Comedian John Bishop have revealed that football played a major part in his decision to quit his job as a sales rep and go full-time into stand-up.
After a few years of sales repping by day and joking by night, the Liverpudlian took the plunge in 2006 and he's never looked back.
Today's he's easily one of the most popular comedians on both sides of the Irish Sea and is one of the few comedians who can sell out multiple nights in venues such as Dublin's 3Arena.
"Liverpool had got to the final of the Champions League in 2005 and it clashed with me having to go to a medical conference in America," the Scouse comic told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I tried my best to get out of it, I tried my best to turn it down, and basically my boss said: look, this is your job. That's just a football match. So I had to give my ticket to one of my mates, and I went to Seattle for the conference."
As things turned out, he could've made the game – but, of course, his ticket had gone elsewhere.
"The meeting I went to that was so important, it ended a day early, so I managed to get back and watch the game in my house," he says. "So I nearly got there.
To read the full interview with John Bishop, click here.
"I watched it in my house, and my house was all full of my mates kids and wives because they had all come round to our house, so I'm there, all my mates are at the game, and I've got little girls doing cartwheels in front of the telly.
"And I remember thinking: no one's ever going to tell me what I can or can't do anymore. And within a year I'd left my job."
The comedian will embark on a nationwide Irish tour in September and October 2017 with dates in Cork, Limerick, Ennis, Galway, Carrick-on-Shannon, Claremorris and Dublin.
Tickets are on sale at usual outlets now.
