Billy Connolly
Nov. 13th, 2010 01:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sgt_tibbsI saw Billy Connolly yesterday, at the Rebecca Cohn auditorium in the Dalhousie Arts Centre. It was absolutely brilliant, and I've decided to try to blog about it (and hopefully any other live comedy I see in the future).
I went to the show with my friend Laura. We had plans to meet up at Mary's Place diner, which was just a quick walk away from Dal's main campus. I managed to miss the bus by half a freaking second (geez), but I still got to the diner in pretty good time. I ordered the veggie TLC, and despite the fact that what I was brought out was not a TLC (it had neither tomatoes nor cheese, although it did have lettuce among other things), it was still delicious, so I let that slide.
We meandered over to the Arts Centre but we were a good half hour early so we took a side trip to the nearest Tim Horton's for coffee (they only seemed to be serving beer at the thing). We got back and mingled with the crowd, who seemed to be a bit older than we were expecting but still a good mix of people, and we noticed a few lovely accents on offer; as Laura said "it's like all the Brits in the city are here", which we agreed was not at all a bad thing. As we made our way to our seats, I took a couple of pictures -- of the crowd, and the stage and Laura -- which are unfortunately still on my phone as I can't find the card to transfer them to my laptop. However the pictures did prove useful a few moments later when Laura pointed out an unusual sign hanging from the balcony which read something like "My family is Maltese, Welcome Neighbour". We didn't know if someone up there had hung it down, or what all it had to do with Mr. Connolly, but by looking through the pictures I had taken I was able to deduce that the sign had not been there moments before. Still don't know what it was all about, though. And unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good shot of the two lovely old men who came in wearing tams.
The lights went down and everyone clapped like crazy; in fact we were all so loud I didn't quite hear what he said at first, although I assume it was something like 'hello New Scotland', since he then followed it up with "I'm from Old Scotland". He would come back to this a few times, the difference between "New Scotland" and Scotland, and our, um, perception and interpretation of Scottish culture, although that was one of the topics he stated on and then wandered away from so I'm not sure he said all he meant to. He has a very rambling style, which I really enjoyed. He talked about it a bit; about coming across an article on himself in an airplane magazine that discussed his wonderful "process", how he'd leave on tangents and always come back to the exact spot he'd left off ("bollocks! sometimes I don't come back at all"), and then later about how he'd been surprised to learn he had ADD, as he thought he just had a "process". He swore quite a bit, and in fact early in the show made a point of saying that anyone who had a problem with it should "just, well, just go away. Just... fuck off!" This met with fervent agreement from the crowd. We're a swear-y bunch, I guess.
Other topics of conversation included his belief that we should all be irritants (and different ways we could go about doing this), the resemblance of Scottish old ladies to scones, the "new" buildings in Chicago, how true stories can often be shit, Donald Trump (that bit was absolutely brilliant; "is that what he thinks of us? That we believe he has hair??", oh I wish I'd gotten a picture of him doing the hair), the hilarity of people falling (especially into manholes), tattoos (and the difference between a thistle and a pineapple), his grandfather, Satnav voices (he'd recorded one and was sad that he couldn't mess around with it "go right... no! left! LEFT!", but he didn't want anyone to die) and trying to find his way around on his British tour. And a lot more about religion than I was expecting. One of the ways he suggests that we be irritants is to go to church and yell things like "how does that work?" or just "EXPLAIN!" Very funny. And I'm glad I had Laura there with me, as otherwise I would've missed some funny bits, like "I used to be Catholic, but I paid the fine and I got out".
There was a bit of audience interaction, like when he said our laughter was too distracting and he couldn't remember what he'd been on about ("Especially you! Shut up!"), or when some people showed up AN HOUR INTO THE SHOW ("Where have you been? We've been worried sick! Called the hospitals and everything. Don't worry, you haven't missed anything, I've just been filling time til you got here"), or when the ushers kept coming down the isles ("Are you looking for someone?" and then, striking a pose, "is it.. meeee?"), and talking about how he didn't like the little steps that went up from the centre isle onto the stage, as he feared any moment people would rush up to the stage to attack him and he would have to fight them off ("I'll have you know I'm a White Sock, my feet are registered with the post office! My big toe could kill a man!").
In all, he went on for about two and a half hours, barely pausing to take breath. Although he did stop a few times when he was laughing too much himself. It was brilliant, his face would get really red and at one point he looked like he might collapse to the floor. I love people who can laugh at their own stories, but not make you feel like they're being pretentious. He ended with a joke he'd heard when he was young, having to do with a man injured in war and an elephant's trunk, and even though I could see where the joke was going, the way he told it was just great. He got a standing ovation, and then he was off. Laura and I waited around for a bit after buying some merchandise (buttons for me and a t-shirt for dad), as I was hoping I'd be able to get him to sign a dvd for me (The Impostors, one of the first things I'd seen him in; if you haven't seen it, it's fucking hilarious), but after a while I started to feel a bit too stalkerish for my liking, so we left it at that. It was a fan-fucking-tabulous show, and I am so glad I went!
