John Cleese

I will be upfront: I've been waiting for decades for an interlude between Cleese's marriages to snap him up for myself. And am an unreconstructed Monty Python fan. And once upon a time I was hired to work at a university where our new employee orientation included several of Cleese's customer service videos. So of COURSE I was going to read this.

This is NOT Monty Python. Or even Cleese's memoir "So, Anyway." Instead, it is a compilation of lectures, discussions, interviews, and even a show more sermon (!) conducted by Cleese during his stint as an invited professor-at-large at Cornell University. This is the very smart, thoughtful, curious Cleese with a wide-ranging and serious mind. The chapters explore the mysteries of writing, religion, psychology, facial recognition, creativity, group dynamics... and it's mostly interesting and enjoyable. Well, the screenwriting workshop with William Goldman was too long and repetitive, but worth the read for wannabe writers. And he can be a little flaky, fascinated by Jung, Watts, and other kind of woo-woo folks. But there is still the sharp, sarcastic, dry Cleese I love, and the requisite bits from Monty Python or Fawlty Towers still make me bark with laughter... Plus he adores cats. And there's a lemur on the back cover. A good read for fans. show less

I received an advance copy of this autobiography from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very generous and unexpected autobiography. I say that because most books of these types merely retell the scandals, bask in the highlights, and dish the dirt on the nasty habits of famous people. Well, we all love that and if we are being honest, that is why we paid the price of admission.

Not so this time. While Mr. Cleese does tell us what he really thinks of some of the famous, and show more not so famous, people in his life, the book isn’t really about that. Even when he does roast someone, it is usually in terms that are so over the top, and above all so damn funny, that it is hard to see any animosity in it. No lurid tales. No hatchet jobs on celebrities. What you do get is an extended tour inside the mind of a comic genius.

Mr. Cleese is a very intelligent, well read, and introspective man---who just happens to enjoy and be very good at absurd and farce. For me though, his brand of comedy is superior to the more recent absurdist humor of say a Will Farrell or Seth Green because through it all, it never loses its intelligence. You don’t feel that you lost IQ points just by watching the movie. Quite the opposite, actually. I always felt that Cleese and the other writers that he worked with had a respect for their audience that I feel is lacking in some modern writers. Give me A Fish Called Wanda every time.

Writers. This is a book about comedy writers. That is a real distinction here. Cleese points it out and that is something I took away from this book. Cleese, Chapman, Idle, Palin, and Jones were first writers, and only secondarily performers. Cleese doesn’t focus on description of performances, other than telling in hilarious and self deprecating detail as to how nervous he was before many important performances or how something got screwed up and why. What he does do is describe his views on what is funny, and even why we perceive it as funny. As someone who might have been happy living the life of an academic, he gives the reader a master class in comedy, and human nature. He also lets us in on what makes him tick, both as a comedy writer, and as a person, which in turn shaped his individual mindset and, from there, his very original sense of humor. It is almost as if a famous musician would explain what he was thinking as he wrote a iconic song, which they seldom do. I doubt they would want us to know. Not so with Cleese who seems to enjoy the analysis, as did I.

If you are interested in hearing who had the drinking problems, who cheated on who, and who had the most sex with farm animals, this is not the right autobiography. If you are interested in an intelligent conversation with a comedy genius (who doesn’t consider himself to be one) about the nature of comedy and comedians, the history of British comedy, and his own place in the overall scheme of things, then you will enjoy this very thorough yet lightly conversational book. show less

The Brand New Monty Python Bok [sic] is the second book to be published by the British comedy team. Edited by Eric Idle, it contains more text based humour than the first book, Monty Python's Big Red Book.

