Is This Thing On? has something I wasn’t expecting for a 2026 Bingo card – the rise to fame of a British stand-up comedian, but made by an American actor/director, as opposed to popping up on a BBC Films production.
The man in question is John Bishop, depicted by Will Arnett (The LEGO Batman Movie) as Alex Novak, whose marriage to Tess (Laura Dern – Jurassic World: Dominion) is failing and so he’s now on the brink of divorce. At a loose end one night in New York, he heads into the Comedy Cellar to watch an open mic night, finds out he doesn’t have to pay the entry fee if he goes up on stage, and slowly starts talking about his relationship issues when he gets to the mic, getting some laughs in the process.
One-off accident turns into new hobby, turns into career, and so on…
I saw John Bishop (who was surprisingly good in Doctor Who, despite the endlessly shit scripts) at the Manchester Comedy Store around 2002/2003, whose set was based around this exact event, although it was far more colourful, finding out the cost of the entry to whichever club it was (a mere £3 at the time) and commenting about maintenance, “Well that’s £3 SHE’S not getting(!)”…
…Before going on to the rest of the set which included imagining his ex-wife’s severed head in his fridge, one night.
There’s none of that here, so we have a very santised version of the story. Shame, as it would’ve been far more interesting. Instead, we stumble through a 30 minute story stretched out into two hours, which is mostly just people standing around talking, without any sense of direction.
At one point, on the school run, his smart-arse kids tell him “You should have goals“, making this film play out like an overextended episode of Louie, but not funny. For those who didn’t see it, Louie was a five season comedy loosely-based on comedian Louis CK’s life, as he sleepwalks into daft situations, while often talked down to by his two daughters and his ex-wife.
These vignettes are also interspersed by CK doing stand-up at… the Comedy Cellar.
As we know since, CK had a major downfall because of sexual misconduct allegations, and rightly got called out for it.
Bradley Cooper – who also pops up from time to time as Alex’s stoner friend, Balls – really is a lazy hack.
The Comedy Cellar doesn’t do open mic nights, and with Arnett at 55, and Dern at 59, they’re both too old to have kids aged 10, anyway, so… artistic licence. However, I guess the venue was used because they can make space for movie cameras.
As a slight comparison, it was seeing John Bishop’s set, as well as a couple more performances over the years, that made me think about trying it, since on one occasion, he just walked on with a large mug of tea or coffee (I forget which), sat on a stool and calmly just took his seat and comfortably went through his set.
I ended up doing 23 gigs over the course of a couple of years between 2007 and 2009, so just a hobby that I didn’t take to in the end, but I met a lot of great people, plus one or two arseholes, and a major cunt in Mark Pollard. As far as I know, he’s still in Canada. If you see him, if you could kick him in the fucking balls… Or chop off various body parts… That would be great.
On the plus side, as Is This Thing On? takes place around Chinese New Year, there’s some Lion Dancing in the opening scene. The day before I watched this, I saw the same thing take place in Stockport (above).
Is This Thing On? is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 121 minutes
Release date: January 30th 2026
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (X-OCN ST (8.6K))
Rating: 2/10
Director: Bradley Cooper
Producers: Will Arnett, Bradley Cooper, Weston Middleton, Kris Thykier
Music: James Newberry
Screenplay: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Mark Chappell
Story: Will Arnett, Mark Chappell, John Bishop
Cast:
Alex Novak: Will Arnett
Tess Novak: Laura Dern
Christine: Andra Day
Balls: Bradley Cooper
Felix: Blake Kane
Jude: Calvin Knegten
Geoffrey: Scott Icenogle
Stephen: Sean Hayes
Jan: Ciarán Hinds
Marilyn: Christine Ebersole
Kemp: Amy Sedaris
Laird: Peyton Manning
Nina: Chloe Radcliffe
Jill: Jordan Jensen
Rolo: James Tom
Dan: Reggie Conquest
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.