Billy Connolly, 76, opened up about growing older when he visited Kearny, New Jersey, the place where Scots allegedly introduced football to America. Speaking to a local man about the town now, the Glaswegian funny man asked: “Do you still have a football team from here?” When the local revealed there was an over-30s team there, Billy quipped: “You’re taking a chance over 30, playing football.” The man replied: “Well, they’re talking about an over-50s.”
Laughing heartily, the comedian said: “I played five-a-side about 15 years ago – I nearly killed myself.”
Joking about the risks of playing sports with age, he added: “It’s like squash. You must never play squash after you’re 21.
“You’ll end up with your arms crossed on the floor,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and chuckling.
In today’s episode of Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail, The Big Yin also visited Atlantic City, the Luray Caverns, which house the world’s biggest instrument, the Great Stalacpipe Organ, and Al Capone’s cell at the Eastern State Penitentiary.
The travel series sees Billy following the route Scottish immigrants took after first landing in American in the early 19th century.
He began his journey by opening the Tartan Day Parade in New York City.
Billy has suffered from health issues in recent years and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012.
Around the same time he received his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Billy learned he had prostate cancer.
After receiving treatment for the cancer, he was later given the all-clear.
In a recent documentary, Billy Connolly: Made In Scotland, he opened up about the progression of his Parkinson’s, saying: “My Parkinson’s is not going to go away and it’s going to get worse, my life is slipping away.
“There is no denying it, I am 75, I have got Parkinson’s and I am at the wrong end of the telescope of life,” he added.
“The Parkinson’s is strange because it is not going to go away.
“All my life I have got sick and I have got the flu and pneumonia various things and they all went away, this isn’t going anywhere,” he continued. “It is going to get worse.
“It takes a certain calm to deal with, and I sometimes don’t have it.”
When it comes to symptoms, Billy said his balance wasn’t as good at it used to be and that he can’t use his left hand as well, meaning his banjo playing has also been affected.
Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail continues next Thursday at 9pm on ITV.