When it was announced last year that Hollywood heavyweight Bradley Cooper was making a movie about John Bishop, many people were left scratching their heads.
While the British comedian has been a beloved mainstay on our stages and screens for years, what was it about his career that had caught the attention of the Oscar-nominated director and actor?
It turns out the unlikely story of stand-up comedy saving his marriage was what made Hollywood come calling.
Although John, 59, has spoken about his relationship on stage many times before, some might be unaware of the fact that 25 years ago he and wife Melanie separated for 18 months.
After being married for seven years, the couple called time on their relationship and went their separate ways. Soon after John, at that time a pharmaceutical salesman, wanted to avoid paying a £4 ticket to watch an open mic night, so decided to sign up to perform himself and avoid the charge because, as he put it, ‘divorce is costly’.
Stepping up onto stage, John decided to poke fun at his marriage breakdown – and the rest is history when it comes to his career. However, one night his estranged wife turned up at the club and was shocked to see him on stage, with the pair then reconnecting and rekindling their romance.
It’s this story of their recoupling that inspired the new movie Is This Thing On?
Speaking to Metro at the London premiere of the film Bradley – who also appears in the film as one of the main character’s best friends – shared what about John’s story captured his interest.
‘It was really hearing Will tell me about it because that’s how it was communicated to me,’ he said.
‘These certain plot points in his [John’s] life and how he stumbled into this bar [and ended up doing stand-up] because he didn’t want to pay the cover and then his wife wound up going in when he was doing a whole set about her and then changing his whole life and they stayed together.
‘All that and I just thought “wow!” as Will was saying it and I was imagining it [on screen]. That’s how it all came together and I thought I would love to be a part of it.’
Loosely based on John’s story, it stars Will Arnett as Alex Novak – a man who seeks new purpose in the New York comedy scene after his marriage unravels, while Laura Dern is his wife Tess – who has to confront the sacrifices she made for their family.
The idea for the movie came about in 2016 when producer Kris Thykier met John at the after-party for a documentary screening and the pair got chatting about how John first got into stand-up, with the producer’s interest being piqued.
After deciding there was a movie in John’s story, he eventually brought Will on board, who then told long-time friend Bradley about the project while seated next to each other on a flight in 2022 – with the latter later asking if he might be able to direct.
As John explained, the movie had been in development for a decade, which he called a ‘hell of a long process’.
However, despite his roots in the North West, he explained why he had no qualms about the story being moved and set in the United States.
‘I actually wanted it to be set outside of the UK,’ he said. ‘The thing is, I have a Scouse accent, but I started comedy in Manchester and just trying to frame that to people who don’t know the North West comedy scene is difficult.
‘But as soon as you think of comedy, you think of New York and the comedy clubs. The Comedy Cellar where it is based is what everyone imagines comedy clubs to look like and so it’s ideal it was set there.’
After watching a story inspired by his marriage told on the big screen, John said it had been an ‘emotional’ experience for both himself and Melanie – whom he now shares three sons with.
‘There were a few tears. We had a screening on the weekend with friends in Liverpool. They were friends who were with us all the way through this, and they’ve seen our real life and so to see it on screen was strange…but good as well,’ he added.
Much like John diving into the deep end with stand-up, Will also wanted to try it out for himself to prepare to play an accidental comedian.
While the actor is best known for starring in a string of comedies including Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman and 30 Rock, he’d never actually tried his hand at stand-up.
So, ahead of filming, he would take to the stage as ‘Alex Novak’ – including performing at one venue every night for around six weeks. Not holding back, Bradley said Will was ‘bold’ but would ‘kill one performance then bomb in the next’.
‘I never purposely tanked any, but I did bomb,’ Will admitted to Metro. ‘That’s going to happen though – it’s an occupational hazard! I will say, even more than for the film, but as a person it really strips your ego down and you go “wow” and walk out of there and oddly you feel better because you feel “well I’ve just bombed in front of a bunch of people so everything else doesn’t hurt me!”,’ he said while laughing.
Although Will had to embrace this challenge for the project, he did avoid having to take on a Liverpudlian accent, with the movie’s co-writer Mark Chappell sharing: ‘As great as he is as an actor and as great as his voice is, it was never a question of whether he was going to do the accent.’
Speaking about choosing to focus the film on the intricacies of a long-term relationship rather than simply on a transformative career change, Mark explained: ‘There’s a story of a man who discovers he is a great stand-up comedian, but what we loved was the story of how he was able to reconnect, not just with himself, but to rekindle the romance of his marriage.
‘It’s easy to fall in love, but it’s a little harder to fall in love again and again and again. We thought that would be a more magical story.’
For producer Kris, he said John’s relationship was ‘one of those great love stories’. ‘He is a great storyteller and is incredibly funny, but there was something hopeful about it and these two people who find each other again. If John tells me the story it still makes me cry. For me it was never about comedy, it was always about love,’ he said.
Kris went on to explain that although there were initially conversations about John writing the movie, they wanted to also tell the story on a bigger scale so it could become something ‘universal’.
‘That’s when we started moving it to America. That was a journey to him to realise he had to give his story to other people to tell, and it was no longer going to be exactly his story. But he’s seen the film a lot and been involved all the way through and the truth of his story is in the film,’ he shared.
Is This Thing On? also stars Andra Day, Sean Hayes and Ciarán Hinds.
Is This Thing On? is released in UK cinemas on January 30.
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