An Evening With John Cleese

A Glorious Evening With John Cleese

John CleeseLike many, I grew up with John Cleese as a regular visitor to my living room. Finally seeing him in the flesh last Saturday was a little like seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Tower of Big Ben for the first time because, while he is so familiar, the experience of seeing him is completely new.

He is a consummate raconteur, flitting from one amusing anecdote to the next with barely a pause for breath. He was brutally honest about the motivation behind this latest tour (he has a lot of alimony left to pay), and talked at length about his childhood and his relationship with his neurotic mother.

At school, Cleese was surprisingly not the class clown. Having reached a height of over six feet by the time he was 12, he never had a chance of blending into the background. Instead, he found that making his classmates laugh gained their acceptance, but he was quite sneaky about it. His teachers soon noticed his unique, subversive style of humour. That little boy is still very much a part of the adult Cleese. Only now he is paid to be subversive on a stage in front of 2,000 people.

Cleese discussed the beginnings of Monty Python and the big part that luck has played in his career. It was interesting to hear all the insights he has to offer into the private lives of many of comedy’s greats: The Two Ronies, David Frost, Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Mardy Feldman…they were all starting out at about the same time. What an incredible era to be a comedian in Britain. Listening to all his anecdotes, you’d often recognise the origin of a beloved sketch or character, or he’d impersonate a fellow Python. Yes, he did an outrageous French accent, and he subtlety worked ‘and now for something completely different’ naturally into his speech.

Cleese also shared two of the most important things he has learned about comedy- it’s only funny if things go wrong and the more anxious people are about the subject matter (sex, death…anything taboo), the bigger the release the audience will feel and the bigger laugh you will get – simple, priceless wisdom

Cleese also shared two of the most important things he has learned about comedy- it’s only funny if things go wrong and the more anxious people are about the subject matter (sex, death…anything taboo), the bigger the release the audience will feel and the bigger laugh you will get – simple, priceless wisdom.

In amongst the wisdom and the anecdotes there were quite a few clips from his vast body of work. Some old favourites (the black knight scene from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, the dog squishing scene from A Fish Called Wanda) and including some rare snippets were included, (a very early appearance on the Frost Report, Cleese performing the Dead Parrot Sketch at Graham Chapman’s funeral).

Cleese loves being irreverent and silly. Silly, he said, was the Pythons’ favourite word and out of all their silliness they unanimously agreed that their silliest sketch is the Fish Slapping Dance. He lives in fear that somewhere, some day a poor student will be required to write an essay that explains its meaning.

It’s hard to precisely capture the warmth and charisma that this man has. He’s certainly nothing like many of the cold, abrasive characters he has immortalised. To give but a small example of his quirks, he has this wonderful way of saying the word ‘glorious’, as if he wants to savour its flavour. He can keep an audience of 2,000 people captive and silent and make hours whizz by. All too soon he said ‘Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the evening’s entertainment. You’ve been the best Saturday night audience we’ve played to all week’ and with a (slightly) silly walk and a bow he disappeared. The Monty Python music started playing, the lights came on and the glorious evening was suddenly over. I was left wondering if what we had just witnessed was the real John Cleese. Or if he’s just very good at doing an impersonation of what people expect him to be.

Whichever it is, I’d love to invite him over for a glass of wine and a good chat. If only so I can ask him what exactly the fish slapping dance means. I have this essay due, you see…

John Cleese will be performing in Melbourne from Monday 12 March until 27 March and in Sydney from 30 March – 4 April.

Book tickets via Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com.au/John-Cleese-tickets

 

2 thoughts on “An Evening With John Cleese

  • we are going to see John Cleese on Friday….the blurb for the show says: ‘Legendary UK comic John Cleese, star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers is bringing his one man show “An Evening With John Cleese” to Melbourne during March.’…. so …..just heard that there was a “host” and  this was going to be one of Jon Faine, Richard Stubbs or Rafael Epstein from 774…

    How does this make it a ‘one man show’…the tickets cost a bomb…shame they didn’t advertise it correctly…I wouldn’t have paid ~$120 for each ticket to listen to Faine or Stubbs…hopefully it will be Raf on Friday night….sheesh….

    Reply
    • There’s a host for the first half of the show- but don’t worry, the role is minimal. They just ask scripted questions that prompt Cleese’s replies. It’s pretty much a one man show.

      Reply

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