Scotland

Dear Billy – Assembly Rooms

Partick, birthplace of comedian, Billy Connelly, back when it was a small countryside village on the outskirts of Glasgow, on the banks of The Clyde, famous for fish and hunting, Aye, it had a hundred chippies and you had to watch out for people with knives!

The world and the words of National Treasure, Billy, are brought gloriously to life by multiple Fringe-First winner, Gary McNair, accompanied by the musical talents of Simon Liddell and Jill O’Sullivan. But this is no tribute act, despite the obvious visual similarity between McNair and a young Billy. Instead, it is an array of stories and recollections, of the big man, hilariously voiced and acted by McNair, collected across the length and breadth of Scotland, most humorous, but some surprisingly deeply moving. From his childhood, growing up in Partick, to his early working life in the shipyards of the Clyde, and on to his mega-stardom, each vignette paints a portrait of just how much he means to the national psyche.

Very cleverly, and the real beauty of this show, is that this can and does change with each performance, as the recollections that McNair has access to is expansive, and ever growing.

From a time when all the men were in the pub, drunk, and all the women were at home, drunk, and the weans owned the streets, and seemingly everyone knew someone who knew Billy.

See if he was as good a comedian as he was a welder…. Then he’d be a sh*t comedian.

In spite of the bigotry, the sectarianism, the tribalism and the real fear of putting your head above the parapet and being different, Billy somehow rose with his big banana feet, his banjo and his humour, and his big, big heart.

McNair wins, by never pretending to be the star of this show, merely a conduit to something much, much bigger. Perhaps a little longer than most Fringe shows, but no complaints here. Reminiscent almost of This Is Your Life, and just as nostalgia laden, this big red book curating the life of The Big Yin is Bloody brilliant!

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 13^th August 2024

North West End UK Rating: