From Queens to Ireland and back, Des Bishop turns a turbulent past into comedy in 'Bridge and Tunnel'

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Set us as preferred It took Des Bishop, 50, a while to find his “American voice.”“I’ve spent the last decade trying to develop my American career,” he says.That sounds strange from a veteran stand-up whose voice shouts New Yawker the minute he starts talking at volume.But Bishop’s journey from Queens to Greenwich Village’s Comedy Cellar, where he shot his new “Bridge & Tunnel” hour (and his previous one, “Of All People”) was as circuitous as it gets.Bishop’s mother was Irish American and his father had been a model and actor in Britain before becoming a family man, moving to Queens and settling into a steady job.

But life at home wasn’t steady for Bishop, who began drinking at 12 and got kicked out of school at 14.His parents shipped him off to boarding school in Ireland.

“I could think of no better place for a young alcoholic to be,” he has joked in his stand-up.Bishop (who returned home for Christmas and summer vacations) sank lower and lower before finally kicking alcohol and drugs at 19.He settled in Ireland and built a comedy career doing specials unlike what you’d find most young stand-ups doing in America.His breakout was “The Des Bishop Work Experience,” a 2004 TV series in which he worked an array of minimum-wage jobs and survived on just that salary, blending documentary footage with stand-up about what he learned.“It was a social experiment that turned me into a well-known comedian,” Bishop says, adding that this type of programming, which might be considered “highfalutin” public TV fare in America, is more mainstream there.

He followed that up with “Joy in the Hood,” in which he did stand-up workshops with troubled youth in Dublin and, again, wrote material based on his experience.Following that, he learned the Irish language and performed stand-up in that tongu...