Billy ConnollyResenhas

I read the hard copy of this one, mainly because I was already midway through a different audio book and wanted something lighter in my hands before bed, and this one was right there calling to me. Lots of laugh out loud moments but I’m saving the five stars for the inevitable listen later on. Billy simply must be listened to. It’s just the way it is ❤️

A pleasantly meandering memoir from Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, in which he reminisces about his childhood in the working-class Glasgow tenements and his early career. There are a couple of false notes here—is he really the same old Billy as always, as he insists, when he makes sure you know from the get-go that he's now Sir William and that Prince Charles attends his birthday parties?—but this is still an amiable look back at life from the Big Yin.

I've always felt a little Billy Connolly goes a long way. Most of the time I just don't find him particularly funny, even more so here as his material doesn't translate well from the stage to the printed page. I would never have looked at this book if it hadn't been a book club choice and I read the book out of a sense of duty which probably didn't help.

It's like having Billy visit for a week and tell his stories. Funny, thoughtful, revealing, sometimes sad, unpretentiously different. But then I'm a biased fan.

Due to the fact that early on in his life he was abandoned by his mother and, allegedly, abused by his father, he appears to have become something of an albeit rather amusing, attention seeking, exhibitionist.
I used to find Billy Connolly funny, maybe he was, on stage, in print I find him extremely tedious.

Been a committed, somewhat besotted fan of Billy Connolly's forever - not just for his humour, but for his observations about life, aging, and all the saggy bits. I've quoted "no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes", since I heard him say it. Regarded his assertion that you should never pass an opportune toilet by after the age of 60 as one of the sagest bits of advice ever (along with never trust a fart), and then there's his general humour under great adversity. Which I've not managed, but as things start to fail in the body department, I'm starting to understand. We're a very lucky generation indeed to be following just behind the Big Yin, getting glimpses into how to age disgracefully with such grace.

WINDSWEPT AND INTERESTING contains a lot of stories and anecdotes from his life - many of which dedicated followers will be aware of, some of which will have you crying with laughter even if you have heard them before. There's the sadness of an incredibly difficult childhood, a wild and eccentric working life, a past marriage that failed and the guilt he still feels over that, and a present marriage that seems heaven sent. There's his love for his kids, his love of life, even with Parkinson's Disease and a myriad of other health problems including deafness.

Mostly, though, there's that voice - the soundtrack of much of my life, his accent, his voice, his way of meandering around a tale and heading off on tangents, and returning to the central thread (sometimes). There's the unapologetic swearing (which I heartily support), there's the brightly coloured, eccentric clothes (that he can have on his own - including the banana boots, although I heartily concur about beige and wouldn't be caught dead....), and there's his attitude.

Listened to this audiobook narrated by Connolly. You can hear the Parkinson's in his voice these days (got a very good friend with the same disease and it's nasty), but you can still hear the fun, and the cheek and the laughter - the telling of one anecdote in the book had him corpsing with laughter during the narration, which had me with tears running down my face I was laughing along so much.

Would listen to Billy Connolly recite his shopping list, but we're so fortunate to have the opportunity to hear him still, especially as his comedy touring days are now at an end.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/windswept-interesting-billy-connolly

Seeing a book by Billy Connolly, I was expecting a nice, laid-back, soft chuckling story about his trip down Route 66. Instead, as far as I read (a couple chapters) I got references to other films/books Connolly has done, then a very dry-feeling history of not only Route 66, but cars and the American Highway system. By this point, I was forcing myself to read, to believe there was humor somewhere in the book. If there was, I couldn't find it in time, and just gave up on it. Too many other books to read....

