RIP Monty Python: 1969 - 2014

I think Palin and Jones were a team. Hence, Ripping Yarns.

 

Sounds right. Personality-wise I can see how they'd be most-compatible.

 

Just got tickets for Wednesday night's encore showing. So excited.

 

In Monty Python's own famous words ...

 

Still one of my favorite Python scenes ... classic Palin!

 

Pretty sure Idle was the solowriter. Palin and Jones were close as were Cleese and Chapman as pairs.

 

Yes. Cleese and Chapman were the other pairing, Idle on his own, and Gilliam on animation, although was he solely responsible for the ideas, or did the others contribute?

 

I don't mean to suggest that they were senile or anything.

Palin was certainly the consummate professional. I don't think he flubbed anything. When others flubbed or improvised, he certainly rolled with it. What has changed is that he is not quite as manic and his facial expressions have evolved over time. He can't muster up the greasy smile as easily anymore, but his takes are much more refined than they used to be.

Jones seemed to know that he had trouble remember his lines, hence the pre-made ingredient cards for the Crunchy Frog sketch. He had to have known that Cleese would mock him for it, though.

Cleese seemed to almost relish forgetting his lines, as if to say, "You knew I was old when you bought your tickets! Besides, we haven't performed any of this stuff since George Harrison's memorial!"

They all looked like they were having fun with it, so that's the important thing.

 

There will be a DVD/BD release at the end of the year; I saw the show here in Nürnbergs Cinecitta, too. The price was 18€. But it was a wonderful performance with very vivid pythons and a real best of set which should please almost everybody. I also liked the half hour countdown before the show very much. That was quite unique; I watched quite a few other live events in cinemas in the last years and there was never anything like that. Terry Gilliam looked definitely as he was having the blast of his life. Amazing! That´s what I call a dead parrot! But the 1969 - 2014 epitaph at the very end was quite sad...

 

There are encore movie theatre presentations this week. Check the movie houses in your local area. In addition to the international simulcast, this last performance was broadcast on UK TV. IIRC, I noticed an 'Eagle Rock Entertainment' credit at the end of the show. So, I'm assuming the show was recorded and will be offered for the home video market in the near future.

 

$17.50 CDN.

 

If I remember it had to do with which university they went to. Could be wrong but may have been an Oxford Cambridge thing

 

Correct, Palin and Jones attended Oxford together. Cleese and Chapman were at Cambridge together. Idle was also at Cambridge but was a year later. Cleese met Gilliam in New York on a Cambridge Footlights tour. Cleese did used to find writing with Chapman frustrating, his poor timekeeping and his heavy drinking would mean, according to Cleese, he would spend a lot of time writing on his own. One example of the wit of Chapman though is they were writing a sketch together about a shopkeeper refusing to acknowledge that a returned toaster didn't work when Chapman said why don't we make it a dead parrot...

These guys were already writing in pairs before Python and carried on in the main when they got together. Idle tended to write on his own and Gilliam of course focused on the animation.

I too watched the final show in a cinema and enjoyed it. Yes, it wasn't groundbreaking but it was nice to see the crew back together again.

 

I wasn't at the python screening but many movies I have seen at Hamilton had low and echoey audio.

 

When my toaster doesn't work I often suspect that it is just pining for the fjords.

 

It's not pinin' . . . it's passed on!

 

It's ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker!

 

I saw it and it cost me $18.

I loved the re-enactment of Pearl Harbor and the argument one the best.

Main glitch we had was the house lights stayed on during the overture. Maybe that was supposed to be or not.

 

Baba O'Really: forever the contrarian!

 

The bluray is up on amazon. November 10 release. One Down Five To Go.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monty-Pytho...8&qid=1406065327&sr=1-4&keywords=monty+python

 

A very good documentary on what each of the 5 Pythons have been doing in 2014, and how the reunion show came together.

 

Interesting the material they talked about during the planning meetings that did not make it to the final show.

 

Yes ... be interesting to know if Terry Jones was going to be the naked man playing the organ, and if he squashed that or someone else did. Also distressing to know that the "My Brain Hurts!" Gumby sketch with Palin and Cleese got scratched. I can NEVER watch this sketch without laughing.

 

Give it another go. There's a lot of crap, but there's a lot of good too, even if they did knick the format off Spike Milligan.