Now, I’ve never been a massive fan of Billy Connolly. His classic material – you know, appearances on Parkinson and other late night TV – is obviously demonstrative of wonderful storytelling, but when you start analyzing it, that’s all it is.
Throwing a few swear words into a vaguely amusing tale doesn’t suddenly make it hilarious. Sadly plenty of comics who followed Connolly missed this key point.
But Connolly is always engaging; he’s had a great career as a comedian, actor and husband to a clinical psychologist (which I’m sure you knew; everyone else does) but over the past few days he seems to be going through something of a rough time.
Two shows have been cut short by hecklers, making comments that the Big Yin might once have taken in his stride. Making a stand-up comeback at 69 is a brave decision, of course, and it might well prove that Connolly is past playing to large audiences.
Commenting on a local newspaper, one audience member observed:
“He is a professional and has surely had hecklers like this before without walking off. When he left the stage he wasn’t smiling and didn’t thank the audience for attending.”
Now what is interesting about this is that Connolly appears to be recycling old material, which is pretty disappointing – assuming the audience weren’t expecting this.
So what next?
The best solution would seem to be for Billy Connolly to cancel his tour and reschedule into a series of smaller venues where true fans can pay for an evening of recollections and old material. Basically, they should be getting what they’re paying for. As things stand, his website is listing a continuation of the tour but if things carry on like this a rethink is most definitely needed.
To give some encouragement to the old guy – whose travelling-on-my-trike shows are always must-see TV, here’s a bit of classic material for today’s Comedy Gold entry.