Q&A: John Cleese Plans on Living Forever (or at Least Long Enough To Pay Off His Alimony)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
John Cleese did a pretty good job of explaining his comedy formula during last month's Monty Python reunion at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre. "Graham (Chapman) and I wrote sketches where people started out fairly calm," he said, "and finished up shouting at each other." Some might argue that Cleese's contributions to Python were a little more complex than that, but it's essentially the nuts and bolts of his genius. The silly walks made him famous, but there are few things in this world as perfectly hilarious as John Cleese losing his temper.
During the reign of Monty Python's Flying Circus—originally broadcast on the BBC from 1969 to 1974—Cleese was the ensemble's volatile nucleus. He wasn't the cast member who responded to chaos with a befuddled, dazed expression. He was the one who exploded in anger with little or no provocation, whether howling inconsolably about being sold a dead parrot or interrupting a scene to shriek incoherently, and for no apparent reason, about the "filthy bastard commies, I hate 'em! I hate 'em! Aaargh! Aaargh!" He continued his blitzkrieg of comedic fury in the 1975 BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, in which half the fun was just watching the veins start throbbing on Cleese's neck. In one episode, he attempted to put German tourists at ease with some horrific Nazi jokes, and then justified his behavior by shouting "I'm trying to cheer her up, you stupid Kraut!"
Forty years after he first became a comedy star, Cleese is no less venomous or quick to anger. In his latest one-man show, A Final Wave to the World (or The Alimony Tour, Year One)—currently touring the West Coast, with performances tonight and tomorrow in Scottsdale, Arizona—Cleese eviscerates his ex-wife, Alyce Eichelberger, who inspired (at least financially) his return to the stage. At various points during the show, he compares her to the Orcs from Lord of the Rings and describes her as "the special love child of Bernie Madoff and Heather Mills." Even at 70—he celebrated the milestone birthday in late October—Cleese seems as bewildered and outraged by the world as when he was a young Python.
Tags: Arizona, bbc sitcom, Bernie Madoff, comedy, Graham, Heather Mills, John Cleese, mdash, Monty Python, New York, nuts and bolts, West Coast, World, ziegfeld theatre