique Venn diagram of people which sits at the heart of a new comedy-drama film receiving rave reviews from critics.
Is This Thing On?, directed by Bradley Cooper, stars Arrested Development’s Will Arnett as newbie comic Alex and Laura Dern as his soon to be ex-wife Tess.
The couple are amicably navigating the end of their years-long marriage – but Alex’s newfound hobby threatens to shake up their plans.
And the creative team behind the film, which screened at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, have now revealed the plot is based on the life of one John Bishop.
The Liverpudlian comic got his start in 2000, when he signed up to an open-mic night at a comedy club on a whim to cheer himself up after splitting with his wife Melanie.
Despite not knowing what he had volunteered for, which he only did to avoid paying a £4 entry fee, he was a roaring success, in front of a modest crowd of seven.
The Everton-born star was encouraged to return every week, which became therapeutic for him, as he made jokes about his ongoing divorce proceedings.
And after his wife watched one of his shows, reminded of the man she married, the pair ended up talking and reconciling. They are still together now.
Kris Thykier, who produced Is This Thing On?, told the Independent he heard this incredible story when he met Bishop at a film premiere after-party in 2016.
The Danish producer, who is married to Claudia Winkleman, said: ‘You know, two old white guys in a nightclub, sort of like, “Alright, how long do we stay?”
‘And I asked him about how he got into comedy because I hadn’t really heard the story. And he told it to me and I said, “OK, well, that’s a movie”.’
Thykier, who also worked on 2021 war film Operation Mincemeat, obtained the rights to turn Bishop’s life into a film, which he soon started developing.
He explained: ‘I always thought it would probably be a good idea to move it to America so – no offence to John – it didn’t become a very small British story but something that was more universal.’
Is This Thing On? marks the third film Cooper has directed.
It comes after 2018 romance A Star Is Born, which he starred in alongside Lady Gaga, and his turn in the title role in his 2023 Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro.
The actor’s stint in the director’s chair has been a remarkable tonal gear shift compared to the kinds of movies he once starred in.
His filmography includes boisterous, boyish American comedies, like The Hangover trilogy and Wedding Crashers, and cheesy romcoms like Silver Linings Playbook.
It left many questioning his credentials, with Cooper recalling in 2022 an incident at an awards season party which saw a director ask him: ‘What world are we living in where you have seven nominations and [Gaga has] only got three?’
But with Is This Thing On? already tipped for awards next year, it may be Cooper who has the last laugh.
He previously told The New York Times: ‘You’re like, “I have these big dreams and I feel these things.” Is that all wrong?
‘Like, shame on anybody that’s going to tell you who you are.’
And Cooper added a new string to his bow on his latest film, serving as a camera operator as well as a director, producer and actor, playing Alex’s best friend.
He also wrote the script with lead actor Will Arnett and veteran British sitcom writer Mark Chappell.
Cooper told ESPN podcast The Pat McAfee Show earlier this year: ‘Filmmaking truly, honestly, is very similar to sports — team sports.
‘It’s very, very similar to football in particular. If one of the 11 messes up, the whole thing’s screwing up. Same thing in a movie set.’
‘Anybody that’s ever made a movie knows that the camera operator and the dolly grip and the sound mixer and the first AD, these are key positions that are as important as the actors or anybody else.’
Bishop himself has previously told of the moment that inspired Cooper’s latest flick, when his marriage simply ‘wasn’t working’ and he had separated from his wife.
He told the Irish Times: ‘What killed me was only seeing the children at weekends.
‘When they went back to their mother on a Sunday night I used to go out for a drink. That’s really why the stand-up started.’
With momentum built in the weeks and months after that first fateful evening, and his marriage back on track, he left a high-flying job in marketing in his late thirties to pursue his career as a funny man.
The comic explained: ‘I was married with children, had a great job, a mortgage, a pension plan, BUPA health insurance.
‘There was a company car, credit cards, the lot but I walked away from it all, and foolishly so, because I had this mad idea that I could make strangers laugh.
‘Yes, my mates in the pub had told me I was funny but that wasn’t good enough for me and I had to give up my life and start on the bottom rung of the comedy ladder to prove it to myself.’
Bishop quickly began to win awards, including BBC Radio Merseyside’s best newcomer in 2004 and the North West Comedy Award for best stand-up in 2004.
An appearance on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow in 2009 came next, before a turn at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
And he soon made his way into TV, including British comedy classics like 8 Out Of 10 Cats, BBC’s Live At The Apollo and Have I Got News For You.
Bishop is also a vegetarian, a long-time Labour supporter and a proud advocate for LGBT rights.
In 2018, he touched viewers’ hearts when he accepted the Ally of the Year award at the NatWest British LGBT Awards, with an emotional speech about his gay son.
Bishop, who attended with his wife Melanie and sons Joe, Luke and Daniel, said: ‘I was so pleased to be nominated.
‘I brought my whole family, my wife and my three sons who I love and I am massively proud of.
‘Like all parents we have problems with them. One of my sons has a tattoo on his ankle that was meant to be Africa but looks like Australia, one of my sons mumbles and one of my sons is a gay man.
‘I’ll be honest, there’s been loads of nights when me and my wife have sat up and worried and worried and worried.
‘What are we going to do if he doesn’t stop mumbling?’
He also called for same-sex marriage to be legalised in Northern Ireland, which it was not until two years later, in 2020.