Comedian Des Bishop is set to make a TV show for the Chinese State broadcaster – and an audience of more than a billion.
The RTE star lived in China for a year, learning the language and performing standup in Chinese while making the show Breaking China.
Now CCTV have asked the 38-year-old – who recently appeared on their version of Take Me Out – to make a show for them.
It would see Des pushed out to an audience of more than 1.2 billion people – with shows on CCTV seen by hundreds of millions, with more than a 40% audience share.
Pals: Des and the President Michael D Higgins | VIPIRELAND.COM
However Des knows that there is a chance he might not be allowed into China to film after the reaction to his show, despite it being endorsed by The Chinese Embassy in Dublin.
“I don’t need a career in China. If somebody says you can’t get a visa because of the shit you’ve said, so be it,” he added.
“I know my line, I know their line, I’ll f**k around on that line as long as possible. But I’m also too into the development of stand-up to try to be the rebel. It’s pointless and can come later.”
Take Me Out: Des appeared on Chinese version
And Des also revealed that while doing standup in China, he has to give all his jokes to the State censor beforehand with them “decimating” his lines.
He told the Scotsman: “I get loads of new jokes out of the pressure to write cleaner stuff, even though all of it’s clean anyway.”
