This is the second time that I've been to see him, the last time a few years ago when he last came to NZ.
It's appears to have been a long time and with age does not come enhancement. He is now 71, and for me, he's now showing his age, he's slower, more ponderous, much whiter of hair and he looked, well, a bit tired and weary of body.
Hey yes he has Parkinson's Disease and has had occasion to be treated for Prostrate Cancer, but he seemed to be at pains to assure people that he could remember things, even in his trademark rambling story-telling narrative.
Which he did on a number of occasions, and often checking his stage notes that he now appears with, it's understandable given his show that a aid memoir would be handy.
There wasn't much 'new' in this show, he seems to wistfully reminisce on the past and sometimes with fury and hatred of his childhood, he harks back to his early life and early career. A bit about heckling and how it's pointless, and 5 minute story on swearing.
It was funny in places, but it wasn't constantly funny, and often he spoke to a silent house.
I missed the giggling, the frenetic enthusiasm that he had in the past, the rich story telling that you could picture in your mind's eye. I missed the big Billy Connolly of old.
It was a quick hour and 50 minutes of a show, but the light is dimmer, the power waning, the fans still ardent and the love still very obvious.
I'm glad and sad that I went, a bittersweet evening.
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