The New York-born, Ireland-based comic will tour nationally this November, kicking off in Brisbane before heading to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. It’s his first Australian run since 2019, and it arrives at a moment Bishop describes as “chaotic and dangerous”.
But first, breakfast.
“I love Australia for its lifestyle,” Bishop laughs. “Australia always brought out the health kick in me. I love Australian breakfast. I’m an early riser. In Ireland it’s very hard to get a good coffee shop before eight o’clock. Sydney? Six o’clock. Ready and open.”
It’s a small detail. But it says something about Bishop’s relationship with Australia. Yes, there’s the strong Irish diaspora audience. Yes, there’s the familiarity. But for Bishop, Australia represents brightness. A reset. A cultural rhythm that suits him.
Bishop’s career has been anything but conventional. Born in Queens, he moved to Ireland at 14. That outsider perspective shaped his early comedy. “That was truly understanding Irish culture in a way that gave me an edge,” he says. Later, he would repeat the experiment in China, learning Mandarin and performing stand-up in Chinese.
Doing comedy in another language is not as simple as translation. “If you have wordplay jokes, they just don’t work,” he explains. “It’s really in the translation that the jokes have a problem.” Storytelling survives. Wordplay dies.
There are jokes he wrote in Mandarin that simply collapse when translated back to English. The punchline evaporates because the audience now knows too much. “The secret’s out,” he laughs.
That cultural fluidity has been central to Bishop’s success. He became a household name in Ireland through television projects like 'The Des Bishop Work Experience', where he lived on minimum wage, and 'In The Name Of The Fada', where he learned Irish and performed a full stand-up set in the language. The latter won an IFTA Award for Best TV Series. His personal show 'My Dad Was Nearly James Bond' later earned him Irish Book Of The Year.
He has since released six stand-up specials including 'Made in China' (2015), 'One Day You’ll Understand' (2018) and his latest, 'Of All People'. The through-line is curiosity. And risk.
Comedy, for Bishop, is rarely just punchlines.
He stopped drinking at 19. Recovery and mindfulness have shaped his worldview. “We used to joke about what was going on for us,” he says of those early recovery years. “That banter leaked into my comedy.” His now-famous mindfulness material resonates because it offers more than laughs. It offers recognition.
“You get something out of it more than a laugh,” he says. “Which is kind of just a bonus.”
That blend of humour and deeper reflection feels especially relevant now. Bishop doesn’t shy away from discussing politics. He speaks candidly about growing up with a mother who ran a homeless shelter and publicly defended it against backlash. That example left a mark.
But he is also self-aware.
“As I’ve gotten older. . . I sometimes feel a little bit out of touch,” he admits when discussing cost-of-living pressures. He no longer claims to understand the 25-year-old’s economic reality from the inside.
Still, neutrality no longer feels possible.
“There was a time where I was a little unconfident about saying things publicly,” he says. “But in the current climate, particularly in the United States, I’ve become emboldened again.”
He is blunt. He is concerned about what he sees as the rise of fascist ideology in the US. His history degree, he jokes, has given him nothing but anxiety about how much the present mirrors the 1930s.
“The time for being neutral creatively is over,” he says. “For myself. I’m not speaking for anyone else. But for me.”
It’s a careful line. Bishop doesn’t want to alienate audiences. He doesn’t want to lecture. “Not didactic. Not torturously boring rants,” he clarifies. The aim is sharp, effective material rooted in genuine concern.
Comedians often carry more weight than they expect. “For some reason, comedians’ words hold more weight than they should,” he reflects. But with that weight comes responsibility. Or at least, choice.
Bishop is choosing to lean in.
When he arrives in Australia this November, audiences can expect the same restless imagination and cultural observation that has defined his career.
They can also expect a comic who has stopped pretending neutrality is an option.
Seven years is a long gap. But Des Bishop sounds ready. And he’ll be up early for breakfast.
Des Bishop Australia 2026 Tour Dates
5 November – Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
7 November – The Capitol (Melbourne)
10 November – Comedy Store (Sydney)
12 November – Norwood Concert Hall (Adelaide)
14 November – Heath Ledger Theatre (Perth)
