(HOLLYWOOD PRESS CORPS) — Los Angeles, California — Welcome to a very special edition of Hollywood Press Corps! Today, we have the immense pleasure of sitting down with a true icon of comedy, the legendary John Cleese. From his unforgettable contributions to Monty Python to his memorable roles in beloved films like Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda, John has shaped the landscape of humor for generations.
As he prepares for his upcoming live performance, “John Cleese: Last Chance to See Me Before I Die,” at the Saban Theatre on November 29, 2024, we’ll delve into the mind of the man behind the laughter, exploring his unique brand of observational humor and the stories that have made him a household name.
Join us as we discuss his illustrious career, his insights into the world of comedy, and perhaps even a few absurd questions that will surely provoke his trademark wit. Get ready for an enlightening and entertaining conversation with one of the world’s funniest entertainers. Without further ado, let’s welcome John Cleese!
HPC: Hi John, before we started I wanted to say I grew up seeing you in Harry Potter and Rat Race.
JC: (Laughing) I was a big star in Harry Potter. Between the two movies my combined time was 36 seconds.
HPC: Nearly Headless Nick/Sir Nicholas!
JC: That’s right and Rat Race I’m very proud of and I often converse with people about how no one can understand why it wasn’t more popular that it was.
HPC: The casting was great and it was one of the best early 00’s comedy films.
JC: That’s right. What happens, I’ve noticed is if you go out to be funny, the critics tend to not admire that. I’m thinking many years ago, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World which has wonderful scenes but the reviews were a bit sniffy. You know? The trouble is it’s really hard to make people laugh as opposed to making them smile in an ordinary movie which was easy. If you really try to make people laugh as it’s much worse when it doesn’t work. Even in Rat Race there’s only two or three scenes that don’t really work. In the critics mind it seems to pull it down a little as I thought they would’ve given it much better reviews. As I’m told there was a very bad television commercial for it. Jon Lovitz told me that.
HPC: I was at your Q&A /Monty Python & the Holy Grail screening back in April at the Grove of Anaheim which was fantastic.
JC: Oh yes, that’s right.
HPC: And there was a projector issue where half the movie was in pink color.
JC: I was hopeless really. I remember looking at it and thinking what is going on here. It was very annoying, but it happens like what happened to Mr Trump’s mic recently I gather. Did you read about that?
HPC: I had no idea.
JC: He had trouble with his mic. What can I tell you? You want to know what’s in the show sort of thing?
HPC: You just turned 85, that’s quite a milestone.
JC: It was a big milestone. I got to spend it with my wife as opposed to last year I was in Akron, OH which is not the first place you’d head for to celebrate a birthday. I had a lovely dinner with her and Mr. [Michael] Palin (Monty Python) and a couple of other friends I’ve known for about 140 years. I did a couple of meetings there. There’s a lot of changes going in my life because there’s a lot of stuff going on in my life so I’ve decided to centralize my finances instead of having separate accountants which require a lot of time. I don’t think that’s of any interest to your guys and what they’d be interested. The first two weeks of December we’re having a showcase in London, a musical that I’ve written with my daughter and John Du Prez. John wrote the music to the original film then he did Spamalot, now he’s done the music and songs with me for this musical A Fish Called Wanda which is very different from the original. I think it becomes very interesting to decide redoing a classic on stage with the same producers. Do you stay faithful to the original project or script or do you play with it? My instinct is always to play with it and change it a bit to make it a more interesting experience. They just opened Dr. Strangelove, I remember when it opened in 1964 in London and the criticism was that it was nothing really new. It was well done but just predictable. For example with Life of Brian, I had to remove the crucifixion although it’s an integral part of the film, it no longer carries the same punch that it did 45 years ago.
HPC: I was going to mention I finally saw Spamalot on Broadway this year and it was an interesting mix of most of Holy Grail, songs, and a Vegas style performance as well as having “Always Look on the Brightside of Life “ in it.
JC: About 80% of it was from the original film and I was quite surprised how little had been changed with all those things like the killer rabbit, the black knight, and The French Taunter, and all those virtually word for word. I was tasked with a Broadway musical. They had the wonderful Mike Nichols who I think is the greatest of the great to direct it. When I saw Mike’s name attached I thought that’ll be alright.
HPC: Even the cow being thrown over the castle is in there.
JC: Oh yes, that’s right.
HPC: You definitely see the fan favorite scenes there.
JC: It’s a big question, I’ve been pondering around Life of Brian and I had a big hand in writing both of them and said it’s alright if I change my own work. I’m not hurting anybody’s feelings so I tried to make it particularly a bit different with the endings. I think that’s more fun, but people say I love the old ending. The answer is you can watch any ending you like.
HPC: You’ve been doing a “Fireside Chat” with your daughter Camilla which includes a Holy Grail screening on some occasions. How long have you been doing these?
JC: Oh you mean a Q&A, I’ve been doing them for a long time. I tried them experimentally early on and found in theory the audience enjoyed that more than the scripted stuff. All the stuff that I carefully scripted, polished, rehearsed, and learned, but I much prefer the stuff in the second half. People yearn for a little bit of authenticity or a little bit of reality. With that kind of thing you’re not playing a character, you’re talking directly to the audience. A lot of it is spontaneous. Seems to amuse the audience more than carefully scripted bits.
