Billy Connolly: Live in London 2010

Billy Connolly is one of those comedians who I've always wanted to see but have never been able to do so because his gigs always sell out in minutes so I've had to make do with audio tapes, VHS cassette and DVDs. I first became aware of his work nearly 16 years ago now when a friend gave me an audio tape of one of his gigs to listen to when I was in hospital and I thought it was one of the most interesting and funniest things that I had ever heard. It wasn't long before I had more of his material on tape and a couple of live routines on VHS along with his World Tour of Scotland, World Tour of Australia and various other bits and pieces.

Perhaps my favourite was the recording of his 1991 sell out gig at the Odeon Hammersmith and it is amazing how well the material has aged and it is still extremely funny nearly 20 years later. 2010 saw him back in London on a 20 night run at the Hammersmith Apollo. When the tickets went on sale, the computer system crashed, such was the demand for tickets and it is quite some achievement that he has managed to maintain such a degree of popularity for so many years -- the earliest recordings I have of his gigs on DVD or of tours that began before I was born!

Anyway, with Connolly now living in New York City he can bring a fresh perspective to events in the UK whilst commenting on things Stateside and, because he has been going so long, he has turned his stand-up routine into a fine art so it knows exactly what to do with hecklers, people laughing at the wrong time but still manages to laugh at his own jokes, go off on wild tangents and somehow return to where he started. This gig incorporates his own perspectives on religion, political correctness and the limitations of a SatNav in a car.

I'm not quite sure that this is Connolly at its best but it is extremely close and there are moments of great hilarity, poignancy and stories that make you realise what a weird and wonderful life he leads. This is the key to his success and I can't think of any modern stand-up comic who will probably still be selling out venues in record time in three decades or so.


For Billy Connolly fans, you should know what to expect from a stand-up routine from the 'Big Yin', with language that will (and always has been) not suitable for everyone and used to come with warnings that the DVD 'contains material that some people may find offensive'. This hasn't changed and, as far as I'm concerned, this is for the better as when you have someone as consistently funny as Billy Connolly, you don't want to tamper with his routine. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As Billy Connolly has been doing these gigs for such a long time, he knows exactly how much an audience can take and would want in an evening so the 85 minute running time is just about spot on as, although I could quite happily watched him for another hour or so, the gig finished at about the right time and with a story that everyone will hope is true.


The Disc

The Picture
This is the first of his gigs to be released on Blu-ray and my first thought was 'Why?'. This isn't exactly the sort of material that you would expect to demand a high definition picture but, when it comes to certain parts of the routine, particularly when he is talking about the tattoo on his upper left arm and the cameras focus in on it, the extra clarity pays dividends as you can make out the writing and detail much better than on the DVD.

As per usual, Billy Connolly has a rather unusual wardrobe with black-and-white striped trousers and the backdrop, with him as part of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, with the caption 'The Man' across it is unusual and amusing.


The Sound
Whereas the visual aspect is given a 1080p HD transfer, the sound is a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track which is really all you need as there is absolutely no problem with understanding what he says but, for those of you who are hard of hearing, there are subtitles available. It would have been even better if this had a DTS-HD Master Audio or LPCM 2.0 track so you could benefit from the lossless or uncompressed sound but there really isn't anything to complain about on the audio front.


Final Thoughts
You can more or less tell what time of year it is by what DVDs and BDs are in the shops and, when the end of the year approaches, the number of interactive quizzes and stand-up discs increases dramatically. This isn't necessarily a bad thing although it does seem puzzling that the distributors assume that people would want to watch a stand-up gig in the winter more than in the spring or summer.

Anyway, this is the perfect present for the Billy Connolly fan in your social circle who you are wondering what to buy them for Christmas as it is pretty much up to the standard of his previous releases and, with the benefit of the high definition picture, this is perhaps the way forward for stand-up comedy releases. As with most of his DVDs, this has no extra features, which is a slight shame as it would have been nice to see him being interviewed and talk about the three-week stay in London, relocating from the US for such a period of time and returning to his homeland. Nevertheless, this is a fine stand-up performance by one of the greatest comedians of all time and it's the sort of thing that you can enjoy time and time again.