Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life story into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama

‘I just poured out all this stuff about getting divorced’: John Bishop on saving his marriage — and how it became a Hollywood movie

John Bishop remembers the first joke he ever told as a comedian. It happened on a weeknight in Manchester in October 2000, and there were six, maybe seven people in attendance.

Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life story into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama

Did you hear the one about the lonely husband who went into a bar? That’s the set up for Bradley Cooper’s third film as director, Is This Thing On?, a shaggy-dog movie that feels a world away from his musically-themed, Oscar-nominated earlier directorial efforts, the A Star Is Born remake and Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Those films played out on a grand scale – featuring concerts where the world was watching. Here, the feeling is more inti…