Subj : Hilary Barry: Eric Idle on Monty Python, John Cleese and not staying i To : All From : News Date : Sun Jun 09 2024 12:38 pm By Hilary Barry, Seven Sharp Presenter 6:00am He's been in show business for decades - since 1961, to be exact. He was a key member of the legendary comedy troupe Monty Python, and he's hogged the headlines of late because, at the age of 81, he says he still has to work for financial reasons. There's also that so-called spat with fellow Python John Cleese. Is Idle still looking at the bright side of life? Seven Sharp presenter Hilary Barry finds out. "Please tell me you're not coming to New Zealand to offend anyone?" I was 15 minutes into a Zoom interview with Monty Python's Eric Idle and thinking about another Python alum who put the boot into Palmerston North so spectacularly in the early 2000s that he upset an entire city. With Idle announcing a tour to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in October, I'm wondering if he's prone to having a crack, too. "I even climbed Mt Cleese, which you know is a garbage dump named after him," he beamed. He was referring to a pile of trash that was named after Cleese when he called Palmerston North the 'suicide capital' of New Zealand after a visit in 2005. "If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to," Cleese said, "I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick." If he'd meant it as a joke, the fine folk of New Zealand's eight biggest cities failed to get it. One of their most famous sons, John Clarke, aka Fred Dagg, came to town and put up a sign at the local tip, declaring it Mt Cleese. Good people do that when they're outraged, they put up a sign. Idle's proud to have climbed Mt Cleese. He summitted in 2016 when he was touring here with Cleese, taking a camera to document the moment and footage he would later surprise Cleese with on stage. Does he still catch up with Cleese and the rest of the Pythons on a WhatsApp group chat? "God, no," he said. He later revealed he hadn't seen Cleese in eight years. Was it the rubbish tip mountain or Palmerston North? Neither probably. 'Python is a disaster' Google Idle and Cleese, and you'll find numerous headlines claiming the pair's relationship is strained over money. It's no doubt the reason why, at 81, and with a catalogue of successful movies, books, a musical and TV shows, Idle still has to work. "I don't know why people always assume we're loaded," he tweeted in February, "Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age." Netflix acquired the rights to Monty Python's catalogue for its streaming service in 2018. Surely that helped Idle's bank balance? "No, because Netflix pays bugger all," said Idle. "Python is not loaded, and yes, one does have to work, and that's not a bad thing for you," he said. "In America, nobody gets to retire anyway. Unless you're in the army or something. I don't mind doing that because I have a nice job. It's not a terrible job to make people laugh. "It's a hard job, but it's not a terrible one because you make people happy, and I think cheering people up is an OK way to spend the last few years of your life." The live show he's bringing to New Zealand is called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which, depending on your age, will be some life advice you saw on Facebook from an influencer you forgot to unfollow or the famous song sung by Brian at his crucifixion in the Monty Python classic The Life of Brian. "I've been writing it for about two months, and it's really a lot of my favourite things. It's actually a one-man musical. "I have a virtual band who accompany me on screen because you don't want to take them on the road because musicians are smelly and expensive." The bright side of life Idle's an accomplished musician, too; comedy writing and composition are a constant thread throughout his career. He won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005 with Monty Python's Spamalot, which returned to Broadway last year, and his song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life has been the most requested at funerals in the UK for the past 20 years. He won't be having it at his funeral. Still, he's delighted the song has had a 'second life' - sung by football fans supporting a losing side, performed by Idle in front of the Queen at a Royal Variety Show and the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. "That was probably my proudest moment. You've got to do it live; that's very scary. You know there were 90,000 people in the stadium and two billion people watching on television. "You have to sing it live, and you go, 'Wow, there's only one way forward here', and you have to go for it. A lot of the pop singers were miming but not the comedian, no no, they made him sing live." Idle wrote his "oddly cheery-uppie" song about an hour after they'd struggled to find just the right ending for The Life of Brian, which film critics laud as one of the greatest comedy films of all time. Had it not been for Idle's great mate George Harrison, The Life of Brian might never have been made. "It was picked up by EMI and a guy who worked there, and he loved it - it made him laugh. And then he gave it to [EMI Producer] Lew Grade. They read it, freaked out, and said, 'No. No. No. We're not making this.' "We had to sue them because we'd already started to build the sets. Then I came to New York with a producer, and we were looking for the money, and it was like selling Springtime for Hitler. Nobody wanted it. We went to Hollywood; nobody wanted it." 'I've got you the money' And then a phone call changed things. "George called and said, 'I've got you the money'. He'd mortgaged his house and put down four-and-a-half million dollars, the film's entire budget. He made the film because he wanted to see it. "It was extraordinary because that's an amazing thing to do. Imagine you go back to tell the wife, 'What did you do today? Well, I mortgaged the house and put it on a Monty Python film parodying the life of JC'." The Life of Brian was a smash hit. The controversy helped. There's nothing an audience is more motivated by than a movie that's been banned around the world. Idle suspects Harrison would rather the film had flopped so he could have used it as a tax write-off. That still amuses him. Looking on the bright side of life is something Idle's done a lot over the last five years, having survived a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. "I think life is a very interesting experience when you get towards the end of it and especially if you've been through a door marked exit and you manage to get back again - which I very much was." A 'door marked exit.' It's hardly the Monty Python ending I'd expect for Idle. I can think of an oddly cheery-uppie ditty that might be better: For life is quite absurd And death's the final word You must always face the curtain with a bow Forget about your sin Give the audience a grin Enjoy it; it's your last chance, anyhow. Idle will be in New Zealand with his Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life LIVE! tour later this year: October 23 in Auckland, October 26 in Wellington, and October 28 in Christchurch. --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Windows/64) * Origin: S.W.A.T.S BBS Telnet swatsbbs.ddns.net:2323 (63:10/102) .