The Iceberg that looked like Jesus

From his Live In London 2010 DVD

More Billy Connolly videos

Born in a poor tenement block, Connolly was abandoned by his mother, Mamie, at the age of three and brought up by his aunt, Mona, who used to beat him, and his father, William, who sexually abused him - a background explored in his 2001 biography Billy.

As a teenager, he joined the Clyde shipyards, where he served his apprenticeship as a welder. While working there, he bought a banjo for £2 10s after seeing blues singer Pete Seger on the TV, and started performing on Scotland's folk circuit as part of a band called the Humblebums, which counted Gerry Rafferty among its members.

While performing, Connolly noticed that audiences warmed to the banter between his songs, which built up his confidence. In 1970, the band split up and he started performing solo.

Also during his time at the shipyards, he met his first wife, Iris, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

His big break was on the Parkinson show in 1975, which made him a star and led to his first UK tour: The Big Wee Tour.

He spent many years on the road, the lifestyle taking its toll, and he became a heavy drinker, until he gave up alcohol in 1986.

His reputation grew and grew, and he eventually moved to California to try to break into the US, with varying degrees of success.

In 1989, he married Pamela Stephenson, who he met while recording a sketch for Not The Nine O'Clock News.

CV

Billy Connolly: The Man Live tour
Live Review
Birmingham Symphony Hall

Billy Connolly certainly got on better with the people of Birmingham than he did in Blackpool and Scarborough. Last night there was no sign of the disruptive walk-outs, heckles and flouncing off in exasperation that’s got this tour the wrong sort of reputation.

The most notable thing that happened is that Connolly lost his thread a couple of times. Of course digressions are all part of his style – even if he insists on stage, ‘it’s not a technique; I have attention deficit disorder’ – but here he ground to a complete halt at one point, genuinely forgetting where he was. He came close another couple of times, despite frequently glancing at the notes carefully positioned by his drink.

It’s a rare reminder that he’s 69 years old. An age, he says, when he stops asking friends how their mums are. But based on his stage passion, your would barely know it. Jackie Mason, currently on a London residency, seems like an old man in comparison, and only six years Connolly’s senior.

Aside from his grey hair, trimmed short for this tour, the shorn Connolly has the enthusiasm, energy and stamina he’s always had, talking spiritedly for dead on two hours non-stop. Although whether he actually needs to demonstrate such staying power is a moot point, since an interval would definitely have been welcome.

Connolly’s not only youthful, he’s positively childish, obsessed with anything that comes out of the arse, excited to pull off practical jokes, and taking delight in making rude sounds. One routine is based almost entirely on him doing aeroplane noises – and given his stage get-up looks like stripy pyjama trousers and baggy T-shirt, it subconsciously evokes the idea of a boy showing off his party tricks to the grown-ups so he can stay up late, while being cheeky with his naughty words.

Playing up is his religion: he advocates singing loudly and with the wrong lyrics to clear supermarket queues, playing pranks on sleeping railway passengers and implicitly celebrates the drunks of Edinburgh’s Rose Street, however badly behaved, for their free spirit.

Quite how long it’s been since Connolly has actually behaved like this is immaterial, he captures the essence of his feckless younger days entertainingly, and effortlessly segues it with more grown-up concerns, like the makeshift way of trying to cure his sleep apnoea.

On broader observational topics, he’s not quite so distinctive. He might have come up with a recipe for this type of stand-up, back in the day, but it’s been taken to new levels by others. Comments about Steve Urwin’s death, political correctness gone mad or those overeaters so obese they need to be cut out of their house, feel dog-eared.

Yet a moment later he’ll grab the room with a virtuoso routine, such as the one about the fat-buster drug he saw advertised in the States. Sure, discussion of the side-effects in the disclaimer is a cliché, especially for American comics bombarded by such ads, but the way he latches on to one scatological possibility plays to his every strength, and it’s impossible to keep a straight face.

There’s a darker undertone to a routine towards the end of a show, set in the hospital room where his father was recovering from a stroke. It sits on uncomfortable territory, but in seeking laughs from our inevitable deterioration, Connolly wants to tweak the nose of Death.

It’s the unsaid philosophy of this show, as it has been for comedy through the ages. That despite all our pretensions, humans are ridiculous machines, spurting out excrement until we start malfunctioning and eventually conk out. That may be true, but expect many more years of good service out of this Big Yin model.

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Flew over from Belfast to see Billy in Newcastle on the 19th. a great show to see. Had an absolute blast. Yes there were some bits and pieces that have been heard before but also a lot of new pieces. Its like seeing an older band, they do some of their old hits and some new bits. Not that uncommon. But he showed last night why he is Billy Connolly, and from the sound of the audience any one who says the show wasnt good is one hell of a liar. Great Show Billy.

Richard, January 2012

Saw him last Saturday at the Apollo and I have to say the gig was the worst I've seen in years (and I've seen dozens of stand-ups in the last year alone). The advertised 2.5 hours turned out to be nearer 1 hour 50, but in the end that was a blessing. He either didn't bother to prepare (why would you bother if you can sell out venues and live-off your former glory?) or he's losing his marbles because he re-used vast amounts of material, constantly went-off at tangents and he seemed incapable of coming-back to stories to finish them off. Some of his material deserved to rest in peace in the 1970s when it was written and simply isn't funny in 2010. The funniest thing was a one-liner about a hole in a flower pot. Sadly it was all very lame.

Malc, January 2010

He just finished his UK tour, but he skipped Ireland and not for the first time. It's a real slap in the face to all his fans in Ireland, a place he's always talked about with fondness before. He's played Australia, America, Canada, and the UK, surely a few dates over here wasn't going to harm him in any way?I just want to know if he's ever going to play here again or not, I don't want to waste my time checking his website to see he's changed his mind. Pissed-off Connolly Fan.

Robert Pidgeon, November 2007

Saw the Big Yin live once - almost wet myself with laughter. He has a knack of taking the normal everyday things in life and finding a funny side. This comedian is a must see, must hear, must meet guy. I will never look at Scotland again without a smile on my face.

Mark Jordan, October 2007

I can honestly say I've never laughed so hard. At several points the whole audience was gagging for air. Still on top form. I suspect many of those who trash him haven't even seen him live.

Charles Thomson, October 2007

Saw Billy at the Hammersmith Apollo, and he's far from lost it. I personally thought he was consistently brilliant for the full three hours. OK, so the Ken Bigley comments were a tad misjudged, but if some unknown comic said the same things in a students' union bar, no bugger would bat an eyelid. Connolly's delivery and material still exceeds much of the dross peddled by newer comedians.

Richard Bailey, October 2004

I suggest that is is the media who are seeking sensation and hence profit on the back of another countryman's desperate suffering. Billy's shows had already sold out completely before he even made those comments, so he was gaining nothing, simply voicing an opinion. If you're looking for the real cowards, turn to the media, not Billy Connolly.

Sandra, October 2004

Obviously he's a legend, but that dosen't mean he can't f**k up now and again. Silly old bugger, absolutley no need to mention the Thai bride...

Hamish, October 2004

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