EMMA DUNN looks ahead to funnyman John Bishop trying out his gags in Swindon THE Wyvern’s audience has a chance to contribute to the material in comedian John Bishop’s upcoming 40-date arena tour when he appears at the theatre next weekend.

The Scouser will be performing the suitably-named Work in Progress to a sell-out crowd in Swindon at 8pm on October 5, which will see him trying out new funny stories and one-liners before his autumn arena shows.

And depending on how the material goes down, it could be the decider on whether his new jokes, never before seen jests and perfectly-timed one-liners make it into his Supersonic tour.

The football mad father-of-three, who describes stand-up as his first love, says he loves nothing more than giving the audience a real laugh and he can’t wait to get back on the road.

It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for the arenas, with the first stage of warm-up gigs seeing him performing at clubs for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time just to feel comfortable on stage again.

Some of the material isn’t written until the last minute, and some of it comes while he is on stage, something which John describes as organic.

“Comedy is like picking grapes – you can’t pick it too early,” he said.

And John would know. The popular funnyman won Best Male Comedy Breakthrough Artist at the 2010 British Comedy Awards, hosted the 2013 Royal Variety Performance, hosts John Bishop’s Britain for BBC One and has also appeared on BBC’s Live at the Apollo.

As well as comedy, John is also known for his charity work after raising £3.4m for Sport Relief 2012.

Tickets, which were £21, have sold out. For more information about the Supersonic tour, which includes dates in Cardiff, London and Nottingham, visit johnbishoponline.com. For more information about upcoming shows at the Wyvern visit swindontheatres.co.uk or call 01793 524481.