He’s fully Monty

Billy CONNOLLY got on famously with the 8-foot albino Burmese python that adorns his neck like a toggle necklace in “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” in which he plays the warm-hearted herpetologist Uncle Monty.

“It is a fabulous snake,” the effusive, 62-year-old Connolly says in a phone interview. The actor speaks with a Scottish brogue so thick you could cut it with a knife. “It is the only gay snake I have ever met. I didn’t know there were gay snakes. It was all over me. It would go into my hair and moan into my ear. I said it fancies me.”

Throughout the shoot, the shaggy-haired Connolly, who sports a goatee, kept referring to the snake as “she” or “her.” Then the snake wrangler finally told him the truth. “He told me it was a boy snake,” Connolly says with mock indignation. “So he must have mistook me for a woman, with my hair and all. He thought I was a bearded lady.”

Connolly and the python reunited recently on “The Today Show.” “He was completely relaxed,” Connolly says with a chuckle. “He must have felt OK.”

In the adaptation of the first three of Daniel Handler’s “Lemony Snicket” books, Uncle Monty becomes a short-lived guardian to three orphaned children. He meets his maker at the hands of evil ham actor Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), who wants to remain the children’s ward so he can inherit their fortune.

“My character is such a nice guy,” Connolly says. “I have five kids and I know about kids. They don’t scare me much. The [children in the movie] impressed the heck out of me, but I don’t like saying stuff like that.”

Though his screen time is limited in “Lemony Snicket” and reviews for the movie have been mixed, Connolly’s performance has been singled out by critics.

“Lemony Snicket” marks the first time Connolly has worked with Carrey. The two comedians had never even met before. “I was a huge fan. When I got there on the set, they were six months into it and they were heads down and into filmmaking. Three-quarters of Jim’s dialogue was improvised. I couldn’t improvise because of my character. He was Mr. Steady, Mr. Jolly, Mr. Happy Nice Man.”

Connolly took a circuitous route to his current career. Born and raised in Glasgow, he left school before graduation to work in the shipyards as a welder. While in the parachute division of the Territorial Army, he became interested in folk music. After he was discharged from the army, Connolly, an accomplished banjo player, joined the group the Humblebums with Gerry Rafferty of “Baker Street” fame. Connolly would tell jokes between songs; eventually the comedy overtook his banjo playing.

Though he had acted in comedy films and on television (he was a regular on the ABC sitcom “Head of the Class” and in the short-lived ABC series “Billy” in the early ‘90s), he proved himself to be a first-rate dramatic actor when he played opposite Judi Dench in 1997’s “Mrs Brown.”

“I always wanted [my career] this way since I was a little boy,” Connolly says. “I didn’t want to be Jerry Lewis, not that I could. But I didn’t want to be a comedy actor. I like doing comedy but I also love [dramatic roles]. They are so interesting to do.”

Connolly says he believes comics excel at dramatic roles because of their ability to communicate with the audience.

“We communicate for a living,” he says. “In comedy, you have to communicate quickly or it’s over. If you throw that line to the person in the audience and he doesn’t grab it, then nothing happens. So I think whether acting in comedy or in serious drama, communication of your mood and your story line idea is essential.”

Alongside his acting career, Connolly is still doing stand-up. He recently performed in London and hopes to visit New York and Los Angeles sometime in February and his native Scotland in April.

“One of the things I am most proud of is my audience,” Connolly says. “When I did my show in London there was a huge cross section of people, from people with green hair and nose rings to old ladies with blue hair.”