 Click on the image to go to Idle's old tour schedule, which is now only a curiousity item. Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python! (Well, not really. But he does talk about his new show of that title, which is currently touring the United States and Canada.)
By John Orr
THE FIRST of two things Eric Idle told me that I'm absolutely not supposed to tell anyone is that he really isn't exploiting Monty Python, despite the title of his new revue, "Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python -- A Rather Stupid Evening of Skits and Songs."
The truth is, all the Pythons get a cut.
"Yes, absolutely. Totally," Idle says. "Every performance. You know, so it's not really an exploitation! (Laughing.) But don't tell everybody I'm not exploiting them! I wouldn't do it without their blessing and approval.
"Here's the thing: We have a franchise. ... Eh, it's good for it, you know what I mean? It's good for Spam, it's good for Python!"
"It's going to be a very silly show," Idle said, looking fit and somewhat elegant in his sunny and beautiful room at The Sherman House in San Francisco a few weeks ago.
"There's a surprise, isn't it? It's a stupid show, really. It's my chance to put on a stage show just of all the best bits that I really liked of Python."
For those sad and under-amused among you who have no idea who Monty Python was, or why a Flying Circus was named after him, I refer you to your local video store, where you can undoubtedly find tapes such as "Monty Python's Fifth Symphony" (with the word "Symphony" crossed out) -- compilations of shows from a wonderfully loony TV series that ran on the BBC in England for four seasons.
And, there are feature films: "And Now For Something Completely Different," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Monty Python's Life of Brian," "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" and "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life."
In 1969 they were five bright young Brits from Oxford and Cambridge, plus one bright Yank from Occidental College, and they did all they could to re-invent and improve comedy.
Idle and mates John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Yank Terry Gilliam, started by throwing out beginnings and endings. The skits simply were there and then they weren't. And/or, perhaps someone stepped through a wall, from a 16th-century battlefield to a 20th-century British cheese shop. Or into an animation by Gilliam wherein a pacifier pulled from the mouth of a baby might result in the baby sucking in the entire scene.
There were no commercials, just 25 minutes of looniness. Then the credits, to the tune of John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March."
In England, each of the Python seasons ran once and was repeated once. But once they got to the United States -- starting on a PBS station in Texas -- they never left, and have been in broadcast pretty much continuously for almost 30 years.
Cleese left Python after three years of the show, and the rest of them went their separate ways after the fourth, although they all got back together for the movies, and two or three at a time have assisted in each other's various projects, as actors, writers, directors. Chapman died in 1989 (cancer).
Like the Beatles, everyone wants to know when the five surviving Pythons will get together again.
"Well, never," said Idle. "You see, I tried very hard for two years to make that happen. and they're never going to do it.
"It's been 16 years since we did anything together. People have changed their lives. Michael is a sort of travel journalist now, and a very well respected one. And I don't think he likes performing. ... Gilliam wants to direct films, of course. And so does Jones. I mean, they've all got different jobs, so the idea of ... you know I think they'd do it for two or three nights, but it doesn't make any economic sense to put on a Python show for two or three nights."
(It's not entirely a money issue, though. Idle reports they recently turned down $10 million to do a tour. "We'd gotten to the stage of organizing theaters and dates and everything like that, so it was a late pull-out. But I've totally forgiven Michael for that, and we're all pals.")
Among Idle's pursuits recently was helping to create a "Seussical" -- a musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss, which opens on Broadway in the fall -- for which he had to go through all the Seuss material.
"And I thought, why can't I do that with Python? Why couldn't I just take this material and make a stage show, and so that's what I've been doing."
The Spam skit (which has become the national anthem of the online world), "The Lumberjack Song," "The Travel Agent" and many other Python bits, and some new material, will be in the show, which has a band and supporting performers.
Idle won't do "bits that John Cleese and Michael Palin would have done better. ... I'm dong things that I do. I'm singing .. and stuff that's never been done on stage, like "The Bright Side" (from 'Life of Brian')."
