The Full Monty: Eric Idle on the ‘Ridiculously Python’ Farewell Shows
Eric Idle won’t complain about all the flattery Monty Python has gotten this year. In fact, it doesn’t even surprise him. “It is amazing how Python just went ’round the world and seemed to have subverted everything,” he says. “The only sad thing is now it’s not offensive anymore. Everybody loves it.”
Earlier this year, Monty Python‘s fans proved just how much they loved it by purchasing thousands of tickets to see the surviving members of the group – Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam – play a run of live, sold-out reunion shows at London’s O2 Arena. Idle directed the program – cheekily titled “Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go” as a dig at fellow Python Graham Chapman, who died in 1989. (You can now see the run’s final performance, which has just come out on Blu-ray.)
Tasked with creating a two-act show with only five main performers, Idle created a mix of Python’s snippets from its movies, songs from the group’s comedy albums and sketches from the legendary TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Given that Idle has mastered musical theater since the last Python live performance in 1980, the man behind Broadway’s hit Spamalot also brought in dancers and singers to make it even more of an event. “I loved those moments when, suddenly, it was a show,” he says. “It was not just a bunch of old guys and a table and chair, which we could’ve done. Instead, we spent $4.5 million on these gigs, so I’m glad to say it was ridiculously Python.”
Now that the reunion shows are done, the comedian claims to be “completely unemployed.” He has plans to perform at a production of his Life of Brian–inspired oratorio Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in December. But before that, he will be making an appearance on a stop of Cleese’s book tour in Glendale, California. When Rolling Stone suggests Idle write his own memoir, the comedian jokes, “I’m working on my posthumous memoirs. You can be more honest.”
How does it feel for the Python shows to be over?
It’s the best thing that could have happened. The point was we would come and say farewell; that was the pact. We were offered the world, and I believe Michael Palin was already going there [laughs]. He was in Australia doing a one-man show, and John was going across America selling his book. But I think what we did was just enough. It was enough to be nervous, then to relax, then to not quite get bored, really. If you think how rarely you can do that sort of thing, I think we were very fortunate.
How do you feel the reunion went?
Everybody had a good time. The audience loved it. I don’t think they expected a huge show like that. And that was my intention – I spent a year on that.