Billy Connolly

[Hillonearth]

The shock of seeing someone turn up on TV in the early-mid seventies and being successful using pretty much your own accent can't be underestimated - he was a trailblazer, and essentially paved the way for the alternative comedians that came a good few years later. Sure, he hit that point of diminishing returns by maybe the 90s and wasn't quite as funny.

It's similar to a band's first few albums often being their best and them then losing their way a bit...they have their whole life up until then to write them and are young, angry and full of ambition but eventually hit the point where their current life experience isn't as relatable to their fans as the early stuff was. I reckon that was Connolly's problem; the difficulty of not being able to get decent servants in Braemar or a black pudding supper in Beverly Hills probably wouldn't have them rolling in the aisles at the Armadillo.

It's a shame that more of his earlier, funnier stuff wasn't preserved on film, but that said, his most recent - and probably final - live DVD was excellent.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Hillonearth

[Shandon Par]

44 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

I know he's done with the stand-up for health reasons, but it would be interesting to see Billy Connolly performing his classic routines now. I'm not sure they'd work as well delivered by the elder Connolly.

That’s pretty much what his new book is. None the worse for it. If you can’t be arsed with a book sign up for a free trial on Audible. 

[BFTD]

7 minutes ago, Shandon Par said:

That’s pretty much what his new book is. None the worse for it. If you can’t be arsed with a book sign up for a free trial on Audible. 

Which one's that? I didn't know he had another book out.

I've still got a copy of Gullible's Travels kicking about somewhere. Whatever happened to Jibrovia?

[Shandon Par]

3 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Which one's that? I didn't know he had another book out.

I've still got a copy of Gullible's Travels kicking about somewhere. Whatever happened to Jibrovia?

Tall Tales and Wee Stories. Think it came out late last year. Got it for Christmas but just started reading it the other day. It’s a sort of autobiography with the anecdotes being all his best routines.

[Silverton End]

Watched part 1 of Billy & Us on the BBC Scotland channel last night.

Decent

[philpy]

The wildebeest sketch gets me everytime. Fucking fantastic

[Shotgun]

2 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

John Cleese says Monty Python started because they were all sick of sitcoms that consisted of nothing but characters walking in and delivering their line that they'd always repeat every week.

I didn't realise it went back as far as that. I do remember being annoyed in the 80's at how many popular sitcoms did just that. "Are you being served", "Allo allo", Hi-de-hi" to name just 3. The script was simply a vehicle to get the characters from one catchphrase to another and to make sure everybody got to use theirs." Tedious , unimaginative stuff but many people loved it.

Anyway, the message from this thread is clearly that if you're born poor you should remain poor and that if you care about people who have less than you, you're a hypocrite.

[Alert Mongoose]

4 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Will any P&Bers be sending back their letter from the Queen when it inevitably comes?

It would returned to sender with a steaming shite mushed into it. And anthrax, if I could get a hold of it.

[microdave]

The wildebeest sketch gets me everytime. Fucking fantastic [emoji23][emoji23]

Agnes!

I didn't realise it went back as far as that. I do remember being annoyed in the 80's at how many popular sitcoms did just that. "Are you being served", "Allo allo", Hi-de-hi" to name just 3. The script was simply a vehicle to get the characters from one catchphrase to another and to make sure everybody got to use theirs." Tedious , unimaginative stuff but many people loved it.
Anyway, the message from this thread is clearly that if you're born poor you should remain poor and that if you care about people who have less than you, you're a hypocrite.

That continued with sketch shows like the fast show, chewing the fat and little britain into the 90's and 2000's.

[Granny Danger]

6 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said:

It would returned to sender with a steaming shite mushed into it. And anthrax, if I could get a hold of it.

I can sell you some, but the price has gone up since the lockdown.

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, Shotgun said:

I didn't realise it went back as far as that. I do remember being annoyed in the 80's at how many popular sitcoms did just that. "Are you being served", "Allo allo", Hi-de-hi" to name just 3. The script was simply a vehicle to get the characters from one catchphrase to another and to make sure everybody got to use theirs." Tedious , unimaginative stuff but many people loved it.

Anyway, the message from this thread is clearly that if you're born poor you should remain poor and that if you care about people who have less than you, you're a hypocrite.

IIRC, Happy Days was a bit of a pisstake on that style of 50s sitcom too. I've got to admit, I know how shit they are, but there's a guilty part of me that enjoys that kind of thing. Binge-watching 'Allo 'Allo must be like torture, but if I ever stumble upon an episode, I won't be happy until I've heard "Gud Moaning"  

[Shotgun]

 

8 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said:

It would returned to sender with a steaming shite mushed into it. And anthrax, if I could get a hold of it.

 

1 minute ago, Granny Danger said:

I can sell you some, but the price has gone up since the lockdown.

What's the going rate for shite these days?

[Moomintroll]

1 hour ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Which one's that? I didn't know he had another book out.

I've still got a copy of Gullible's Travels kicking about somewhere. Whatever happened to Jibrovia?

FORRRWAAARD, JIBROVIA, WITH GUSSETS TO THE FORE.

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, Shotgun said:

What's the going rate for shite these days?

Not sure...how much are your mob selling season tickets for now?

[Shotgun]

1 minute ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Not sure...how much are your mob selling season tickets for now?

 

[BFTD]

4 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

I can sell you some, but the price has gone up since the lockdown.

What's your opinion on Labour party grandees accepting honours or, say, peerages, Granny?  

[Granny Danger]

12 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Not sure...how much are your mob selling season tickets for now?

C’mon that was mine.

[Granny Danger]

10 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

What's your opinion on Labour party grandees accepting honours or, say, peerages, Granny?  

I was never a grandee, I was barely a gr.

[BFTD]

Just now, Granny Danger said:

I was never a grandee, I was barely a gr.

I was more hoping for a rant about Lord Kinnock, or even Prescott  

[Jimmy Shaker]

Saw him in Aberdeen six years ago and it was a two-sided evening. One can only assume the film he was punting was the reason for him doing this again. He opened with five minutes of material about being old and ill, explaining that if his arm started to raise itself up in the air we weren't to worry as it was a medical issue. The crowd humoured him, but there's only so much 'well I had this and now I've got this' folk will sit through and a howl of 'get on with it' forced him to get to the meat of the act soon after. Old anecdotes about his time in Aberdeen, some rehashed stuff that could have come from any comedian and some luvvy name dropping filled most of the 90 minutes. The sight of Connolly laughing at his own material and forgetting what the hell he's talking about isn't new to anyone familiar with him, but seeing him doing it this time was rather sad as you realised he HAD actually forgotten what he was talking about, and he relied quite heavily on notes taped to the table on the middle of the stage. For Connolly a Scottish audience is an open goal, even for one in Aberdeen of whom he asked, after a spell of silence, 'are youse a photo of a :censored: audience or what?', and his presence was as appreciated as much as it was enjoyed. 

He was hilarious as an act, even if his material didn't all land, but he looked every one of his years and more, and the sight of him shuffling off stage at the end to be helped backstage by minder was a sad way to end a show. 

Tickets were changing hands for a fair bit of money ahead of this but it was more than worth hanging onto them to see him live