Author Archives: howardjohnson1985

Fawlty Report

John Cleese is looking to have a very busy 2016. In addition to everything else on his schedule, including an Australian tour with Eric Idle (which I wrote about here), filming a movie, scripting a Feydeau farce for a possible West End production, and lots of writing, The Daily Telegraph is now reporting that a stage production of Fawlty Towers will be opening in Australia in August.

I haven’t had a chance to confirm this yet with @johncleese, but this would undoubtedly be similar to a very successful Scandinavian production that was presented recently. John has found a way to stitch together three episodes of @fawltytowers into a full-length play, and will doubtless be down under overseeing the production this summer. No, John and the rest of the cast of the original TV series won’t be on stage, but if John is involved, this will be good.

Cleese and Idle Down Unda…

@johncleese and @ericidle have just announced another two-man tour, following in the wake of last fall’s tour of Florida and the Southeastern U.S. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that, if you want to see them, you’ll need to be in Australia in February.

Of course, if you’re already living there, or if you’re an Aussie living elsewhere and are looking for an excuse to come home, this should do as well as anything.

If you saw any of the shows last October, you know how much good news this is. Here’s where to get tickets: http://www.abpresents.com.au/current-events/show/john-cleese-and-eric-idle

#montypython #johncleese #ericidle

Now it’s good night from me…

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Ronnie Corbett, 85, the diminutive half of Britain’s much-loved The Two Ronnies.

The Two Ronnies show began in 1971 and ran for 12 seasons over 16 years. But Ronnie Corbett actually began working with Ronnie Barker years before that, most prominently on The Frost Report. Most of the individual Pythons worked with the pair as writers, and one of the most successful ongoing sketches featured John Cleese with the pair as upper (Cleese), middle (Barker), and Corbett (working) class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2k1iRD2f-c

It’s a brilliant concept (written by Marty Feldman and John Law), almost works as a sight gag alone, though the writing is brilliant. This clip doesn’t include the punch line(s) however:

Middle: We all know our place, but what do we get out of it?
Upper: I get a feeling of superiority over them.
Middle: I get a feeling of inferiority from him. But a feeling of superiority over him.
Working: (looking up to them, literally) I get a pain in my neck.

I never met Ronnie Corbett (who always reminded me of my pal Tim Kazurinsky), but the first time I visited London, I was staying at Graham Chapman’s house, and was delighted to hear that The Two Ronnies were headlining at The Palladium, and at Graham’s suggestion, scored a ticket. It was money well spent.

We’re losing way too many talented folks lately, and it makes me sad that Ronnie Corbett is gone, but happy that he had such a long, wonderful career and, by all accounts, a happy life.

And now, sadly and for the last time, it’s good night from him.

@johncleese @grahamchapman @montypython #montypython #ronniecorbett

Del’s Rolling Stone debut…

If you read my Del Close biography The Funniest One in the Room, you probably know that this is the 50th anniversary of Lysergic a Go Go, which preceded the first Acid Test by one week.

Del Book cover

The former was a happening organized by Del and Hugh Romney (later Wavy Gravy), and it’s finally being recognized by the historians. Well, okay, Rolling Stone, but still, this was nice to see. sic/news/acid-tests-turn-50-wavy-gravy-merry-prankster-ken-babbs-look-back-20151130

This was very likely the first psychedelic light show; Del liked to say that he invented them, and there’s no reason to think that he didn’t. BTW, many years ago, he gave me the lantern that he used for the light shows, and somewhere or another, I still have it…

JC Book cover A few weeks ago, when he was promoting the release of the paperback version of #soanyway, @johncleese made a visit to Google in NYC to talk to them. If you’re wondering what he said, here’s your answer: https://youtu.be/2-p44-9S4O0

And here it is on Twitter:

We're sorry to have kept you waiting, but we're afraid our Talk with @JohnCleese has become rather sillier recently! https://t.co/b5qPbpSKV0

— Talks at Google (@talksatgoogle) November 25, 2015

Gilliamesque Regards

I don’t think I’ve written anything about Terry Gilliam’s new autobiography, Gilliamesque (which @johncleese was kind enough to buy for me a couple of weeks ago), but I can’t think of a better day to mention it. First of all, happy birthday Terry! Secondly, this is a pretty amazing book, down to the art directed scrawling on the borders of the pages. I always thought I knew a lot about Terry’s life, but I was amazed at the Zelig-like events of his youth even before he left for England. And did you know that Terry is the only one of the Pythons who ever had acting lessons? Gilliamesque

He’s managed to cram a lot into this volume, but it could have been twice as long and I would have come up begging for more. So on this @terrygilliam birthday, buy yourself a present. If you’re at all a Gilliam fan, or a @montypython fan, you’ll love Gilliamesque.

#montypython #johncleese #terrygilliam

@johncleese made an appearance this week on Conan O’Brien, which was actually taped a week ago.

My experience with shows like this is that there is usually a larger TV monitor turned on when the show is being recorded, but the staff seldom pays much attention to it, except, for example, to see how well a particular joke goes over.

That was not the case here.

When John stepped into the studio with Conan and Andy Richter, there was a respectful silence as everyone listened to him telling about cheering up his mother.

By the end of the story, the laughter in the green room was almost louder than it was in the studio–and it was plenty loud in the studio. You can see what I mean here: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/VA42BLuE3bzGSv

And talking about his German lessons: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/5JewB8c5vAQqc8

And how @montypython invaded America: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/g5ZxBXSZp6xEIx

#johncleese #montypython

Great to watch a real professional at work. #johncleese recording lines at Dreamworks.

So, Anyway… Spam, Cake, and Cleese…

I’ve accompanied @johncleese to lots of interviews over the years, but none quite as elaborate as early this morning for the WGN Morning show.

My old pal and producer Jeff Hoover prepped me, and when John stepped out of the green room, a full band was playing the Python theme. As he walked down the hallway, he was accompanied by the cast of Spamalot in full costume, along with a swarm of other Python characters. John was surprised and delighted as he walked into the studio for the interview.

The first interview segment concluded with a wonderful cake shaped like a TV set. The only person more surprised than John was the cake maker when he–well, maybe you’d better watch for yourself here…

Somehow I managed to snap that last shot just before the flinging…

Of course, everyone wanted their pictures with John, including the band, the cast, and assorted others…