John Bishop: Elvis Has Left The Building - Cheltenham Town Hall

Monday 8th February 2010

This is a Crackerjack review of John Bishop: Elvis Has Left The Building. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

“It's like doing a gig in Elton John’s bathroom,” quipped Bishop on first entering the Pillar Room.

Running late and having only arrived after the majority of the audience were seated, it was his first glimpse of the venue.

“I expected the audience to all be either jockeys or spies,” was how he had characterised Cheltenham by the end of his set.

In between, Bishop had cast a self-deprecating eye over the trauma of reaching the age when Elvis died and having three kids he can never impress.

The audience lapped up Bishop’s tales of hosting the Kitchen Utensil Awards 2009, working on TV show Skins and, what he calls the “car crash” of his performance on Celebrity Mastermind.

Deriving humour from the highs, lows and peculiarities of his own life, he tells of his experience with a personal trainer called Brad, the time he needed his kids to take the blame for surfing dodgy internet sites, and the joys of being a 42-year-old out clothes shopping.

Even when the odd gag misses the mark, or during a self-indulgent ramble about football, Bishop has an unassuming charm that makes him impossible to dislike.

His increasing amount of exposure on TV has marked him out for success, and he is going to be big.

This time he played the Pillar Room, next time he’ll be in the main hall.

George Brown Stewart

This is a Crackerjack review of John Bishop: Elvis Has Left The Building. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.