You often hear the refrain ‘Well that’s 5 minutes I won’t get back’. But I’m glad I increased my time in the presence of a hero of mine last week. Billy Connolly is a stand up comedian who has been doing his craft for over 30 years, and is one of the original pioneers which has lead to comedians as rock stars selling out stadiums today. Last week, we attended his sold out stand up show at the Queen Elizabeth theater, down town Vancouver.
Billy doesn’t practice the traditional sentence = punch line style to achieve laughs. Growing up in Glasgow, he worked his formative years as a welder on the Strath Clyde shipyards, a traditional pursuit for working class males. What he discovered among the profanity and machismo was his love of the ordinary, those common stories that we can all relate to that can make us a laugh. In fact, what is so endearing about his view of the world is unabashed chest thumping scream in defense of common sense. In Billy’s world this is being constantly under attack by political correctness of an educated elite. Hence, his defense of the ‘C’ word as a term of endearment, which admittedly he feels didn’t take hold on this side of the world.
Billy’s humor is not intended is to hurt people purposively: ‘I’m not in the business of wounding people’ (Billy’s Blog:www.billyconnolly.com) but pointing out what we all see and laugh at. He will often take notice of fans who do have genuine cause of concern. On his blog he talks of receiving a letter from a mother who has a son who is a deaf. While she laughed at his imitation of deaf people, inside she hurt as it was so life like. He wrote back to apologize and told her I’m sorry I hurt you and decided not to do it again.
A self confessed ‘irritant’ he hates when those men in suits ‘….tell us what to say’. So, when he talked about recently seeing the fattest women in the world on television, he described how he couldn’t see her face as it was hidden behind a wall of fat. Meanwhile, his husband washed her, like ‘..he was washing the side of a van….’ The hall erupted in nervous, but very loud laughter. Which really speaks volumes of our own sensibilities in todays world. As Canadians we take pride to portray a face of educated enlightenment. Yet, we still thirst for a need to laugh ourselves without appearing to belittle those different or less fortunate to ourselves. Billy invites you to join him and laugh at the men who walks into a pole because it is funny, not because by doing so, we are putting them down as a person.
10 years ago in 2000, I saw him in the same venue. And like last week, he delivered his irreverent humor for 3 solid hours! Back then, by the second hour I could hardly draw breath as my gut protested with constant laughter – and I had another hour to go! Youtube when Billy was facing 40 and have to have that exam all males should have (Hint: Movember Baby!). You’ll never look at trains the same way again!
You can only sit back and admire how this craftsmen practice’s his craft of the spoken word. When telling a story, Connolly paints a rich verbal landscape which will dip and dive into antidotes, musings, insights and reflections along the way. Somehow, which is only known to Billy himself, he will somehow tie up all those loose ends we just experienced together some 40 minutes later. This is his performance signature which he is renowned for, and which keep bringing back fans around the world to see him live.
A confirmed hippy at heart, he grows his trademark beard long and proudly grey. (Several years ago he dyed it a mad shade of violet as a protest against old age!). He is 68 now and sharp as ever. But now brings a number of odd pieces of paper with sight words to weave his verbal journey and stopping himself going down ‘one way streets’ as he goes off on another tangent through his verbal journeys.
The Big Yin and the Kid - May 2000
A co worker explained that he watched Connolly on youtube, as he admired his sense of rhythm whilst performing on stage. For the stand up comedian, the oxygen of a true comic is their timing and pace. To deliver their material in such a way to provoke laughter at the absurdities of the world we live in. Connolly’s sheer passion for life is ever evident in his performances (see is travel documentaries as he takes his craft across the world). So, it was painful to see when a heckler attempted to connect with him and failed miserably. He had just mentioned his bewilderment at attending conventions and doing shows where fans would turn up in full Scottish regalia. Not 10 minutes later a man walked down the aisle wearing a kilt, late to get to his seat. The ‘fan’ started bellowing when Scotland was mentioned. ‘Hey pal, do us a favor – shut the f*** up!’ It was gratifying when Billy shouted him down after referring to the English, when the fan starting booing. ‘Yeah, yeah that’s just justification for failure!’
You’d think being publicly embarrassed he would shut up. But a little later he did it again! As Billy was retelling the ridiculousness of so many submarines having accidents – the idiot shouted again. He distracted Billy enough to pull him off his natural rhythm, and he stated very clearly that the guy was killing him. He kept walking across the stage to get back into space as the insults flew within the audience at the vocal offender. (We never knew what he was attempting to say about submarines having accidents all the time…………)
But that is the paradox of celebrity. We attempt to bridge that gap between us, as the fan and those we admire. Yet, while we know so much about them through the media, they – the celebrity – know nothing about as an individual. It must be bewildering to have people approach you with best intentions, yet they know nothing about you. However, as I did 10 years ago, I did go back to the back stage door to see if he would come out again. Being the gracious gentlemen he is, he came out warm smiles wearing a beautifully crafted leather jacket. He shook my hand and signed his autograph, and we marked the moment with another picture together.
Once again I left admiring someone who has the world on his shoulder but doesn’t seem to be missing a beat in his advancing years. By highlighting how really good life is for the fortunate, we can all benefit from Billy’s view on life that sees people as inherently decent and meaning well to others. Speak your mind, be yourself and laugh at your own and life’s idiosyncrasies. Otherwise you could be just a ‘..potbellied boring old fart like everyone else’.
The world needs more Billy!
In the meantime……..
peeeeeaaaacccceeeeee out sisters!
skinnyscronnybrit.com 