I watched the TV tribute to Billy Connolly - It's Been A Pleasure - just after Christmas and found the clips of his shows really funny, so I wanted to find out more about the man himself. This book isn't that - more a transcription of his stand-up routines than a biography. Some of the jokes are still hilarious - mostly the toilet humour for me! - but others are incredibly dated (though not the digs at Donald Trump - 'Now there's a complete cunt' - and the middle classes - 'It’s the V-neck pullovers and that fucking Volvo crowd that fuck the whole thing up. It’s climbers'). He started in the late 60s and the years show. And I think the way he performed his jokes made for 80% of the laughs - as another comedian once said, 'It's the way I tell 'em'. I could 'hear' his voice in the Scottish (swear) words and the sound effects, but wasn't laughing quite as hard.

Not a fan of the Billy. I don't understand why getting overexcited with a Scottish accent is supposed to be funny. He shouts all the time. A good comic wouldn't have to do that.

Anyway, he did Australia and it will come as no great surprise that Australians did him. For The Chaser does 'Billy Connolly's World Tour of Iraq' go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppfnui-dQKY

Not a fan of the Billy. I don't understand why getting overexcited with a Scottish accent is supposed to be funny. He shouts all the time. A good comic wouldn't have to do that.

Anyway, he did Australia and it will come as no great surprise that Australians did him. For The Chaser does 'Billy Connolly's World Tour of Iraq' go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppfnui-dQKY

Not a fan of the Billy. I don't understand why getting overexcited with a Scottish accent is supposed to be funny. He shouts all the time. A good comic wouldn't have to do that.

Anyway, he did Australia and it will come as no great surprise that Australians did him. For The Chaser does 'Billy Connolly's World Tour of Iraq' go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppfnui-dQKY

There is no plot to this book, but that’s okay. Connolly is one of the funniest people I know of, and his style of funny is not jokes or terse anecdotes; he starts talking about one subject, veers off in a Grandpa Simpson way (except the detour actually has a point), goes back to the main thread, veers again, finally gets to the end, in the process saying “f***” about 500 times and bringing sex into the story at least once. By the time I get to the end of the story, I’m lying on my side, tears running down, gasping and wheezing and trying not to wake my husband, because I stayed up a good deal of the night reading, unable to quit. So, yeah, I liked the book. I wish I could have seen Connolly perform live, but at least I’ve seen him on TV enough that, as I read the book, I heard it being told in his voice.

Billy Connolly has spent over half his life in America, but apart from seeing the inside of a few airports and a fair number of cities, he hasn’t seen much of the country. In this journey, he is letting the train take the strain. This mammoth journey from Chicago to New York, via Seattle, south the California and heads east through Texas is really the long way round; but it is a journey aiming to discover more of its backyard and people. He meets and greets the real people of America, visits a tent city caring for homeless people, tastes the Juicy Lucy, meets some genuine hobos, goes to a cannabis farm and learns the secrets behind a murder scene.

Connolly is an irrepressible wanderer, and this book is no different to his others. Not only is he quite philosophical now, he is a great people person too, talking and befriending the people he meets along his route is second nature to him. It is written in his whimsical chatty style and makes for fairly easy reading. Good companion to the TV series, which I am now going to watch.

A tie in the the ITV series where Connolly goes from Chicago to Santa Monica on a cool trike. Meets some interesting characters on the way, and he deplores how Route 66 has died in parts where the Freeway has been built.

Written in his own indomitable style.

Billy Connolly has long resisted writing down his stories. They evolve and take their own paths over the course of a tour or even a single night. But now that Billy is retiring from stand-up, it’s finally time to capture those fireflies. The stories are grouped together by theme and vary wildly in size. Some are maybe a page, while others might run to four. All of them can be imagined easily in Billy’s voice. Some I found a bit too 20th-century-man for my tastes, but I loved his stories about growing up in Scotland, which paralleled the experience of reading his memoir, Made in Scotland. I also laughed much more than is probably seemly at several of the anatomy-related stories, including the one about farts. This is a good book to read if you like Billy’s comedy. You may find yourself tempted to read these out loud, but find a Glaswegian to do it, because it probably sounds a lot funnier with the right accent.½

