How is Billy Connolly doing?

[TheMonk]

He seems to have gone quiet. How's he coping with his ailments?
Is he still doing shows?
Crossed my mind today and thought who better to ask than you lot.

[Brundle-Fly]

I know the Big Yin was in The Humblebums but wouldn't this enquiry be better handled in Comedy Chat?

[MattD]

He's doing fine, making a documentary for BBC in and around Glasgow. Saw pictures of him in the second hand record store I go to a few weeks ago.

[TheMonk]

Oh yes. Meant for Comedy Chat. Sorry.
Good to hear he's still out and about.

[TheMonk]

This makes me sad. He was the best.
I always thought he'd end up still sharp into old age, getting grumpier and angrier on stage.
(Unless he was taking the piss out of Parkinson and the senile old git missed the joke.)

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1005134/Billy-Connolly-Michael-Parkinson-2018-health-James-Martin-latest-news-update

[TheMonk]

Oh shit, I forgot this was in the wrong forum. Sorry. Sorry.

[BlodwynPig]

This makes me sad. He was the best.
I always thought he'd end up still sharp into old age, getting grumpier and angrier on stage.
(Unless he was taking the piss out of Parkinson and the senile old git missed the joke.)

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1005134/Billy-Connolly-Michael-Parkinson-2018-health-James-Martin-latest-news-update

He could have least given him a pen.

[machotrouts]

Every news outlet reporting on this is conspicuously avoiding saying "Parkinson's isn't dementia, by the way" to make it look like a Sad Last Days piece. I suppose they wouldn't get as many clicks for "BILLY CONNOLLY HAS AWKWARD DINNER WITH MICHAEL PARKINSON: PARKY NOW BEING A BIT OF A WEIRD PRICK ABOUT IT".

Maybe Parkinson's – the disease not the person – has just slowed Connolly down enough that he doesn't display obvious physical signs of recognition, like delicately strumming on a banjo or whatever it is that two old friends do when they meet? Maybe Parkinson – the person not the disease – has the wrong end of the stick here. Maybe he's confused. Maybe he's got dementia?

MICHAEL PARKINSON HAS DEMENTIA: SAD LAST DAYS

[Large Noise]

Dementia can be caused by Parkinson's. Parkinson's isn't Alzheimer's, but Alzheimer's isn't the only potential cause of dementia.

So aye, Parky's probably telling the truth here.

[jobotic]

There's some incredibly moving comments from others in that article regarding the sad situation.

Bloody love Parky! He's a legend!

[Funcrusher]

Parkinson's often does also cause dementia, they are linked.

[Small Man Big Horse]

He's doing a sort of docu-series for BBC Scotland - https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2018/08/21/40988/billy_connolly_to_make_a_bbc_series_about_scotland

In that article a couple of people refute Parkinson's claims:

But the comedian's wife Pamela Stevenson hit back today, saying: 'Mike Parkinson is a daft old fart – doesn't know what he's talking about. Billy's doing great and still funny as hell.'

And Indigo Pictures – the company behind Connolly's new show, issued a statement saying: 'We have been busy filming with Billy over the summer and can report happily that he's on top form – as sharp and hilarious as ever.'

[hedgehog90]

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/billy-connollys-wife-pamela-stephenson-labels-michael-parkinson-a-daft-old-fart-for-suggesting-comedians-brain-has-dulled-due-to-parkinsons_uk_5b7be328e4b0a5b1febec1f6

Sounds to me like Parky's just being a prick.

[RedRevolver]

Denied: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pamela-stephenson-calls-michael-parkinson-daft-old-fart-billy-connolly-comments-115626265.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/billy-connollys-wife-pamela-stephenson-labels-michael-parkinson-a-daft-old-fart-for-suggesting-comedians-brain-has-dulled-due-to-parkinsons_uk_5b7be328e4b0a5b1febec1f6

Sounds to me like Parky's just being a prick.

[Replies From View]

Will it be like the Hobbit film where they decided his performance wasn't sufficiently Connolly-esque so they completely replaced him with CGI?

Is this going to be Jar Jar Binks' World Tour of Scotland?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Maybe he just real hates Parkinson so was snubbing him in the hope he'd never have to have dinner with him again.

[Malcy]

He was at my friend's cafe a couple of months back and looked to be in fine form. Reckon Parky is the one losing it.

[biggytitbo]

'We have been busy filming with Billy over the summer and can report happily that he's on top form – as sharp and hilarious as ever.'

Shit, that's a bad sign then.

[Replies From View]

Michael Parkinsons had a pink Mattel hoverboard.

[Psmith]

Went off him when he made some joke about the Brit bloke who was beheaded.
Parky a typical Yorkshireman:"I say what I like and I like what I say "

[Replies From View]

Went off him when he made some joke about the Brit bloke who was beheaded.
Parky a typical Yorkshireman:"I say what I like and I like what I say "

"And what I like is:  another man's unsheathed glans pressing against my cornea."

That was Parkinson's version of it.  He was obsessed with Parker pens as well, wasn't he.  Kept on appearing in adverts for Help the Aged trying to flog Parker pens that he'd got cheap in bulk.

Never understood anything about the fellow, if I am honest.

[Maurice Yeatman]

Did he ever sue his cousin and the Barnsley Chronicle for publishing a booklet that stated the part of Parkinson's autobiography that criticised a lot of his older relatives and lauded his own father was lies? It claimed Parky's dad was a miserable sod and not the ray of sunshine Parky painted him as. I think the Chronicle's editor said Parky went apeshit on the phone to him.

'appen.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's the Parky curse - look at how many of his old interviewees are dead: Rod Hull, Emu, Les Dawson...

[Satchmo Distel]

Was the beheading joke just Connolly's way of showing he was still willing to break taboos? Or was it one of those "Imp of the Perverse" things where you tell a tasteless and offensive joke simply because it's there and you can't resist the impulse? Did he ever apologize?

Whilst no topic is ever off-limits, the obvious thing that makes that joke (and Maddie jokes) unacceptable is that it is punching down, like much of Frankie Boyle's old shock stuff.

[Maurice Yeatman]

It's the Parky curse - look at how many of his old interviewees are dead: Rod Hull, Emu, Les Dawson...

Producers, floor managers... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfl_sGY1NA#t=8m19s

[Replies From View]

He has the Midas touch, except of death.

[Artemis]

Was the beheading joke just Connolly's way of showing he was still willing to break taboos? Or was it one of those "Imp of the Perverse" things where you tell a tasteless and offensive joke simply because it's there and you can't resist the impulse? Did he ever apologize?

I believe he was asked to clarify what he said, and refused on the basis that words without context don't provide any meaningful replication.

Whilst no topic is ever off-limits, the obvious thing that makes that joke (and Maddie jokes) unacceptable is that it is punching down

I didn't get the impression it was punching down. It was tasteless, sure, but the joke - IIRC - was that he wished ISIS would "just get on with it", and probably uttered in his off-hand, conversational manner. The joke was about the absurdity, prevalence and (literally) tortuously drawn out manner of the beheading stand-offs at that time, not a joke about the victim.

His style of stand up almost guarantees there'll be jokes uttered which don't hit. What's remarkable about his career is the number of jokes, or utterances, that do hit, with great effect.

[Maurice Yeatman]

I remember Jeremy Hardy on TV being utterly contemptuous of Connolly for making that joke. Can't remember what show it was now - might even have been the news.

[Replies From View]

Oh no you don't want Jeremy Hardy showing contempt towards you, how terrible

[Ornlu]

It's the Parky curse - look at how many of his old interviewees are dead: Rod Hull, Emu, Les Dawson...

Peter Kay...