Billy Connolly — Lessons from a Master

BBC just put out two one hour shows called “Billy Connolly Made in Scotland” (link here for those in the UK).

Billy Connolly represents a line in the sand. Comedy in the UK was either before Billy or after Billy. He is, simply, the “Big Yin”.

Today sharing one particular lesson from his mastery that can be applied by leaders managing the energy of their people.

A few months ago I wrote a longer post called “Managing Energy — learning from comedians”, having just gone to watch another Scottish comedian, the brilliant Kevin Bridges. In that long post, I referenced a key tool I use in working with leaders that I call the “three tenets of leadership”, then share lessons from comedians on one of those three tenets, “Managing the Energy”.

Now, to the two-part documentary about Billy Connolly. One particular short clip leapt out at me around “Managing the Energy”. For those (again the link is UK only) who may wish to watch the clip in question, it is at 27'25" in part 2 here.

That clip is of another master comedian, Ross Noble, talking about Billy and his mastery:

“Stand up {comedy} as a medium, isn’t really regarded as an art form….and the reason for that.. is that when it is done really well, it is just the person standing on stage just talking…. he’s…