Review: Billy Connolly at Vector Arena

Billy Connolly knows what makes Aucklanders tick. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

New Zealand's love affair with the ageing Billy Connolly continued with thousands of Aucklanders turning out to see the Scotsman on Saturday night.

Connolly has been coming here since the 70s, he's married to a Kiwi - Pamela Stephenson - and he knows what makes Aucklanders tick.

He strutted on stage in stripy pants and signature black singlet with tails and it wasn't long before he was telling jokes about Invercargill and Dunedin. "I got sunburned in Dunedin. I am absolute proof of global warming."

"Knicky-knacky-noo," or Kaikoura to the locals, also got a mention in a story on whale watching.

And there were the sheep jokes that the international comedians love to try out on a Kiwi audience. "There's nothing wrong with sheep, as long as you can get a suspender belt to fit... We were doing that years before you guys."

Then there were the humorous authority assassinations. The Pope, Bush, Blair, Osama Bin Laden and Wall St bankers all got a serve. "You're all going to lose your jobs and your houses, laugh while you've got the chance."

Connolly was also on a crusade. He pleaded with the audience to break free of what he called the beige world, the dinner parties where the conversation revolves around mortgage rates and credit card payment options, the barbecues where serious talk is had while people eat salad from paper plates.

He told the audience to go to a tattoo festival and come home with wind chimes attached to their genitals.

Connolly fans are varied but they were all catered for during the two-hour performance that ran without intermission or encore.

There were the older folk who came looking for more of the cheeky Scottish storyteller. There was the crowd who enjoyed the chance to laugh at terrorism and the Establishment and there were the ageing naughty schoolboys of the audience who lapped up the skit, acted out of course, on how fat people have sex.

So does Connolly still have it? If the woman sitting next to me can be used as an example, the answer is an emphatic yes - she laughed at every syllable.

And while you could criticise Connolly for repeating some of his material from past shows, it is inevitable, given his style of ad-lib story telling that can begin with a childhood reminisce about an old aunt and can trail off to a story about tattoos.

Billy Connolly's last performance of his month long-tour of New Zealand is tonight at the Vector Arena.