'Out Of Gas'
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Random tidbits on Monty Python (as I write up a Terry Gilliam piece):
The Pythons were shockingly well adapted and successful in their early lives. Terry Gilliam was freakin' Prom King and voted Most Likely to Succeed. Terry Jones was Head Boy at his school. So was Idle (though he was stripped of that title for watching an X movie.) Cleese was a star pupil, winning a prize in English and excelling at cricket and boxing. Graham Chapman finished medical school but never practiced.
You saw the recent documentary, right?
You saw the recent documentary, right?
The Lawyer's version or something on IFC? (Sundance?) I saw a tidbit of it.
First episode was all about what upstanding, promising young men they were. Probably my favorite episode, although I also like the one that got into the scandalous personal details. The rest were meh. Lots of English actors and comedians describing their favorite sketches.
It's shocking! (as Matilda would say) Or rather, intriguing that such cultural anarchists would be so successful and popular in their early years. It's like finding out that Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) was his high school's quarterback, or that Lily Tomlin was a cheerleader. (Brian Wilson was also his school's quarterback, and Meryl Streep was also a cheerleader.)
It's also interesting to find the substrate of the Pythons. There's an Oxford/Cambridge split, and Idle is a bit of an outlier/outcast. The formation of Python basically turned on Cleese's mancrush on Palin.
Chapman/Cleese was one writing team. Though it was about 90% Cleese writing and 10% Chapman pushing the weird buttons. (It was Chapman who turned a broken toaster sketch into the Dead Parrot.)
Palin/Jones was another writing team, and Jones was probably the least able comedian, but the best conceptualist (hence his influence on the flow of the show and directing the movies).
Chapman was gay and alcoholic, but the best straight actor.
Idle wrote his own bits and most of the musical stuff, and is seen as a wee bit greedy and grubbing (and Spamalot is seen as rather mild and unPythonish).
Idle and Palin excelled at playing insincere characters. Chapman and Cleese got the authority figures.
They were all pretty shattered by Chapman's death.
I can still recall learning Chapman was gay way way back when. Didn't hear about the alcoholism until the documentary, but it's in there. It hit Cleese hard.
It's like finding out that Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) was his high school's quarterback
Somehow I find it not at all surprising with Monty Python but I'm quite shocked about Gano!
I guess it's not surprising that Emma Thompson can tap dance, but you really need to see her in the third section as a rockabilly guitarist and singer duetting with Robbie Coltrane.
She's rocking the quiff. (Must show this to Emmett and point out that's Prof. Trewlawney with Hagrid.)
Somehow I find it not at all surprising with Monty Python but I'm quite shocked about Gano!
I know! He's not tall! How could he write all those songs of sexual repression and have a willing bevy of cheerleaders?
Further random tidbit: Connie Booth, John Cleese's ex-wife, co-writer of Fawlty Towers and player of Polly on said show, is now married to John Lahr, New Yorker drama critic and writer.
Huh. She's a psychotherapist in London.