Billy Connolly’s memoir, published to coincide with his 75th birthday, is really funny and very readable. I particularly enjoyed his mini-interviews with various people such as John Byrne—their conversation about art had me giggling. I found his reflections on getting older and the older people in his life when he was younger interesting as well. There are also plenty of photos, which I always like in my non-fiction books. I’d certainly recommend this book, even if the title did keep getting the song “Big Country” stuck in my head :)

There's something about Billy Connolly that's always made him a leading light in how to cope with the highs and lows of life. Whether it's pointed instruction on learning how to swear at those awful people who knock on your door flogging their brand of religion, through to assurances that nobody, anywhere needs to wear beige, Billy is older than us, he's lived a hell of a life and he's learnt a few things along the way.

Thanks to Billy's advice, ever since hitting my 50's I've never let a loo stop go by, I've always been a fan of the correct clothes when it's cold (the truism sort of holds when it's stinking hot), and I've laughed over the years at his live shows, his TV appearances and any chance I can get. MADE IN SCOTLAND is a typical ramble around through his life, warts and all. From young boy in the tenaments of Glasgow to welder to folk musician and ultimately comedian. His wisdom and life experience shines through, his approach to life in the face of Parkinson's Disease - the whole kit and caboodle is, once again, packed full of lessons on the opportunities we all have to live a good life. And laughs, as you'd expect, many laughs.

After finishing MADE IN SCOTLAND, I'm now obsessed with pockets, I'm in 100% agreement about the importance of libraries, and I'm well aware that as we get older, things get dafter. Sure there's a bit of the same territory here that was covered in the books already written by his wife, although he admits he might have fibbed a bit on a few things in those, but doesn't matter, more from Billy is never too much. I love his take on life even more and luckily the narrator of the audio version of this book, Gordon Kennedy, had just the right accent as the icing on the cake. (By the way - make sure you read the blurb of this one.)

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/made-scotland-billy-connolly

Entertaining recount of train journey from Chicago to New york via the west coast with an introduction to some interesting towns and people with unusual hobbies. As a non American there was a missed opportunity for more photos of the countryside through which they travelled. Lots of photos of Billy though.½

Scottish actor-comedian Billy Connolly takes a trip across America on The Sunset Express. He makes quick work of big cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Baltimore but lingers in in the more out-of-the-way, quirky locations, relishing his time with the unusual people and places that he runs across. One example: Rayne, Louisiana, the Frog Capital of the World. They used to supply frog legs for worldwide consumption; now the industry supplies specimens for biology classes. Connolly was made an honorary citizen, given the keys to Rayne, judges the Frog Queen competition (based on the most originally and best dressed frog), and participates in a frog jumping race. Whether talking to the woman who held the key to the nuclear red button in the 1960s, visiting a pop art museum where the creations appear on toilet seats, or getting fitted for custom design cowboy boots, the personable Connolly manages to to wheedle great personal stories and local histories out of his companions. A light and entertaining read.½

Just finished reading “Journey to the Edge of the World” and really enjoyed it. Famous Scottish comedian Billy Connolly embarks on his Canadian voyage to fulfill his childhood dreams of seeing the Northwest Passage and being a cowboy for a day in British Columbia. He takes us from fishing towns of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, through freezing and windswept Nunavut Province and along the famous Northwest Passage, then onto vast Northwest Territories and gold-rush Yukon and finally to the wild and tranquil British Columbia. During his trip, apart from seeing some tourist attractions, he also fishes for salmon, watches the bears, works as a lumberjack, gets a claim with his own name on it, takes part in the rituals of the natives and helps local cowboys rounding up a herd of cattle. But more importantly he gets to spend some time with the locals and natives, trying to understand their culture and way of living. The book is full of lovely photographs as well as tells the stories of some very brave men who dedicated their lives to exploring Northern Canada. All in all a very interesting and highly recommended read.½

Classic Connolly - a big recommendation for fans of this comedian.

painters do portraits for his 75 b'day

NIL