I must confess that I don’t have much time for many current stand-up comedians as I find most of their material and delivery contrived, offensive and more importantly not particularly funny. However, I really enjoy Ireland’s Dara O’Briain and Scotland’s Billy Connolly because much of their humour is based upon exaggerated perception and the highlighting of ordinary human experience. Hence I was pleased to view again ‘An Audience with Billy Connolly’ on TV on Friday night, where he entertained a celebrity crowd. During his hour long monologue he referred at length to his childhood growing up in a tenement in Glasgow as a Catholic. Although I myself also grew up as a Catholic in a small terrace house in Ireland, the behaviour of his mother and children at the arrival of the local priest for a visit struck a particular cord with me. His description of one such visit is worth retelling here.
His mother told the children to go into the bedroom, stay in bed and keep quiet when the priest arrived. It was bitterly cold in the tenement at that time of year so she spread a heavy coat over the bed to keep them warm. However, the two boys kept fighting with each other and she roared at them that if they didn’t stay quiet that she would ‘wipe the smile to the other side of their face’. Billy stressed how ridiculous this expression was and then proceeded to attempt to show in hilarious fashion how this might somehow be ‘physically ‘achieved. This reminded me of a similar expression that my own father used to my twin brother and I when we teased and giggled when we were very young instead of eating our food as quickly as he thought desirable. He would shout at us and warn us that he would give us a ‘clip’ so and wipe the smile of our face! Looking back I also had visions of my father getting a face cloth in the bathroom and in a gesture favoured by my maiden aunt attempting to wipe the smile as it were from my face!
In Billy’s story the priest duly arrived and was served tea, crumpet and special biscuits while the bedlam continued in the boys’ bedroom. One of them called out to his mother that the other guy was keeping most of the ‘coat’ to himself on the bed. Of course, his mother was aghast at the idea that the good priest would think that they had to spread a coat on the bed. She cried to them that ‘she was finding it difficult to hear herself think’ with the noise and assured the priest that all the coats were of course in the ‘cloakroom’. So, while proffering more ‘custard cream’ biscuits to the priest she cried out to the boys so that the priest would understand: ‘Silly boy, that is not a coat, it’s called an eiderdown, so stop your fighting and go to sleep’. However, after a few moments of relative quiet, the boy shouted out again: ‘Mum, it’s him again, he putting his feet into the sleeves of the eiderdown’.
Brilliant! I love it as it reminds me of my own mother throwing a coat on ‘rare’ occasions over our bed as children when we too complained of the cold at night! And despite our small house being occupied by 2 adults and 4 small children, we had a room set aside during the early years of our life for ‘visitors’, which seemed to include a visit from the local priest more than anyone else. How Ireland has changed despite the recession and Billy Connolly’s little monologue brings back these memories in a humorous and insightful way.
It is true what people say, that humour is the salvation of the soul especially at times of stress!
Note:
His mother told the children to go into the bedroom, stay in bed and keep quiet when the priest arrived. It was bitterly cold in the tenement at that time of year so she spread a heavy coat over the bed to keep them warm. However, the two boys kept fighting with each other and she roared at them that if they didn’t stay quiet that she would ‘wipe the smile to the other side of their face’. Billy stressed how ridiculous this expression was and then proceeded to attempt to show in hilarious fashion how this might somehow be ‘physically ‘achieved. This reminded me of a similar expression that my own father used to my twin brother and I when we teased and giggled when we were very young instead of eating our food as quickly as he thought desirable. He would shout at us and warn us that he would give us a ‘clip’ so and wipe the smile of our face! Looking back I also had visions of my father getting a face cloth in the bathroom and in a gesture favoured by my maiden aunt attempting to wipe the smile as it were from my face!
In Billy’s story the priest duly arrived and was served tea, crumpet and special biscuits while the bedlam continued in the boys’ bedroom. One of them called out to his mother that the other guy was keeping most of the ‘coat’ to himself on the bed. Of course, his mother was aghast at the idea that the good priest would think that they had to spread a coat on the bed. She cried to them that ‘she was finding it difficult to hear herself think’ with the noise and assured the priest that all the coats were of course in the ‘cloakroom’. So, while proffering more ‘custard cream’ biscuits to the priest she cried out to the boys so that the priest would understand: ‘Silly boy, that is not a coat, it’s called an eiderdown, so stop your fighting and go to sleep’. However, after a few moments of relative quiet, the boy shouted out again: ‘Mum, it’s him again, he putting his feet into the sleeves of the eiderdown’.
Brilliant! I love it as it reminds me of my own mother throwing a coat on ‘rare’ occasions over our bed as children when we too complained of the cold at night! And despite our small house being occupied by 2 adults and 4 small children, we had a room set aside during the early years of our life for ‘visitors’, which seemed to include a visit from the local priest more than anyone else. How Ireland has changed despite the recession and Billy Connolly’s little monologue brings back these memories in a humorous and insightful way.
It is true what people say, that humour is the salvation of the soul especially at times of stress!
Note:
1) This section of his monologue can be seen on YOUTUBE under ‘An Audience with Billy Connolly’ -8/12: Enjoy!
2) The cartoon is from one of our daughters and seeks to highlight the respective image they have of G/Dad and Granny on Twitter!
All comments and musings welcome!
No comments:
Post a Comment