Fans are encouraged to dress loonily for the show, for one of the bits Idle plans is "Spot the Loony."
"The person who's dressed up most stupidly in the audience will come on and we'll ask if we can have their liver," Idle explains. "We'll do a live liver removal on the stage."
The second thing Idle told me that I'm not supposed to tell anyone is that his new CD, "Eric Idle Sings Monty Python Songs," was recorded at the Getty Museum. Live, with 500 audience members singing along.
Orr: Really? Why?
Idle: Um, good thought! Yes, I don't know (laughs) why! Funny organization. I think half of them thought it was art, and half thought it was pornography. So, I'm not even supposed to tell you this.
Orr: So, if I mention this, in my interview ...
Idle: I'll be killed, by the Getty.
Orr: So, if I mention this, then some thugs from the Getty ...
Idle: Let's call it the Betty. The Betty Museum.
Orr: The Betty... will come and thump you.
Idle: (Laughs) yeah The interview
March 18, 2000
(Hellos, he didn't see the O'Brien show he was on, looks for a place to turn down the music ...
couch, chairs, sun in the eyes, reading "The Loved One"
Orr: a great book!
Idle: It is a great book. on the plane I just read "Handful of Dust"
Orr: Thank you for "Always Look ... " one of my favorite movie songs,
Orr: What's this show you're doing, what are we going to see?
Idle: It's going to be a very silly show. There's a surprise, isn't it? It's a stupid show really. It's my chance to put on a stage show just of all the best bits that I really liked of Python.
The genesis of it was last year I did a show at the Getty. Where I sang -- it was "Eric Idle Sings Monty Python Songs" -- it was a tribute to the 30th anniverary, the whole canon of Python at the Getty Museum ... as if it was Cole Porter, you know. the whole tribute , went through all the songs, I had a band - and people just loved it! and we put up the words and they sang, you know, the audience was 500 people, we turned away 200 people. And I realized -- and they had such a great time, they were laughing; I did little links and talked about the show, the Pythons and people and anecdotes, and it was just a kind of a wonderful evening, and they loved it and said, you've got to do this! Put this on!
Then I thought about it a bit more, and you know, the logistics of taking a band, mean you have to do a slightly bigger show. So, we're doing a theater show and putting on a theatrical revue, which is about 11 people on the stage, there's a band, the singers and there's people gonna -- and between the songs I'm going to do sketches, favorite sketches. ... ??? travel agent, four Yorkshiremen -- because nobody's seen these things in 20 years, they haven't been done on stage in 20 years --- Hollywood Bowl in '81 .. and since the guys decided they don't want to do this, there's no real reason not for me to do it ... and i also feel we could start a genre: ERic Idle Exploits MOnty Python, Michael Palin exploits Monty Python, this could be the show -- everybody wants to do the show,
Orr: It's like the Beatles. Everybody wants to know when you guys are going to come back
Idle: Well, never -- you see, i tried very hard for two years to make that happen. and they're never going to do it
Orr: I'm getting the feeling, after reading a lot about all of you, that Palin is the one who really doesn't want to do it
Idle: He doesn't want to do it. and the thing is -- it's been 16 years since we did anything together. People have changed their lives. Michael is a sort of travel journalist now, and a very well respected one. and i don't think he likes performing. i suspect it. Who knows? He definitely doesn't want to do it. Gilliam wants to direct films, of course. and does Jones. I mean, they've all got different jobs, so the idea of ... you know I think they'd do it for two or three nights, but it doesn't make any economic to put on a Python show for two or three nights. You'd still have have to rehearse for three weeks .. you know what I mean?
I tried to sell them a tour, and people sort of went, uh, they went no, so now I feel kinda free to do my kinda of show ... and no matter what I do, people say "Monty Python!" You know what I mean? There's no hiding it.
Orr: Although you've been a very busy man
Idle: I've been very busy, but I tell ya, everyday I walk and everybody says "Monty Python." it's all, i mean, every day! every step you go. ... so I fellt, well, hit it, face it head on, Then use it! And Exploit it. Since it's exploited me for all these years.