I went to the show with my friend Laura. We had plans to meet up at Mary's Place diner, which was just a quick walk away from Dal's main campus. I managed to miss the bus by half a freaking second (geez), but I still got to the diner in pretty good time. I ordered the veggie TLC, and despite the fact that what I was brought out was not a TLC (it had neither tomatoes nor cheese, although it did have lettuce among other things), it was still delicious, so I let that slide.
We meandered over to the Arts Centre but we were a good half hour early so we took a side trip to the nearest Tim Horton's for coffee (they only seemed to be serving beer at the thing). We got back and mingled with the crowd, who seemed to be a bit older than we were expecting but still a good mix of people, and we noticed a few lovely accents on offer; as Laura said "it's like all the Brits in the city are here", which we agreed was not at all a bad thing. As we made our way to our seats, I took a couple of pictures -- of the crowd, and the stage and Laura -- which are unfortunately still on my phone as I can't find the card to transfer them to my laptop. However the pictures did prove useful a few moments later when Laura pointed out an unusual sign hanging from the balcony which read something like "My family is Maltese, Welcome Neighbour". We didn't know if someone up there had hung it down, or what all it had to do with Mr. Connolly, but by looking through the pictures I had taken I was able to deduce that the sign had not been there moments before. Still don't know what it was all about, though. And unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good shot of the two lovely old men who came in wearing tams.
The lights went down and everyone clapped like crazy; in fact we were all so loud I didn't quite hear what he said at first, although I assume it was something like 'hello New Scotland', since he then followed it up with "I'm from Old Scotland". He would come back to this a few times, the difference between "New Scotland" and Scotland, and our, um, perception and interpretation of Scottish culture, although that was one of the topics he stated on and then wandered away from so I'm not sure he said all he meant to. He has a very rambling style, which I really enjoyed. He talked about it a bit; about coming across an article on himself in an airplane magazine that discussed his wonderful "process", how he'd leave on tangents and always come back to the exact spot he'd left off ("bollocks! sometimes I don't come back at all"), and then later about how he'd been surprised to learn he had ADD, as he thought he just had a "process". He swore quite a bit, and in fact early in the show made a point of saying that anyone who had a problem with it should "just, well, just go away. Just... fuck off!" This met with fervent agreement from the crowd. We're a swear-y bunch, I guess.
Other topics of conversation included his belief that we should all be irritants (and different ways we could go about doing this), the resemblance of Scottish old ladies to scones, the "new" buildings in Chicago, how true stories can often be shit, Donald Trump (that bit was absolutely brilliant; "is that what he thinks of us? That we believe he has hair??", oh I wish I'd gotten a picture of him doing the hair), the hilarity of people falling (especially into manholes), tattoos (and the difference between a thistle and a pineapple), his grandfather, Satnav voices (he'd recorded one and was sad that he couldn't mess around with it "go right... no! left! LEFT!", but he didn't want anyone to die) and trying to find his way around on his British tour. And a lot more about religion than I was expecting. One of the ways he suggests that we be irritants is to go to church and yell things like "how does that work?" or just "EXPLAIN!" Very funny. And I'm glad I had Laura there with me, as otherwise I would've missed some funny bits, like "I used to be Catholic, but I paid the fine and I got out".
There was a bit of audience interaction, like when he said our laughter was too distracting and he couldn't remember what he'd been on about ("Especially you! Shut up!"), or when some people showed up AN HOUR INTO THE SHOW ("Where have you been? We've been worried sick! Called the hospitals and everything. Don't worry, you haven't missed anything, I've just been filling time til you got here"), or when the ushers kept coming down the isles ("Are you looking for someone?" and then, striking a pose, "is it.. meeee?"), and talking about how he didn't like the little steps that went up from the centre isle onto the stage, as he feared any moment people would rush up to the stage to attack him and he would have to fight them off ("I'll have you know I'm a White Sock, my feet are registered with the post office! My big toe could kill a man!").
In all, he went on for about two and a half hours, barely pausing to take breath. Although he did stop a few times when he was laughing too much himself. It was brilliant, his face would get really red and at one point he looked like he might collapse to the floor. I love people who can laugh at their own stories, but not make you feel like they're being pretentious. He ended with a joke he'd heard when he was young, having to do with a man injured in war and an elephant's trunk, and even though I could see where the joke was going, the way he told it was just great. He got a standing ovation, and then he was off. Laura and I waited around for a bit after buying some merchandise (buttons for me and a t-shirt for dad), as I was hoping I'd be able to get him to sign a dvd for me (The Impostors, one of the first things I'd seen him in; if you haven't seen it, it's fucking hilarious), but after a while I started to feel a bit too stalkerish for my liking, so we left it at that. It was a fan-fucking-tabulous show, and I am so glad I went!
