Life is full of wonderful ironies, like interviewing Irish comedian DES BISHOP and not being able to squeeze a single joke out of him. LUKE GRIMISH reports.

I can’t attribute this lack of jokes to Mr. Bishop’s comedic failings. On the contrary, Des has become a household name in Ireland as its US-born, adopted superstar son of stand-up (the alliteration says it all, really). In that case, why so serious? Our conversation quickly moved toward the social and political, rather than the comical. It was clear that Des came from a more poignant and critical tradition of comedy, thick with satirical subtext and all that lovely stuff.

“Those are the things that float my boat, those are the things I like to watch. Not that I watch Bill Hicks as religiously as I once did. He would have been a big inspiration, Richard Pryor, all those guys tried to do a little more than just tell jokes.”
Even when I asked Des what the most colourful Irish saying he had ever heard was, confident that it would get me my much sought-after joke, he handed me philosophy. It was a saying from the native Irish language: “The Truth is always a late visitor, but a sure one.”  

Des’ experience with the Irish language is an interesting one. He’s even translated and performed House Of Pain’s Jump Around in Irish.

“I did a [television] series where I spent the year learning the Irish language in an Irish-speaking area … I always thought it would be funny to translate a really well known rap song [into the Irish language] … one, because it would be funny, but two, because it actually shows people that the language is really quite relevant.”

Des moved from New York to an Irish boarding school at the age of fourteen. His voice is an interesting dichotomy of the New York-style of fast-talkin’ hardass and the gentle, singsong Irish lilt. Having acquired such a big name for himself in Ireland, with his confronting look into big social issues in the Irish community, Des found that his material had to shift towards more universal topics once he went abroad.

“A lot of the stuff I do is completely different, it’s not even an adaptation. But then in Melbourne, I was surprised at how much of my Irish stuff I was bringing back in, because, actually it was quite universal … a lot it is just my experience of moving to Ireland, which is, I guess, a fish out of water experience that people identify with in their own way.”

Coming to Australia has been a learning experience for Des. He seems to be ever-eager to find out more about our own social climate, so expect to see more of his Australian gigs take on a bit more of a local edge in the near future. Des also seems to have his eye on Australia’s lack of a big comedy hip-hop scene.

“I was doing [hip-hop comedy] in Melbourne and that was getting a big response. I guess there hasn’t been much hip-hop comedy in Australia… I’ll have to write an Australian rap…”

DES BISHOP appears at the Tivoli on September 20. Tickets are available now from www.ticketek.com.au. www.desbishop.com

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