And do it quite to be sure, they're fun! It's like ... i had people audition, singers, when they'd come in, they'd all sing "Spam." It was so funny, just watching singer after singer coming in and singing "Spam, Spam, Spam."
Orr: "Spam" is practically the national anthem of Silicon Valley.
Idle: laughs
Orr: Online in chat rooms and so on, people would a bite from that, a computer sound, all the time
Local publicist: Spam Spam Spam
Idle: It's amazing, isn't it? ....there's nothing particularly funny about it, it's just kind of insane. There are no funny jokes in it -- nobody makes a joke. It's just bizarre, and then we have the Vikings in, singing.
Orr: that definitely takes it somewhere else
Idle: Laughs
Orr: Whose idea was it the Vikings ...
Idle: I think Michael and Terry wrote that script ... and it so extreme and weird . the two characters I think are lowered in ... we were lowered into our seats, for no reason whatsoever, we are lowered in from the roof. and it's one the earliest things we did. and uh, kind of a signature in a way.
(His credit for that piece was "Eric Spam Egg and Chips Idle." Playing his wife was "Graham Spam Spam Spam Chapman.")
Orr: You guys were all bright young guys, Oxford and cambridge, and Gilliam I uh ..
Idle: Occidental (with a lift of impressed eyebrows and a smile)
Orr: it's a special, time, complete freedom at the BBC .. now, what would it be like if, by some miracle if the five of you wanted to get together and write again
Idle: We did a bit. About two, three years ago I came up with a film idea, and everybody liked it for 20 minutes, and they also wanted to do it for 20 minutes, then John changed his ming (laughs), but it was uh ... and we got together in Clifton, in a hotel in England and we wrote for about two or three hours, it was just the same, it was amazing. and it was very interesting to see. and then John ... actually, what happened, was John went out of the room, and he came back and he was really against it. He didn't want to do -- he really didn't want to write the film. and, uh, it's a shame, because you could just see, that that could have flown.
But, you know, that's the way it is. You know, we can't be young again. And it's nice that it's sort of finished, in an odd way. You know what I mean? It's like, "There it is!" It was done when we were at our peak. It wasn't the first thing we did, and it wasn't the last thing we did, but it was when we were just totally in our stride and had freedom.
Orr: You guys weren't in love with beginnings or endings as I recall
Idle: absolutely (laughs)
Orr: (the skits just sort of began and they they were over) an important development in the history of comedy. Just reading that book, "Monty Python Speaks," bla bla
Idle: Hmmn hmm. It's a pretty good book. I mean, it pretty much nails everything.
Orr: but on the other hand, look at you guys. You are all successful, producting a lot of stuff ... the concept of you guys bringing that dynamic together, with all you've learned over the years ... it's attracticve
Idle: there's no possibility. i mean, i've obsrved it. I've tried very hard, especially, (as the) one living in America, knowing the potentials, and what can be done and the can-do philosophies ... live in England ... it's never going to happen.
There's a fear of it, because of what we did. We weren't doing Monty Python, we were just doing a show. You know what I mean? Now it's kind of Monty Python. So it has to be THAT good, whereas it was never THAT good, it just something that we were doing.
Orr: I think it's fun that you are doing this. ALL old Python material?
Idle: There's some new stuff, some bits of new stuff. And some of it will not have been done on stage before. We'll do the Spanish Inquisition -- it's never been done, and Spot the
Loony.
I mean, I've had a lovely time. It all came about because I was doing the Seussical and I had read all through the Seuss canon and make a show, with two writers (Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty)-- which is going to go on Broadway (in October). And I thought, why can't I do that with Python? Why couldn't Ijust take this material and make a stage show, and so that's what I've been doing. It's been... selecting the bits and what I thought I wouldn't do is like do bits that John Cleese and Michael Palin would have done better. So I'm not doing their sketches with other people, as it were. I'm dong things that I do, that I would do normally. I'm singing .. and stuff that's never been done on stage, like "the Bright Side" (almost sings those three words) and you know, various songs that have never been seen on a stage.
