Entertainment For Lively Minds
Billy Connolly tickets by the f***ing way!!
Posted by Dave Amitri on 30 October 2009 - 11:37pm.
Ordered my tickets tonight for Billy Connolly at The Hammersmith Odeon in January, I've never seen him live and I can't wait. Hope he's as good as this.
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He's a genius.
He played the Pompey Guildhall a while back. I went straight to the box-office the moment I heard about it. I didn't even get a sniff of a ticket.
Not for nothing is he rated as the finest standup of all time by both comics and audiences. A true one-off.
Wonder if he posts here under an alias? He'd probably like Scottish bands like Del Amitri.. might not be averse to the odd bit of self-promotion..
Sorry, but...
I think it's at least 20 years since Connolly was funny. Coincidentally, that's around the time that he introduced the word "fuck" as every second word of his routine. His early stuff (Crucifixion, Jobby Wheecha, etc...) is still brilliant, But I can't bear his current stuff.
It's an interesting point
do I want to see his classic sketches mixed in with new as I would if I was seeing a band or do I want him to make me laugh with all new material? Personally he never misses and no-one has ever made the word f**k sound as funny. I believe he was voted number 1 stand up by his peers, I may be wrong but that'll do for me!
I tend to agree
Maybe it's inevitable. After all, when he started, he was just sharing his observations of Glasgow and his recent experiences working in the shipyards. It was fresh and original. When you know he's a multi-millionaire 'world resident' it doesn't seem to have the same effect. That said, he's undoubtedly still a skilled performer and I also think his 'world travelling' programmes are well done.
I saw him the last time he had a residency at Hammersmith
I laughed so hard I thought I might stop breathing.
Thinking about what billyous said..
Comedy is, of course, subjective and, if billyous doesn't find Billy Connolly funny now, that's billy's standpoint.
My musing is as regards Billy's current "stuff". All comics on the road tour a routine from which they deviate only a little. We know that, they know that. We await the good gags they've honed and the little bits here and there which maybe make you think a little.
With Billy..
And here's the genius..
Does he write anything? It always seems to be the ultimate stream-of-conscience-go-where-you-will show. He is, it would seem to be, a raconteur without comparison. Either that or it is all tightly scripted and he's a much finer actor than he has yet showed us.
Me? I think it's a bit of both.
He writes some of it
When I saw him at Hammersmith it was early in the run (and before the furore over the bit about Ken Bigley, though he said almost identical things to the act which got in the papers, and knew full well what he was doing). Occaisonally he would tell us to 'talk among yourselves' while he referred to a notebook before carrying on.
The Knopfler effect in comedy
There are comics who do the same routine line-for-line night-after-night-after-night. It's known by fellow comics as dead behind the eyes or phoning it in. There are some terrible examples of it among touring big names J Carr for one.
Some of the Irish lads get over this by doing 'ad-libbed' banter with the front row, but even that doesn't change much.
I think that's where Billy, on his night, makes it a much more fulfilling experience.
Untouchable
I've seen him a couple of times in recent memory in Liverpool and both times he stormed it.
Like comics of his standing, you do have to put up with variations on the greatest hits and a wee bit of indulgent 'here's what I think, and it might bit be very funny', but for 90% of the time it's a master class in stand-up.
For a long time I saw stand-up every weekend and have seen most of the current crop of stars as they came up and no-one has ever come anywhere close Billy on his night.
Actually, that's not true, Tommy Tiernan did, but he's now doing Holocaust material
Yep
I've seen many a stand up but none comes close to Connolly live. I also attended the last Hammy O run. Just bloody genius.
TV has never been able to cpature the wonderful freewheeling diversions, offshoots and beauty of his act. a lot of people now hate him cos they see him as a class traitor and Hollywood ponce. Fuck em
Comedy or Coldplay?
That's interesting because after 35 years or so of seeing him on television and not finding him remotely amusing I've always wondered what his appeal is. I like live comedy but I'm not sure I want to take the risk in seeing him live in case I still don't get it and I end up alone in a room with a 1000 other people which is a really odd experience.
There's a parallel with music where people are constantly saying that Coldplay are great live but surely, before going to see them live they liked what they'd heard on record.
Two words
Bill Hicks. I rest my case.
Overrated
I once saw Hicks at the Hackney Empire. It was more ranting than comedy, and just not that funny.
A sort of climb down
Actually you're right, Hicks is the best comic I have ever seen.
I saw him in the Mandela Hall at Queens University in Belfast in 1993 and he was amazing. But, I was there for everything I knew, and got it, and more.
As the years have gone on and I have collected bootlegs, gig trancripts and books, I see that he did a very tight set day-in, no matter what 'Rant in E-Minor' might suggest.
With Billy Connolly it can seem to be being plucked from the ether in front of you.
Musical taste...
I met him in 1988, and we got chatting about music, his favourite album at the time being Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road". Believe he's a big bluegrass fan too, something he shares with his Hollywood pal (and fellow banjo player) Steve Martin.
Agree he's far too sweary now through... he doesn't need that to be funny
And
- of course - he was in a band - The Humblebums - with Gerry Rafferty.
Someone posted a clip of him on the "She was a rare thing" thread fronting a documentary on folk Acoustic Routes. He was very much part of that scene in Scotland before comedy fame struck.
Harry Hill
is the best comedian I have ever seen. In some ways he is similar to B.C. in the way he meanders 'off-topic' but always comes back to the punch line at the end. This was before he became a Saturday night TV favourite but I still think TV Burp is the best show on TV by a country mile.
Another artist
who thinks playing half a dozen nights in the capital amounts to a UK tour!
Over the past couple of years
he did a tour of the UK that was everywhere except London. Its just our turn this time round
And yes Pamela's books on him are some of the biggest waste of trees going. She resorts to quoting large chunks of his act and interviews that other people have had with him. Considering her access to the source its amazing the lack of revelations and sheer dullness of them.
Well, he could hardly confess
"It's my wife, she just doesn't understand me"...
Billy is a rare talent
and his humour is more international than most of our current comedians. A friend in Canada is a massive fan and he regularly sells out there as he does in most of the Commonwealth.
His biography written by Pamela may possibly be the worst biography I have ever read however.
Anyone recall the TV drama he was in about the Orange marches - something like Saturday night, sunday morning. I remember him being frighteningly violent in that.
Indeed I do
Scared the poo out of me. It was part of a Play For Today series, and amazingly is available on DVD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Another-Saturday-Billy-Connolly/dp/B000H5TI...
I thought Frankie Miller was in it too, but that my just be my wandering memory.
Edit:
Frankie Miller question resolved on the above link - different play - "Just A Boy's Game". Even more violent if I recall.
Hammersmith Odeon!
I am so glad to be part a community where the Hammersmith Odeon never became the Apollo. I saw Bruce Springsteen there in 1975, Blondie in 1980, Emmylou Harris in 1976, etc., etc. I have so many great great memories that I could never accept the name change.
I have had many enjoyable evenings there since the change but as far as I was concerned, I was at the Hammersmith Odeon - Theatre of Dreams.
No seats = progress
I still think of it as the Odeon but I think it's a far better venue since the name change. Only when they take the seats out downstairs though.
Bummer....
....been waiting ages for him to play London again and I find out 2 bloody days after the tickets went on sale. All sold out. FFS!!! :o(