So Anyway…here’s the link to the John Cleese event in the Chicago area on November 11. It should be such a great time, even the interviewer won’t screw it up…
Tag Archives: John Cleese
Better Call Cleese
Bob Odenkirk has come a long way since the days when we used to improvise together under the tutelage of Del Close. In addition to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Fargo, Mr. Show, and a whole slew of other credits, he has agreed to interview John Cleese on November 20th in San Diego, where John will be promoting his autobiography, So Anyway… If I were you, and I was anywhere in that neck of the woods at that time, I’d get my tickets now…
Cleese in Seattle
And as promised, here’s the link to the info on John’s appearance in Seattle on Sunday, November 16th, to promote his upcoming autobiography So Anyway... I may be wrong, but this could be John’s first-ever appearance in Seattle. Either way, if I were you, I wouldn’t miss it.
Cleese on the Coast!…
And for our friends on the West Coast of the U.S., you won’t be able to avoid John Cleese or his autobiography, So Anyway…
John will be in Seattle on November 16; details to come.
Nov. 17 is San Jose, and the details are here.
Nov. 18: John will be in L.A., with special guest interviewer Eric Idle!!! Get your tickets now!
Nov. 19: John returns home to Santa Barbara! Here’s more info…
Nov. 20: John is heading towards San Diego for this one. I’ve been working the phones to get another interviewer for this one, and I think I found one! I should be able to make the announcement any day now. Here’s the rest of the info…
Nov. 21: John will be at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove at Farmers Market in L.A. and it’s looking like I may have another terrific interviewer. Stay tuned for the announcement, but in the meantime: Have a look…
And finally, he’ll wrap things up Nov. 23 at the Miami Book Fair.
I’m hoping to have the Canadian tour info soon!
Cleese in the Middle…
…of the U.S. I started posting John’s U.S. events for his promotional tour for So Anyway… (his upcoming autobiography). Yesterday I revealed the events for New York, Washington DC and Boston, today, it’s Chicago and Kansas City.
November 11: John will be appearing that evening at the Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, IL, just outside of Chicago, through the courtesy of Anderson’s Books.
November 12: John will be in Kansas City at 6 pm (more info here.)
And more info in the west coast events coming soon!
Cleese Invasion: East Coast Edition…
As I mentioned earlier, John Cleese is indeed touring North America and Europe soon to promote the release of his upcoming biography So Anyway… As a part of that, he’ll be doing a lot of bookstore events where you can see him with your own eyes…
Nov. 4 he’ll be at the Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City at 12:30 pm.
That same evening, Nov. 4, he’ll be doing a TimesTalk in NYC, for which you can buy tickets here.
At 8 pm the next evening, Nov. 5, he’ll be interviewed at the BAM Harvey Theatre by John Hodgman, tickets available here.
Nov. 6 at 7 pm in Washington DC, he’ll be interviewed by NPR’s Scott Simon; tickets are sold out but you can apparently get on a wait list here.
Nov. 7 at 6:30 pm, he’ll be at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for another talk, with tickets available here.
I’ll post more with his Midwest schedule, hopefully tomorrow.
A word to the wise: many of these are likely to sell out; the Washington DC event already has. If you’re hoping to get to any of them, best get your tickets now! If they look a little pricey, it may be because most include a complimentary copy of So Anyway… with ’em.
Stay Cleesey, San Diego! …
As I mentioned earlier, the first volume of John Cleese’s autobiography will be out in November, and he’ll be doing some pretty extensive traveling across Britain and much of Europe, as well as the U.S. and Canada, to promote it. He’s planning loads of TV, radio, and bookstore appearances, so there’s no point in hiding–he’s coming for you. I’ll give you more details as they become available, but I’ll start out by noting that San Diego fans can see John live on November 20. More details here.
Roy Leonard
There aren’t too many Chicago radio legends left, and we can’t afford to lose the ones we have. Unfortunately, we’ve lost Roy Leonard, one of the nicest, most decent gentlemen to ever pick up a microphone.
There are plenty of tributes to him all over the web, so I won’t try to summarize his career or write anything lengthy. In addition to reviewing movies for many years, he even took over for Frazier Thomas on Family Classics. He was even nice enough to interview me on occasion and help me promote my Monty Python books, and I’m happy to say that the difference between the on-air Roy Leonard and the off-air Roy Leonard was non-existent.
Need more? Well, he was one of John Cleese’s favorite interviewers. John once said “Any actor who says he enjoys publicity is a Goddam liar. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed a small number of interviews in the last 15 years and most of them were with Roy Leonard.”
Thank you Roy, and condolences to his family.
Book it! …
I’ve been busy for a little while now helping my old boss research the first volume of his upcoming autobiography. I haven’t written about it yet because, well, frankly, it was still being written. But now, to the best of my knowledge, the manuscript has been turned in, and the countdown to publication has started. Don’t worry, I’ll be giving you a few reminders before it comes out, but in the mean time–what do you think of the cover?
The Last of the Last Night of Monty Python
The scene after the show ended on the Last Night of Monty Python was–well, it was chaotic in a good way, but chaotic nevertheless.
My son and I made our way backstage very slowly, weaving through the crowd and making our way through the hallways. Camera crews were everywhere, blocking any convenient access, so we made our way back into the Green Room. It was packed with people I didn’t know, many of them apparently from the same group that was there for the live TV pre-show broadcasts, and a small band was setting up. They began playing very loudly in the rather small room, and I quickly realized that there was no way that John Cleese would ever, ever show up in this room.
We waited a few more minutes, during which time I saw Eric Idle enter and wade through the crowd. The crowd showed no sign of letting up, so we decided to take our chances in the hallways.
There were apparently several levels of backstage passes. We wore VIP passes, which were apparently second-highest only to the coveted AAA (all-access area). But it was difficult to discern what they actually meant. We would walk down one hallway and be turned away, and be welcomed when we came back two minutes later. We tried to enter what was apparently a small pub inside the larger pub in search of John Cleese, but were told it was over capacity and we would have to wait until some people left. So, we walked down to the Family Hospitality Suite, where Terry Jones was greeting everyone (and, appropriately, his family was in attendance; and I caught up with his son Bill).
We had drinks and visited, meeting new friends and old. The crowd didn’t seem to dissipate, so we walked down to the pub-within-a-pub to say hello to John. He had apparently left, but the Gilliam family was well-represented, and I walked past Terry to say hello to Prof. Stephen Hawking. I introduced myself to him and explained my Python connection to him and his assistants. Then, I said hello to Maggie Gilliam, who was astonished at the size of my now-19-year-old son, and I re-met their son Harry, who was just as tall as my son. As Eric Idle told me, “You’ve got to stop feeding him!”
I had a chance to catch up with the always delightful John Goldstone in the hallway, and he mentioned that the Pythons had all been called away for a final round of photos. It was getting late, and it was perilously close to the times for the last trains, so we reluctantly said goodnight and headed out. As we were walking around the darkened O2, heading for the exits, we heard some talking behind a partition that was now blocking the huge dead parrot from the public areas. I knew those voices, so we walked around in time to see the Pythons leaving, their final photo obligation finished. John called out to me and we all had a few minutes together before we had to leave. We missed the last trains of the Last Night of Monty Python, of course and had to pile into the buses, but it was worth it.
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