After the intensity of 'The Five', I needed something more frivolous and optimistic. As it turns out, you can't really get more optimistic than Monty Python's Eric Idle.
Showing posts with label cleese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleese. Show all posts
06 May 2019
Mr Bright Side
'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography' by Eric Idle (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2018)
After the intensity of 'The Five', I needed something more frivolous and optimistic. As it turns out, you can't really get more optimistic than Monty Python's Eric Idle.
'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' is a scamper through the highs and lows (but mostly the highs) of the life of Eric Idle. After a childhood marred by the early loss of his father and an unpleasant spell at boarding school, Idle gained a place at Cambridge University in the 1960s, that now-legendary cradle of intellectuals and alternative comedy. In this Big Bang of confidence and creative energy, many significant cultural figures mixed, with groups forming, splitting and reforming, until the infamous Pythons gravitated together and stuck. Over the next 50 years, due to hard work and a positive attitude, Idle's career as a performer and writer thrived. As well as professional success in film, theatre and television, he became friends with many like-minded people (who also happen to be celebrities), including George Harrison and Robin Williams. 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' is a life story and a love story, about friendship as well as fame, humanity as well as humour. There is laughter, there are tears, but, somehow, there is always a bright side.
After the intensity of 'The Five', I needed something more frivolous and optimistic. As it turns out, you can't really get more optimistic than Monty Python's Eric Idle.
11 February 2015
The End is just the Beginning
Oh dear. Not a great start to the year then, Six weeks in and only two books down. Will have to try harder. Or just read shorter books...
I've just finished 'So, Anyway...', John Cleese's bestselling autobiography. Beginning with his early life in Weston-super-Mare, Cleese charts his growth as a person, writer and comedy performer, describing the many people who influenced him. Fondly remembered teachers, intimidating family members and supportive friends and colleagues are all woven into the story of how Cleese went from Somerset boy to Cambridge law student to BBC comedy legend.
Unusually for an autobiography, this book manages to end on a cliffhanger! It probably annoyed a
lot of readers, but Cleese ends his narrative just as the Monty Python team begin working together for the first time, so doesn't actually cover a lot of his most famous work in detail, such as 'Fawlty Towers' or 'A Fish Called Wanda'. A lot of people may find this annoying, but I actually enjoyed the earlier parts of the book most and got the feeling that the author might've done too.
One thing that did annoy me a bit, however, was something Cleese said about two thirds of the way through. Justifying his decision to include some brilliant extracts from his early TV and other work, he declares it a fact that most readers "don't give a tinker's cuss for me as a human being or feel for the many different forms of suffering that make me so special". How wrong you are, Mr Cleese! I found the earlier chapters much more interesting and enjoyed learning more about your background and what made you into the iconic comedy writer you are now.
The later chapters include a number of sketches from various broadcasts, but, while illuminating for someone like me who is too young to remember them, they felt like something for the author to hide behind. I felt the book was actually at its most interesting when Cleese offered his thoughts on psychology and the thought process that goes on behind writing or performing. The very best at anything always make it look easy, so it's good to hear more about the intelligence and work behind it rather than just the Hollywood-dream-celebrity-culture-anyone-can-do-it-if-they-want-it-enough scenario that we're all force-fed nowadays.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and think fans of John Cleese and the 1960s' satire boom will do too. I'm not sure whether I'd read a second autobiography, but then I got the feeling the author felt that such a book would be unnecessary. perhaps because so much has been written about the Python team already. If he skipped that era entirely and began again with his post-Python work, I think I would be tempted. But in the meantime, I think I have quite a lot to keep me busy already!
Unusually for an autobiography, this book manages to end on a cliffhanger! It probably annoyed a
 |
| 'So, Anyway...' by John Cleese (Random House Books, 2014) |
One thing that did annoy me a bit, however, was something Cleese said about two thirds of the way through. Justifying his decision to include some brilliant extracts from his early TV and other work, he declares it a fact that most readers "don't give a tinker's cuss for me as a human being or feel for the many different forms of suffering that make me so special". How wrong you are, Mr Cleese! I found the earlier chapters much more interesting and enjoyed learning more about your background and what made you into the iconic comedy writer you are now.
The later chapters include a number of sketches from various broadcasts, but, while illuminating for someone like me who is too young to remember them, they felt like something for the author to hide behind. I felt the book was actually at its most interesting when Cleese offered his thoughts on psychology and the thought process that goes on behind writing or performing. The very best at anything always make it look easy, so it's good to hear more about the intelligence and work behind it rather than just the Hollywood-dream-celebrity-culture-anyone-can-do-it-if-they-want-it-enough scenario that we're all force-fed nowadays.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and think fans of John Cleese and the 1960s' satire boom will do too. I'm not sure whether I'd read a second autobiography, but then I got the feeling the author felt that such a book would be unnecessary. perhaps because so much has been written about the Python team already. If he skipped that era entirely and began again with his post-Python work, I think I would be tempted. But in the meantime, I think I have quite a lot to keep me busy already!
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