Big Yin with the big grin still has that magical cutting edge

Sep 14 2007 by Haydon Wood, Liverpool Daily Post

WELCOME back the big grin and the Big Yin.

How many people can stand on stage for nearly three hours and treat the crowd like the best of friends?

Answer, Billy Connolly.

I have seen him so many times now and I believe that he has never lost that magical cutting edge.

A sell-out audience proved it on the second of two nights sold out by word of mouth.

A brick wall backdrop had some pre-conceived graffiti on it.

But nothing from Mr C’s mind.

It’s all in his head, magically inter-weaved to people of all ages who have paid to see him.

Connolly is a great meanderer in the tradition of the best stand-ups.

Chic Murray is still Billy’s mentor.

That said, he is still observing British absurdities from our obsession with telly programmes to every two-faced red-tape bureaucrat.

Connolly is now in his 60s but still sees things in his own unique way.

His white beard and shock of white hair appears to be the personification of stand-up rebellion. At the Phil, he was pure class, a man who can grip you, and make you feel at home, while turning the Phil stage into a living room.

The fact that he can sell out by word of mouth and doesn’t need press reviews says it all.

Whether talking about New Age, or people who rub you up the wrong way, Mr C does it with great aplomb and his swearing is so frequent it is forgettable.

He paces around the stage and points and shrugs and pulls his hands through those characteristic long locks.

Forever the dreamer, the man who shakes his head in world-weary wonderment like Hancock before him, is a genius.

A Scottish treasure . . . he will probably hate that, but that is exactly what he is.

PETER GRANT