Des Bishop Brings American and Irish Lives to WHBPAC

For many, the thought of getting on stage and performing stand-up comedy is a daunting task. Trying to do that in a language that isn’t their native tongue would sound terrifying, even laughable.

But not for Des Bishop.

The American-born Bishop made a name for himself in Ireland after moving there as a teenager with his stand-up comedy work and television shows, some of which saw him learn new languages with the goal of performing stand-up shows in those languages.

Now, as he’s focused his work stateside over the last few years, he’ll be bringing his talents to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Thursday, August 14, at 8 p.m.

Bishop was born in Queens before moving to Ireland when he was 14 in 1990. When he got there, he took note of the many differences between his native New York and his new home, as well as the standard in living gap. It was these observations that would make up much of his stand-up routines later that decade, presenting a “fish-out-of-water” perspective on stage.

This approach turned out to be a hit, as Irish audiences loved his perspectives on their country. He admitted that “I can honestly rat myself out now and say I don’t think I was as funny as they made out — I think I was just the person to really do that in Ireland.” He was also boosted by his ability to do accurate Irish accents, which the crowds loved.

“By the time I was doing stand-up, I lived there for seven years, I was educated there and completely immersed in Ireland, so I could do quite good regional Irish accents, which to Irish people was mind-blowing,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t even need punchlines; I needed to put on a Cork or Dublin accent.”

By the early 2000s, Bishop’s career took him to the television screens of Ireland. He was approached by a producer about doing a documentary inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickel and Dimed,” where Ehreneirch went undercover to investigate minimum wage jobs in the United States as manufacturing jobs declined. This time, Bishop would be followed by a camera crew for four months as he worked a different minimum wage job each month around Ireland, including cooking at a kebab shop in Waterford and working at a supermarket in Dundalk.

Bishop said that while making the show, “We were just trying to be honest, but also funny and entertaining” to capture an accurate depiction of a country that was witnessing increasing immigration levels and economic struggles.

“The ‘Work Experience’ became popular because it was a first look at a new Ireland,” he explained. “And I had a good eye for that because I witnessed the end of the old Ireland and had charted that change through my adolescence and into my early comedy career.”

In 2007, Bishop came out with another show, “In the Name of the Fada,” which showcases his year-long mission to learn Irish Gaelic and perform stand-up shows in that language. When he came to Ireland, he observed his classmates struggling to learn the language in school, though he was exempt from doing so since he didn’t start school there until he was 14. He admitted that he “felt a little left out of” experiences his Irish peers had with the language and set out to learn it himself.

He spent a year in the Gaeltacht region of Ireland, areas of Ireland’s west coast where Irish is the main language spoken. As he learned the language, he channeled this into writing jokes about his journey, which resonated with the locals from these areas.

“Those shows were meant to be for people that lived in those communities,” he said. “They loved it because they hadn’t had any stand-up voices that were joking about their lives. And they saw the commitment and the progress so they knew that it wasn’t just a gimmick.”

Six years later, Bishop released the show “Breaking China,” which chronicles him living in China for a year learning Mandarin to perform stand-up comedy there. The trip presented two challenges: he had to get his Irish audience interested in China while simultaneously writing stand-up material that Chinese audiences would find funny.

Though many would balk at the idea of learning Mandarin, Bishop said that learning it was actually easier than learning Irish, as he was forced to immerse himself in the language more than in Ireland.

“Everybody in the Gaeltachts can actually speak English and they were good with me,” he explained. “They patiently waited for me to struggle through the words and if they wanted to communicate. But in China, 80 percent you’re stuck having to find the words, which makes it quicker.”

Bishop’s greatest career success has come in front of Irish audiences, but he’s turned his attention to American audiences over the last few years. Since marrying Hannah Berner, an American comedian, in 2022, the two have spent most of their time in New York. He admits that he misses the Irish side of his life, though doing more shows in his native country has opened new doors for him creatively.

“There’s a part of me that laid dormant for a lot of my Irish life because there were a lot of aspects of my childhood that I never delved into,” he said. “And as I’ve toured more and more in the States, I’ve actually unlocked a lot stuff that I didn’t know was there.”

This will be the second time Bishop has performed in Westhampton Beach, but his ties to the area are long. During his teenage years, he would return from Ireland to spend summers with his parents at their house on Dune Road. Today, he currently splits his time between his residencies in West Hampton Dunes and Manhattan.

He added that this upcoming show “will be more inspired by my American life than when I did it the last time” as he’s now spent more time here.

Des Bishop performs at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Thursday, August 14, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $43 to $64 at whbpac.org. The WHBPAC is at 76 Main Street in Westhampton Beach.