HPC: Speaking of L.A. where you’ll be on the 29th. Monty Python was at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980 which there is a live taping of. One classic moment was you in the audience playing a woman selling albatross.
JC: That was great fun. It started out in the audience which you can’t do on television. The audience loved to be involved.
HPC: Anything in particular you remember from those shows?
JC: Well we noticed this present smell in the air (laughing) and some of my more experienced colleague friends were able to identify it right away.
HPC: Recently it was announced that Monty Python was leaving Netflix for another service.
JC: We were with Netflix for a shortish period of time. I personally, not speaking for the others. I thought that was very frustrating because they guarded the statistics like secrets. What I wanted to know is how is the audience reacting to what they’re doing or what they’ve done in the past and you can’t get any of those kinds of statistics out of Netflix, because there so I don’t know terrified of the competition. I’m very glad we’re not with them anymore. Learning about the response is extremely important. I don’t want to be without it.
HPC: I know I’ve watched everything Monty Python there was on there between the movies, documentaries, and live performances.
JC: But we could never work out if they were getting good audience figures or not or great. A performer really wants to know that.
HPC: What do you say about the average age range of those coming to see you?
JC: The age range is interesting, obviously they’re mostly older. Not a lot of people there are under 45. If they do know about me, it’s the 36 seconds in Harry Potter or they know I did the King’s voice in Shrek. The work that I’m known for was out many years ago. The audience tends to be 45 up. I have a big show in London at the moment based on Fawlty Towers the sitcom, you know that?
HPC: That’s new to me surprisingly.
JC: In England, I’m better known for it than for Python. It has been voted for best comedy sort of in the last 50 years and we put three of the episodes together onstage. It was very obvious from the first night was that the audience was 40,50 or 60. Younger people do come and discover that humor for the first time and the next week we see their friends coming. The audience is getting younger and younger. I’m very pleased about that. It’s nice that it’s expertly done at the Apollo Theater. The young people always think that what’s coming out next is important. The answer is I’m afraid I disagree completely on the whole. There’s only three of four wonderful films a year and if you want to watch wonderful films then go back 50 years and watch the films from 1967 or 1982 and you’ll see nothing but really good films.
HPC: To talk about Shrek, I was 10 when the first one came out and to this day it’s still one of the greatest animated comedies. Going back and watching those movies, I discovered you were the voice of the King/Princess Fiona’s father in the second and third film and died as a frog. Also found out Julie Andrews was the Queen/Fiona’s Mother.
JC:Yes, I was a frog. That’s the second time, I think I was in one called The Fairy Princess. Yes, that’s right it was Julie Andrews. Normally when you’re doing those things, 99% of the time you record on your own, but I did actually have a recording session with her which I think was for publicity purposes and it was lovely to meet her since she’s been such a big star. I remember when My Fair Lady opened in London a long time ago and she was the star of that. It was lovely to meet her, she’s a very nice woman, and very amusing too. She was married to Blake Edwards [until his passing in 2010] who made The Pink Panther films with [Peter] Sellers.
HPC: When I saw you Holy Grail screening/Q&A, it was the 48th and half anniversary of the film and next year will be the 50th. In the past there was a special DVD re-release as a box set. Are there plans for anything?
JC: Yes, there is some kind of re-release being planned, I’ve been talking to Holly Gilliam about it, Terry’s daughter who manages us now. They’re still planning the details, but they’ll let me know when they want me to do something, but I’m glad it’s being re-released. People do love it and most of them don’t know about it. Our audience is definitely older, but very rewarding to hear young people saying I didn’t know about this, I’m going to tell my friends. As I say, the average age of the audience is dropping, but I don’t think much below 40. An awful lot of people there are 70 and 80. It’s very touching, because I do comic-cons and just did one in Providence, RI and I’m in Detroit, MI doing one this weekend. It’s lovely when 44 people come up with a tear in their eye and say thank you for making me laugh over the last 40 years. It’s very rewarding to hear that from people.
HPC: My first time seeing the Monty Python name was at a friend’s house having the whole Flying Circus DVD box set.
JC: A lot of people have never seen humor like it. It’s what I call silly humor. You used to have it. W.C. Fields used to do it a lot and of course the Marx Brothers. People like that. Most American humor is not the silly vibe. Monty Python isn’t for a lot of people particularly in the Midwest. In the absence of irony and felt like it was someone opening the door to a new world. They still remain excited by the fact there is a different type of comedy that applies to them.
HPC: From Flying Circus, there are many memorable skits like “The Ministry of Silly Walks,” “Philosophy Football” which the video was shown in the live performances, and “Why Michelangelo Didn’t Paint the Last Supper.” Did you think over 50 years later people would still be talking about it?
JC: Michelangelo wasn’t part of the television show.
HPC: Right, that was just for the stage show.
JC: The interesting thing was I wrote it for BBC Radio in about 1973 and the producer refused to record it and said it was so irrelevant or blasphemous. One day we were putting together the Python stage show. I remembered it and read it out to the others and they thought it was really funny. It was never in the Python T.V. show but it’s become an old favorite of our stage show.
