|
|
Post by CentreHice on Jul 20, 2014 23:29:48 GMT -5
From a recent appearance on Conan. Sure hope he'll still be able to perform for a long time, even though he's 71. He'll no doubt get a few hours of material out of it. He's been able to maintain a prolific stand-up/raconteur career for decades, garnering a loyal audience in huge theatres worldwide. Best of luck to ye, Billy!
|
|
|
|
Post by CentreHice on Jul 21, 2014 8:32:37 GMT -5
ConnollyAnd prostate cancer….diagnosed on the same day. But…he's finding the humour within. Prostate surgery last year…all clear now. Connolly, who has five children, underwent successful surgery on his prostate in the US – which he described simply as "in and out, done" – and was given the all-clear in October.
However, it was the discovery that he had Parkinson's – after a chance encounter with a doctor in a hotel lobby in Australia who told him he was showing symptoms of the incurable degenerative brain disease – that prompted Connolly to embark on his latest documentary, exploring the taboos around death.
In the two-part programme, Billy Connolly's Big Send Off, the comedian and actor visits a convention of funeral directors in Texas, a pet cemetery in San Francisco, a drive-thru funeral parlour in Los Angeles, and finally his favourite cemetery in his hometown of Glasgow.
Jo Clinton-Davis, who commissioned the documentary for ITV, said: "Billy Connolly's a big fan of life; he's effervescent, energised and inspired by it, but he's also genuinely fascinated by the way we as humans treat death – a subject that is quite literally the ultimate universal experience, yet so often avoided."
Connolly says he has incorporated his Parkinson's symptoms into his stand-up shows. Holding up his left hand, he told the Radio Times: "We were laughing about it because when the strain gets big, this hand starts to shake. And I'm like 'look, look, look, look'. And I do it on stage – I show the audience this hand creeps up on me."
|
|
