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| John Cleese as Sir Lancelot |
When I first saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Westport Cinema back in 1975, the TV show that spawned the film hadn't made its way to St. Louis yet and I didn't really get the humor. The movie struck me as mostly unfunny and, in the second half, downright dull.
A few years later, after seeing the entire run of Monty Python's Flying Circus, my opinion of the film had changed. Now I saw the inspired silliness of the argument between Graham Chapman's King Arthur and Michael Palin's peasant over whether Great Britain was a kingdom or an anarcho-syndicalist commune, the loopy charm of the Knights of Ni, and the satire of the "she's a witch" scene. The second half of the movie still dragged and the ending seemed to be part of another film, but it was entertaining stuff nevertheless.
Last night (Thursday, November 16th), following a showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Peabody Opera House, there was a 45-minute talkback with a noted British actor and writer who shares my view of the uneven nature of the movie. And he should know, because his name is John Cleese.
Mr. Cleese is touring the USA with Grail screenings. After the film he takes the stage with a local media personality for a moderated discussion in which he answers some questions submitted in advance from the audience, tells some stories about his life in show biz, and generally acts like the raconteur he so clearly is.
Having just celebrated his 78th birthday last month, Mr. Cleese is now heavier and creakier than he was in his Monty Python days. Towards the end of his chat he noted that he'd had both knees replaced, a hip replacement, artificial lenses in his eyes, and hair transplants. "I don't see," he quipped, "how I can ever die."
Thereby confirming that whatever his physical infirmities might be (and who among us geezers doesn't have them?) his mordant wit remains as sharp as ever.
In the course of the Q&A he made some caustically hilarious comments about the USA and about his fellow Pythons. Architecture in American cities, he observed, looks like it was designed by someone "inspired by cornflake boxes." He hates Cleveland ("what a dump!") and, when queried about the difference between American and British humor, said that there were parts of the USA "that appear to be mystified by irony."
Regarding his fellow partners in comedy, he dismissed Michael Palin's many travel documentaries as boring (I couldn't disagree more) and noted that Terry Gilliam's great failing as a filmmaker was that while he has a brilliant visual imagination, he has no idea how to tell a story (I couldn't agree more). The secret to making a good film, he noted, was to understand your limitations and find collaborators who can fill in those gaps.
On a more serious note, he also talked briefly about Terry Jones's struggles with dementia and the horror of seeing someone close to you slowly slip away.
Asked about how he got into show business, he said that while he had always known that he had a gift for making people laugh, and that this was something that made both him and his audience feel good, he nevertheless had attended university with the intention of becoming a lawyer, working for a big London firm, and then shooting himself when he turned 50 "because that's what lawyers do." But the collegiate revue A Clump of Plinths turned into a West End Show and before long he and a bunch of other blokes who expected to be lawyers, teachers or accountants suddenly found themselves wearing black t-shirts to work and making jokes for a living.
His favorite role? Archie in the highly acclaimed 1988 comedy A Fish Called Wanda, which Mr. Cleese also wrote. His least favorite role? The Minister of Silly Walks in Monty Python. To this day, he thinks it's just not funny and doesn't really understand why the fans like it so much.
Mr. Cleese closed with the story of a practical joke played on Michael Palin. Mr. Palin was in Norway filming one of his travel documentaries and Mr. Cleese needed to contact him about an upcoming meeting. He got the phone number of the hotel from Mr. Palin's wife, but before he made the call he realized that "Michael wouldn't be expecting me to call him and wouldn't know where I was calling from." So when the hotel operator connected him to Mr. Palin's room, Mr. Cleese put on a phony Norwegian accent and claimed he was a local broadcaster with a camera crew in the lobby who wanted to do an interview with Mr. Palin on the spot.
Mr. Palin repeatedly demurred, pointing out that it was late and he was in his pajamas. "Oh, that's all right," fluted Mr. Cleese, "our audience will just feel more relaxed." Finally Mr. Palin asked why they wanted to interview him, of all people. "Well," said Mr. Cleese, "we're going a documentary on one of the world's great comedians, John Cleese, and we just wanted to talk to one of his assistants!"
Ouch.
John Cleese's tour moves on to Akron, Ohio, next and will circle around in this direction again next year, when he appears in Chicago on January 22nd. Check the official Monty Python web site for details. It has lots of interesting Silly Stuff for your entertainment, so you may want to spend some time there. And don't forget to check the Peabody Opera House web site for upcoming shows there.
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