What this country needs is more Billy Connolly...

[ForrestGump]

As a public service, I'm herein making it my mission to open the eyes of the uninitiated to the splendor and glory of that mad Scotsman, Billy Connolly. And if you do know Billy's act(s), some of the clips below might crack you up. So far my Christmas day has consisted of flicking through clips of Billy posted on that infernal youtube thing. Not a bad way to spend some time.

Billy Connolly's been a huge name around the world since the early '70s, with the main exception being the United States. He's become better known in the US in recent years, not least because of some high-profile roles in Hollywood films, but he's still an unknown to many Americans. if you're one of these poor, benighted philistines, the following clips might begin to give you some idea of the man's abilities as a comedian. Or, really, more of a storyteller...he ad-libs a lot, wanders off on tangents -- sometimes never returning to the original thread -- and even when he is working off a piece that's part of a more set repertoire for that time in his career he never tells it twice the same way.

I think he's a genius, and if I had to pick one comic-type-person as the best he'd be my choice, possibly with Robin Williams (his friend...if you've seen Robin Williams' Broadway turn of a few years ago, the golf story's obviously inspired by Billy) somewhere not too far behind. The first time I ever saw him was when he was being interviewed by Michael Parkinson, on British TV, back in 1975...it remains one of the funniest things I've ever seen (Parkinson not only played a big part in boosting Billy's profile but is himself a legend, being to my mind perhaps the perfect TV interviewer and therefore someone that his cloying, sensation-seeking American counterparts, including such sacred cows as Barbara Walters, could do well to emulate).

Billy ended up marrying Pamela Stephenson, a beautiful New Zealander who was in the excellent early-'80s British TV show Not The Nine O'Clock News (that also got Rowan Atkinson and others started off)...she was in one of the Superman movies and one or two other US movies, but she quit it all a while back, got a PhD in psychology, and now practices as a psychologist in Los Angeles, where she and Billy live much of the year.



Here're some clips of the Big Yin in action over the years -- I always liked the 'classic' '70s/early-'80s look with the big hair and the devilish beard, but no matter what the year sometimes just looking at his face can crack me up:

Flying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-dJEQju2I
This one's part of what might be my favorite of any performance I've seen, from an HBO special made in 1989 that intended for Whoopi Goldberg to basically introduce Billy to a broader American audience...this flying part's maybe my favorite bit, though I especially love the part about Nigel Carruthers, King of the Skies, that follows and is not included in this clip. if you happen to catch this show, watch it -- Whoopi's part is something I always fast-forward through (my VHS tape of it's in storage, darn it, these past few years), because it's plain unfunny, but Billy's brilliant.

Reasons for swearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF8lqxi_Nek

Wildebeests and lions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeWoonxzRFM

The Zombie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXdj40ufHHQ

Prostate examination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv3oY5tpSb4

Airplane and train toilets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmpRQLaxF60

Women's demands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXit0FTxa1U

Australia: sharks, funnelweb spider, sea wasps, blue-ringed octopus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gucd0IbRn5c

Graveyards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPjWA6X8sY

F***off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9i_YHjd8c

National Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odNNgEn5l6s

Don't drink the water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvuHGtZU0w

Belfast/Flying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XawTBalqD_8

Roll of linoleum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o33Yoka9iHM

Scrotum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c84onEG44eQ

Swearing, flatulence, itchy bum, etc (clips from the mid-'70s Big Banana Boots tour and more)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Qm4D6X3Mc

Female weightlifter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_gYDiPGAk

The art of self-pleasure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqnUceOIEHE

Incontinence knickers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-t6_n6BR2U

Yes, Your Eminence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubRuI7TvkNI

The world is changing (big beard for his role in the film Mrs Brown)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Mijk1dxx8

Musical interlude (Billy started out as a musician -- including partnering with Gerry Rafferty, later of "Baker Street" fame -- and began working in jokes between his songs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHaLItu2Hf0

BAFTA Tribute to Billy Connolly (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPtgzi3ASw
I happened to be in the UK when this was broadcast (2002) and it's got some great stuff within...if you want to watch the whole thing, search youtube for the other parts of the show...I think it's all there.