The hardback version was originally published with a white dust jacket that was deliberately designed to appear grubby, with realistic looking smudged fingerprints on the front, which fooled enough booksellers to complain to the publishers when it first hit the shelves in the 1970s. This show more was just the beginning of the real gag however. Should the offended parties attempt to dislodge the grubby dust cover, they were met with an even more 'grubby' mock pornographic magazine cover underneath which purported to be titled 'Tits 'n Bums - a weekly look at church architecture', with articles such as "Are you still a verger?". Just imagine the shriek of embarrassment from browsers in WH Smiths, innocently slipping off the dust cover out of curiosity and then going red in the face with panic as they fumbled to stuff the book back into its sleeve as tits and bums, blazoned across the cover, caught the attention of opinionated bystanders in the shop. Mutterings of 'pervert' and disdainful glares following them as they 'leg it' out the door before they are recognised! (Or, at least, I like to imagine such a scenario). I laughed myself to tears before I'd even opened the cover - which is a good way to start a comedy book.
If you did not find that offensive enough, then the first page contains a glued in school library fly sheet containing a list of all the students who withdrew the book; incl. J.P. Sartre, S. Davis Jr., Shirley Bassey, and lastly a certain 'M. Thatcher'.
Once again, I fell onto the floor visualising this crude porn cover sitting proudly on the shelves of Ferndean School Library. What a thing to suggest! At this point I was crying so hard with shame and laughter that I could barely read the words on the first page. I don't think there has ever been a funnier T.V. Tie in comedy book released before or since!

Inside:
Learn the secret Welsh art of self defence Llap-Goch, acquaint yourself with the Python Book of Etiquette, read the comic adventures of Walter the Wallabee, learn how to cook rat, learn to play Cheeseshop - an exciting new word game for two based on real life retailing, Hamsters: a warning, Teach yourself surgery, and many, many other ridiculous and amusing notions...

Its all good smutty fun. Naughty school-boy humour really; with one foot just over the line of decency which made this troop of comedians so cutting edge at a time when businessmen still wore bowler hats and rubbed shoulders on the tube with the first punk rockers. Strange days indeed!

p.s. Look out for page 71 !!! show less

John Cleese is having entirely too much fun. It’s nice to be able to pick and choose, and when Cornell University called out of the blue, he was delighted to accept their offer of Professor At Large, a program that takes celebrity academics and prize winners and uses their fame to stir the blood of students and faculty. The requirements were simply to visit at least twice a year for six years, and participate in whatever he fancied.

He ended up doing it for ten years with two extensions show more gladly approved by Cornell. In his time there, he gave a sermon, narrated Peter and the Wolf with the chamber orchestra, held numerous master classes for writers and actors, and gave joint lectures with Cornell professors in their fields. Because Cleese is a lifetime student. He is constantly researching and learning. His degree is in law, his life is in media, his passions are in psychology and religion, and his energy is abundant. Professor at Large is a sampling of his presentations at Cornell.

By far the most impressive piece is a lengthy interview with William Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and The Princess Bride among so many other great films. There is a terrific back and forth between them as they both have so much experience, perception and opinion. Especially on the Goldman side, it often seems as though there is an urgency to tell it; he can’t get out the stories fast enough. If Cleese didn’t cut in, you know Goldman would go on with more huge insights. Whether it’s the process of writing, the torture of Hollywood, the insanity of the star system or the lack of recognition of writers and why that will never change, this chapter alone is worth price of admission.

Naturally, Monty Python’s Flying Circus colors nearly everything. Using The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, there’s lots to say about religion. Cleese also talks about their process – mostly fighting – of how material was polished and accepted. Apparently, it was Cleese vs Jones most of the time, but he also said no one ever argued about roles. Everyone always agreed who would play what on the show – it was that obvious to them. The words they would speak however, was a battleground.

For those who treasure the archetypical Cleese, there are questions from the audience about his favorite moments in Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, his favorite film, the most successful whatever, and so on. Cleese uses scenes from his films to illustrate his points about religion as crowd control organizations, which anyone who has seen The Life of Brian will recognize immediately.

What John Cleese reveals is his life in psychiatry. He has become very solicitous. He constantly asks “You see what I mean?” This is no longer the arrogant, self-assured John Cleese character we laugh at. The same thing happened to Billy Connolly. Decades in analysis took the edge off and changed his personality profoundly. The deprivations of their childhoods, what gave them their edginess, attitudes and worldviews, have all been sanded smooth by 20+ years in analysis. They are happier for it, they say. These are new men we need to get to know, and Professor At Large is very revealing that way.

David Wineberg show less