Billy Connolly

The Billy Connolly concert was superb. Laughed so much I was in pain. I think he gave me a hernia, the bad man. I was falling off my seat with the laughing. He must be the funniest, most hilarious, daftest, thoroughly Scottish performer in the universe. And needless to say the most outrageous, dangerously naughty, taking it to the limit many times till you're thinking God please stop Billy it's too much, but he just gets funnier and you hurt some more with the laughter and joy of it all.

He walked on stage to a standing ovation which seemed like it wasn't going to stop. He waved his hand at us to get us to stop "you're only doing that 'cos I'm no well." He started off talking about his Parkinson's and all the funny things it does to him, how his left arm tends to involuntarily drift upwards so it looks as if he is holding a raincoat, which sure enough it does throughout his performance. He was advised by Ian Holm to put his hand in his pocket if it began to shake which lead on to some funny stuff about visiting an art gallery and some unfortunate experiences viewing some nudes.

He mentioned his cancer at the start and promised to come back to it before the end, but either he forgot or he just ran out of time. Probably the latter as he was on stage for two hours and fifteen minutes of non stop performance. How he managed it is beyond me. I've seen many Festival Fringe comedians over the years and none of them give much more than an hour by which time they are usually exhausted and run out of material. Not Billy who seemingly could have gone on for ever, till he says " oh fuck that me finished" and walks slowly off stage.

He finds absurdity everywhere he looks and has the wonderful talent to turn the absurd into the most ridiculous long winded stories imaginable, sometimes appearing to lose his thread but always finding his way back, even though he has to ask once or twice "why the fuck am I telling you this?"

 What a comedian. Quite simply the best. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to see him live for once in my life. I waited a long time for it but it was so worthwhile. Thank you Kieran for taking me. And I forgot about my own cancer for over two hours. A record perhaps?