Billy Connolly - Live 2002 (DVD)

Billy Connolly is a comedian you either love or hate. I am one of those people who can go into hysterical laugher just looking at him. If you like things to be clean and politically correct, then this Billy Connolly DVD, like most of his other recordings, is not for you. I have kept it as clean as possible using "bleeps" where bad language is freely used on the DVD.

I first became aware of Billy ("The Big 'Yin") ...
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The DVD Billy Connolly Live 2002 is just as hilarious as his many other recordings. In fact when I first watched it, I did my usual trick of sliding out of my armchair and then rolling about the floor laughing.

It opens in Dublin to a packed house of cheering punters and that's before he's even said a word. Then he opens by going into a funny story of what it was like crossing the road in the city with hysterical impersonations ... more

Billy Connolly is a comedian you either love or hate. I am one of those people who can go into hysterical laugher just looking at him. If you like things to be clean and politically correct, then this Billy Connolly DVD, like most of his other recordings, is not for you. I have kept it as clean as possible using "bleeps" where bad language is freely used on the DVD.

I first became aware of Billy ("The Big 'Yin") back in the early seventies when a Glaswegian friend of mine played an LP of his. It took me a while to understand the thick Scottish accent and I was then in stitches of laughter all the way through as he rattled through anecdotes of his childhood in Glasgow, working in the shipyards and then on to toilets in aeroplanes and British Rail. I have loved to watch him ever since on his many television chat shows and I never fail to have tears of laughter running down my cheeks. This is not quite the case with some of the other members of my family. That's why I say you either love him or hate him.

The DVD Billy Connolly Live 2002 is just as hilarious as his many other recordings. In fact when I first watched it, I did my usual trick of sliding out of my armchair and then rolling about the floor laughing.

It opens in Dublin to a packed house of cheering punters and that's before he's even said a word. Then he opens by going into a funny story of what it was like crossing the road in the city with hysterical impersonations of dodging the traffic.

Then he talks about one of his pet hates… shopping. He sarcastically tells his audience that there's nothing he "enjoys" more than shopping for "bleeping" cardigans. Just the look on his face gets everybody in fits of laughter.

Next comes a little tale of working an old people's home earlier in his career where he went down like a lead balloon, saying, "it's hard to be funny to people who are knitting and then there's the sound of boiled sweets knocking on dentures."

The performance carries on with stories about the 1940s and 50s when the world was "beige" and we listened to weird music (he starts singing an old song with silly lyrics). Mind you, he adds, music since has also had its rubbish.

It wouldn't be Billy Connolly without reference to flatulence - he admits himself that he has an anal fixation! His next story tells of a hospital porter who wheels dead bodies around in a wheelbarrow and talks of them breaking wind and scaring the bleep out of him in the dead of night.

The story then progresses to reality TV and how he finds it incredible that people would actually be entertained sitting in a house, watching other people sitting in a house! It's just the way he tell 'em!

Suddenly, a mobile phone goes off in the audience. It was almost as if it was part of the act, because this launches Billy in funny stories about people using mobile phones in public, which somehow end up as a story about America. Then Bill Clinton and if you haven't already guessed it already, we are back to sex.

The subject of yoga is the next thing to come up, which gradually brings him back to his infamous anal fixation as he describes what happens to wind when it's been trapped in the body "since 1947" and you suddenly start stretching into various yoga postures - this is done with accompanying "sound effects" of course.

This then takes him to a tale about going to the doctor and his shock when he discovers what it means to have a test for prostate problems. And then he tells of his wife's reaction of hysterical laughter when he goes home and moans about it.

In Belfast, he talks of astrology, feng shui and aromatherapy - which he particularly knocks with his phrase, "smell yourself better!" An hysterical tale of a terrible road accident then is related with an aroma-therapist trying to help out.

In Killarney, he talks of his dislike for sand and beaches and sites as the root of his hatred, being forced when on holiday, to go to the beach with his parents in the rain.

He's in Newcastle next, telling more funny tales about sleep apnea (snoring) and his home remedies for it and what happened when he was in Australia.

In Plymouth, it's the turn of old people again and is all about him asking his children to tell him if he's picking up "oldies" habits like sticking his tongue out to receive his food etc. It gets very funny as his demonstrates the actions.

In London he is talking about e-mail and computers and how he thinks it is all a con. and goes into a funny story about airport receptionists working on their computers - with all the relative impersonations.

In Cardiff, it's all about shopping for shoes and the difference in the activity between women and men. This progresses on to what would happen if two guys went off to the toilet as two women do.

In Manchester, it's all about obese people claiming to be big-boned. Saying things like, "Yeh! That's a big stomach bone you've got there!"

In Bournemouth he talks about Australia and eating and dropping vegi-mite sandwiches in bed in a hotel and the reaction when he the porter discovers the stains on the sheet. I won't spoil it by telling you what he says and does next.

In the final show in Sheffield, Billy is back talking about sex, this time with a description about making sex scenes for a movie and the instructions he is given by the director. This reminds him of another anecdote about a guy who used to show blue movies back in Scotland on film and what happened when they were played backwards.

The DVD is written by Billy himself and runs to about 1hour 40 minutes. It has a 15 certificate, but given all the language it contains I would hardly say it is suitable for family viewing.

The DVD is available from Amazon at £19.99 or second-hand from as little as £4.00

Thanks for reading.

 

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