Fringe Review: Dear Billy

A poignant, colourful and hilarious performance about Scotland’s national treasure, says Ellie Forbes.

★★★★★

My cousin, a long time Billy Connolly fan, recently bought a striking piece by artwork Scotland’s national treasure. 

After buying the work he was able to chat to the Big Yin about his process as part of a Q&A put on by the gallery. 

During their conversation my cousin told how he had recently undergone a kidney transplant after years of suffering from kidney disease.

He didn’t think much else about their brief encounter until a few weeks later when a copy of Billy’s book arrived in the post with a note from him telling my cousin how much he enjoyed speaking to him.

Much to his delight, Billy had signed the book with a quip along the lines of: ‘Good luck with your recovery, you know more about kidneys than the butcher.’ It’s fair to say he has enjoyed regaling us all with the tale. 

And everyone has a Billy story, don’t they? A hilarious anecdote or a moving tale. Well so says theatre maker Gary McNair.

Gary McNair in Dear Billy. Credit Sally Jubb

Gary has spent the last seven years collecting these stories from ordinary people, about what they think of the shipyard welder turned comedian, and turned them into a joyful one-man show celebrating Sir Billy and what he means to the people of Scotland.

Joined on a carpeted stage by the fantastic musicians Jill O’Sullivan and Simon Liddell, the production is stripped back but all the more astonishing for the simplicity of its delivery. 

Taking us chronologically through Billy’s life as narrated by those who once met him, supposedly worked with him, or claimed to know him in some way, Gary presents Billy as an ordinary man with a huge impact on the people of his nation.

Dear Billy delights in the quirks of our everyday conversations. Gray delivers each story perfectly, with attention to the mistakes and digressions in the way we tell stories, as well as our various accents. 

In one particularly heartwarming story, he tells of a man who says Billy saved his life when he found himself laughing everyday by watching one of his routines. 

In others he tells of Billy’s generosity, his desire to embrace his differences, and innate ability to inspire others. 

Along the way Gary peppers the performance with his own tale of meeting the Big Yin, in which he recalls feeling like he was speaking to someone he had known his whole life, despite never having met him before (a common theme throughout many of the stories). 

The cumulative effect is a poignant, colourful, funny performance about a man woven into Scottish culture and who is still a source of joy for many today.

Assembly Rooms – Music Hall
Aug 20, 22-25.

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