Footballers have Lionel Messi. Bands have the Beatles. Comedians have Billy Connolly.
Few Scots have had as significant an influence in any field as Connolly, and 50 years since the start of his solo comedy career he’s considered one of stand-up’s greatest ever practitioners.
Connolly clearly had a significant impact during the formative years of many comedians. That was certainly the case for 2019 Scottish Comedy Awards Best Compere winner Jay Lafferty, who says: “ “The first one I remember watching on the telly was the lionesses. Everyone was on board, and it was so funny. That’s always had a special place in my heart. Being allowed to watch telly with my mum, dad, older brother and sister was one thing, but getting to see Billy Connolly…he really is the first stand-up I ever saw. On the telly, obviously, because I was stuck in Shetland.”
Connolly’s way with a story has also made an impression on Nelson, who says: “The more I have matured the more I have leant into stories. I am still nowhere near that level but the mechanics of it fascinate me. The weaving of a tale, the characters, the pay-off. Just a genius.”“It’s the storytelling” says Robertson. “He was telling stories, not just doing set-up/punchline, set-up/punchline. He really paved the way in a lot of respects for bringing that nature of stand-up to the stage.
Staying true to himself is a key element of his appeal for younger Scottish comics. “He sounded like my dad, he sounded like my uncles, he sounded like the guys that my dad worked with” says Lafferty, highlighting “that ability to not feel that I have to change myself, that I have to change my accent or that I have to be somebody that I’m not.
“So often when I’m on stage, I feel like I have to tone down speaking in Shetland, and I often do because we do have a lot of very different words in Shetland. It’s just knowing that - as long as they can understand you - you can still use your voice, and Billy is really good for that.” “At the time, I was working full-time in a call centre and starting out in comedy. I was really having a hard time with it and really not enjoying my life, and when I finally managed to leave the call centre it felt the exact same, like being sprung from jail.“The call centre is effectively a modern version of the shipyards. Everybody used to work in the shipyards and now everybody works in a call centre. It was such an inspirational thing, just realising how liberating that would be.
“People will always be cynical if you’re trying to do something, and people would have said ‘oh, he thinks he’s going to be a comedian’ in a disparaging way, but all that mattered was that Billy Connolly thought he was going to be a comedian and he made it happen, and for me that story makes me think about the power of just believing in yourself and not worrying about people not believing in you.
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