[idgiehkt]

1. these are great

I love the part in the one about flying where he says when they're found by anthropologists after the plane crash they'll think there used to be a river there, that's hysterical (why I don't fly, lol)

on the youtube comments it says that the "Yes, Your Eminence" thing really happened to him...wow. The prostate exam one was educational, lol...I didn't know they didn't warn people :shrug: ...and just hearing him pronounce the word 'scrotum' is hysterical, too, that was a funny bit.

Of course my favorite is the women's demands thing...I think I've read that out, probably here, but I never heard him perform it before, pretty brilliant. Thanks for posting all those...aside from reading that 'womens' demands' thing I hadn't heard of him and that is sad...why I like youtube so much because it can really help promote people, if you don't have cable you might never get to see acts like this. It made me think of a couple of bits from the commedienne Sommore that I like, they are short:

Side Effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0AaSGedwAA

Dickmatized:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jjYdLDxDX0

[ForrestGump]

11. Sommore

is funny, feisty, and even makes sense. Thanks for introducing me to her...never heard of her before.



And I like that leather outfit!





I wish that youtube had the continuation of the flying sory by Billy Connolly in which he goes into Nigel Carruthers, ex-RAF pilot with the upper-crust accent who's the archetypal British airline pilot...I love that part. :D

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. I've seen him on TV

I think I saw him on Bill Maher's network show. He has a ton of charisma that comes thru the tube. That is very rare. Funny as hell. I've heard him talk about his "hoose on the loch".

He was also Queen Victoria's closest servant in some movie I've forgotten the name of.

Mrs. Something-or-other-common-name

[mr blur]

7. Mrs Brown. (nt)

[ForrestGump]

12. I still haven't seen "Mrs Brown," but

he's also appeared in a few other US film and TV shows, recent examples including Timeline and The Last Samurai. He's kind of a renaissance man.

[crim son]

3. A wee bit bored this evening?

He's really funny but even if he weren't I'd listen for the accent. Thanks for posting the clips.

[ForrestGump]

13. Not any more

:D

I'm glad you liked the excerpts.... :hi:

[Az]

4. Already a fan

He's nucken futz isn't he?

[ForrestGump]

14. A gree-at mon..........man...

Go Celtics!

[Pretty Go Pale]

5. What this country REALLY needs . . .

. . . is more cowbell.

[ForrestGump]

15. And more

southern belles.

[Kutjara]

6. I've loved Billy since I first encountered his stand-up...

...in the mid 70s. His early stuff is hilarious, but his Glaswegian accent is full blown, so most of it will fly straight over the head of those whose ears are not attuned. By his own admission, he now speaks like the Queen in comparison to how he used to sound.

[ForrestGump]

16. You're right, judging from what little I have here from the '70s

I wish I could find that first Parkinson interview somewhere..it was hilarious. I think it was his first network appearance, around 1975.

[wildhorses]

8. love him and thought he was great in

mrs. brown

[ForrestGump]

17. I've got to see that film one of these days

Judi Dench is good in anything, too. She and he became good buddies on that set.

[peekaloo]

9. The first time I saw him I thought it was John Cleese

and yes he is very funny! More. please.

[ForrestGump]

18. Glad you liked it!

Here're a few more:


America's problem is food
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuUpShuC5dY

Prank call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nj7G264mac

D-I-V-O-R-C-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZzGxReXmo

Sheep shagging
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMdC2i0OXY

Billy's cosmology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9AK0fLAsE

Interview on Canadian TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNAxGJhgdf0

[tigereye]

10. yes!

:thumbsup:

[ForrestGump]

19. Aye!

:headbang: