In Hollywood, there is a chair. Everyone knows “the chair.” It’s on every stereotypical film or TV set, usually black canvas with the owner’s name printed on the back. It’s called the director’s chair, but cast and crew members also have one. Except for Jack Black. On the set of the upcoming film, Gulliver’s Travels, Scottish actor and comedian Billy Connolly said Black brought his own chair.

“[It was] a reclining metal thing,” Connolly laughed in his charming brogue. “His ‘anti-gravity chair,’ [Black] called it. Any time he left the green-room area, he would say, ‘Use my chair, if you like,’ but I didn’t like to. I didn’t want him to come in and find me sleeping in it.”

Connolly recently had a sold-out, four-week stint at the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London. He has been universally hailed as Britain’s greatest living comedian, and Connolly is renowned in the United Kingdom for his stand-up comedy. But in the United States, he is less known for his comedy than his acting. He has appeared in such films as The Boondock Saints, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints’ Day, The Last Samurai, and Muppet Treasure Island.

“It’s really strange,” Connolly said. “I don’t know what to do about it. After all these years … [Americans] just think I’m an actor. So I think it’s okay to let them think I’m an actor and then surprise them [with my stand-up].”

Connolly’s dynamic live show has included everything from fishing stories to getting older to Tasmanian-devil pubic tattoos.

“I used to be accused of being ‘lavatorial,’” Connolly said. “I like the situation where you’re vulnerable. Anywhere where your pants are down is funny.”

Connolly has been performing since the 1960s, both as a comedian and a musician. He said he doesn’t like to watch his old routines because he doesn’t find them that funny, but that is also a sure sign that his style has evolved over the years.

“If you constantly … work hard, you develop a style in spite of yourself,” he said. You don’t think you have, you think you sound like everybody else until somebody points out how different you are. But if you try hard to get your own style, you seldom end up with one.”

Also a recreational banjo player, Connolly has released several music albums, but not in years. Despite encouragement from friends, Connolly doesn’t have any plans to release a new album anytime soon.

“I find that I’m kind of embarrassed when I’m with real musicians,” he explained. “I can play tunes, and I can kid you on. But I know what a musician is, and I know I’m not one of them.”

Regardless, Connolly continues to play in his free time, and it even develops into a sort of meditation, as he will play for hours without realizing where the time has gone. But for now, he said he is going to stick with acting and comedy.

Connolly is slated to perform his first Seattle engagement at the Seattle Repertory Theatre this weekend. He said he is looking forward to visiting the city for the first time and hoping to get a moment for some fishing and to have a laugh with his Seattle audience.

“Just show up,” he said confidently. “Leave the rest to me.”

Reach reporter Ashleen Aguilar at weekender@dailyuw.com.