Intimate date with top comic

Gillian Brown and Suzanne Hull with their John Bishop show tickets.

John Bishop played to a full house of 457 at Lowther Pavilion on Tuesday evening as part of a series of intimate gigs to trial new jokes ahead of an upcoming 40-date arena tour.

And it really was the hottest ticket in town, with the performance selling out in just one hour 40 minutes.

Among those in the crowd were Jason and Ashley Strickland, aged 33 and 26, from Lytham Quays, who were the last in the queue at the box office to score tickets when they came out in April.

Jason said: “We were dead excited.

“I like that he’s a down-to-earth guy and he’s just funny.”

Bishop performed an hour long-set followed by a half hour question and answer session with the audience - featuring gags about holidays, high speed trains and his beloved Liverpool FC.

Suzanne Hall, 44, lives just across the road from the theatre on Lowther Terrace.

She said: “I’m a Liverpool fan so I like the Scouse sense of humour.

“It’s great for Lytham that he considers us somewhere worth coming to.

“To have somebody like him on my doorstep is awesome and it’s good to put the town on the map.”

The comic also talked about the morning he had spent with the Duchess of Cambridge, in London, before travelling up to perform.

The pair had been at a school to promote a charity which helps children deal with parents’ addiction which they both support.

In 2012 he completed a cross-channel triathlon in aid of the Sport Relief charity, during which he cycled from Paris to Calais, rowed across the English Channel and ran from Dover to London during the space of five days - raising £3.4m for sports-related good causes in the process.

Suzanne’s friend Gillian Brown, 44, from Preston, added: “He is very inspirational with all the money he’s raised for Sport Relief in the last couple of years.”

Mark Alexander, theatre manager at the Lowther, said: “We’ve been trying to get star acts into the Lowther now we’re running as a Trust and we’re thrilled to have John Bishop here.

“He’s one of the biggest names we’ve had. He’s a really nice guy and a pleasure to work with.”