HPC: One classic line included no kangaroos, 12 disciples, and one Christ.
JC: That’s right and somebody somewhere, I think Terry Gilliam once drew the painting the Michelangelo had done with all the extra waiters, kangaroos, a mariachi band and that type of thing. I can’t remember where it is, but it’s a very funny picture.
HPC: One thing to mention out of the movies, from Life of Brian “Biggus Dickus” how it started with you saying it’s a joke name and then Palin turned into a joke lasting several minutes trying to get the actors to break character. Was that all scripted?
JC: Palin had written it, but I think he was just playing with the script as it was. I don’t think he adlibbed any lines, but I it was wonderfully created the way he was defying people to laugh.
HPC: He got right in their faces and said it several times.
JC: That’s right, he got in the actor’s faces and Chris Langham was biting his cheeks in an attempt not to smile. That’s not just doing the script, that was being hugely creative for the script and Michael [Palin] wrote that and all the stuff. He also wrote the extremely nice centurion to make sure everyone has a cross. He wrote a lot of really funny stuff for that movie.
HPC: It all started with Graham Chapman as Brian saying his father’s name was Nortius Maximus which had you laughing followed by Palin as Caesar asking if you knew anyone of that name in the Garrison, then what it turned into was one of the greatest comedy bits in a movie.
JC: That’s right, Nortius Maximus (laughing). I’m sitting here with an old friend of mine that was my old P.A. for years, Howard Johnson who teaches at the Improv Olympic in Chicago, IL. He’s here with me in Detroit and we’re working on a re-write of the last 15 minutes of the stage version of Life of Brian, because he has a very good idea and we’re just making sure the rest of the scene leads up to that apocalyptic ending.
HPC: Iron Maiden uses “Bright Side of Life” for their outro song on every show.
JC: That’s right! Well I believe Eric [Idle] on tour has the whole audience singing it at the end of the show.
HPC: For the ending of Holy Grail the ending can be considered controversial by fans.
JC: Well it was almost impossible to end that and it was the best we could do. It’s not terribly good. I really think the first 15 minutes of Holy Grail are absolutely wonderful, but not quite as great as the rest of the movie. Nobody seems to care really. That’s why I do prefer Life of Brian. It’s also about something important, how people follow leaders which is not as relevant today.
HPC: From one of the documentaries I saw leaders in Christianity and Judaism were trying to prevent the release of the movie due to how certain things were portrayed like the stoning in the beginning.
JC: There was a lot of protest from people that read the script. I remember that. It wasn’t a joke about religion, it was a joke about the way some people follow religion. If you take the 10 Commandments it says “Not to worship a graven image.” The Muslims take that seriously. If you go into a Mosque you see no statues or any human beings at all. If you go into a Christian Church it’s full of statues and pictures of Saints and Christ which is contrary to “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” and nobody seems to notice that. When the Catholics talk about Buffet Catholicism, you choose some bits of the doctrine and not others and they have done exactly that since the very beginning. There are all sorts of loop holes. Christianity seems to be primarily about kindness and inclusivity which is the good end of the “woke agenda.” The other end is a lot of humorous people trying stop people with a sense of humor laughing at things they don’t think is funny (laughing).
HPC: One thing I wanted to mention was your time as a college professor. How many students can say they had a comic legend as a teacher?
JC: I was invited to be at Cornell and had the most wonderful time there, but it took up a bit of time so when my third wife went off my nest egg, I didn’t have time to do it anymore. It was a wonderful experience and I very much like talking to younger people, because I think I can say things to them that most people don’t tell them are true. For example most people don’t know what they’re talking about.
HPC: I happen to be one of those fans that quotes the movies often including some of what you say as the French Taunter from Holy Grail. How did you create that character?
JC: When you think about the tales of the Arabian nights they had these very complicated coco insults largely to do with people’s mothers. I was always amused by them because it wasn’t always about a camel. I translated that into European bullock language and I thought it worked really well. I was saying yesterday to someone while signing yesterday It’s so much funnier to say I fart in your general direction than it is to say I fart at you. One is really not funny at all. In your general direction was put into my mind by some of the arab days.
HPC: That leads to throwing the animals over the castle which is always funny.
JC: What always struck me was the Trojan Horse which was fascinating. They all pack up and leave the Greeks and sail away and Troy says “look they left us a present, push this huge horse in” (laughing) with lots of people inside it. I like the fact they forgot to get inside it [in Holy Grail].
HPC: And there’s the nights of the roundtable watching from a distance as it’s being placed.
JC: One asks the other how the trick is supposed to work and while explaining it realizes they missed out.
HPC: You as Lancelot at the end is quite humorous at the bridge when coming up with a plan then Arthur tells you simply to answer the three questions.
JC: That was a good bit of writing. My favorite. Oh blue, yellow, ahh.
HPC: John, thank you very much for your time today and we look forward to seeing you at the Saban Theater on Black Friday (Nov 29)
JC: Glad you enjoyed it. Come say hello afterwards. Bye!
