How hard should a comedian try when they’re already a household name? Some still go the extra yard: Peter Kay on his last tour, for example. Some – such as Romesh Ranganathan – turn on cruise control, but are at least cruising at high altitude. And for some, there is a drop-off. John Bishop promises a show proper after the interval of Back at It, whose first half is “the mess-about bit”. But there’s not much structure or significance in Act Two either, nor are the jokes good enough to compensate.
That’s not to say audiences won’t enjoy the scouser’s shtick: it’s personable enough, and tickles in places that many like to be tickled. There are jokes about how henpecked Bishop is in his marriage, some of which feel, as he rages on about “fucking compromises”, uncomfortably emphatic. There’s material about his midlife crisis and his wife’s menopause. (Sample gag: “that woman you thought had a hot body really has a hot body.”) There are jokes about a woman being called Fanny and about how ill-at-ease Bishop was about snogging Ian McKellen in a panto.