(Some confusion about the A&E tape. He doesn't know what the hell I was talking about. He hasn't seen that tape. I mention the CD.)
Orr: Have you seen that tape? The Arts & Entertainment biogray tape, which you narrated?
Idle: Oh, no, I haven';t actually. they sent it around, have they? is it in there? privious, because its April the 9th.
Orr: on the other hand, your new CD, we couldn't get a copy of that.
(He looks confused)
Orr: Publicist SWEARS -- even though I saw Conan O'Brien holding one
Idle: Yes, he did have one. (Asks publicist) Can you get one of them
That's actually, yeah, from the Getty, though we're not allowed to mention it.
Orr: From the Getty show??
Idle: Yeah. The Getty, which is charging me 15 percent, as long as I don't mention their name. I had to take all references to the Getty off, and take the Getty song out of it.
Orr: Really? Why?
Idle: Um, good thought! Yes, I don't know (laughs) why! Funny organization. I think half of them thought it was art, and half thought it was pornography.
So, I'm not even supposed to tell you this.
Orr: So, if I mention this, in my interview ...
Idle: I'll be killed, by the Getty.
They do take 15 percent, in order for me not to mention them.
Orr: So, if I mention this, then some thugs from the Getty ...
Idle: Let's call it the Betty. The Betty Museum.
Orr: The betty... will come and thump you.
Idle: (Laughs) yeah
Orr: that would be bad.
Idle: Well ... I don't know. Ithink they're very strange. I mean, the whole object of doing the evening was to draw attention to the Betty -- the Getty -- was to publicize them, so that young people would come to the Getty and see how nice a place it was.
Orr: Any consonant in a storm. (Idle just looks confused, and perhaps irritated)
Orr: The Python fellows own the Python?
Idle: We do
Orr: Which is astounding, given that you created it at the BBC
Idle: We sued ABC to get it. ... ABC did a deal with the BBC where they picked up six of the last series. and they cut it all together to make two specials. and they cut out all the really rude things, and anything funny, and the BBC gave them that right, and ABC put it on. We put an injunction on ABC -- when we saw it -- to stop them putting it out. in New York. the judge said it was too late to stop it going out, but we still had remedies and rights. so, we sued ABC, they were found to be totally in breach of the contract as it was done thorugh the BBC, and we could have sued them for a lot of money, and the BBC thereby giving us a lot of money, but we settled for our masters. It was a very smart and bright move by our lawyer then. and so, we own them.
Orr: so, all these things that have fed off from that, including the CD-Roms...
Idle: Right, that's all our proper.
Orr: this show ... is it in effect, a Python production, and part of the money goes tothe fellows??
Idle: Yes, absolutely. Totally. Every performance. First thing I insist on. you know, so it's not really an exploitation! (laughing) but don't tell everybody I'm not exploiting them! (laughs) No, it's with their blessing and approval. I wouldn't do it without their blessing and approval. I wouldn't go that route. You know what I mean? So, and I'm using material -- here's the thing: We have a franchise. So it's real good. Some of our merchandising will be on sale, and any time we do that, it always gives the company, this product thing, Python -- eh, it's good for it, you know what I mean? It's good for Spam, it's good for Python! (laughs)
So, it's all excellent and it's not ... uh ..and I'm hoping that I'll seduce one or two of them unto the stage ... coming to various places.
I just felt, this is just one way .. maybe they'll see, "Hey! Maybe we could all go to carnegi e Hall and maybe we could all.." Do you know what I mean? Once I have the show up and running, and all the band playing all the songs, and there's a framework, it may not feel quite so scary ... if they want to just come in or ... so ..
Orr: Cleese, in the books and interviews talks about it getting repetitive after a while (Why he left the show)
Idle: That's bullshit, I think. I think some of our funniest stuff was in the last series he wasn't even in and didn't write. ... "The Most Awful family in Britain" ...
I think what happens ... when John talks about anything, he's talking about John. And when he says he's boired and repptitive, it means John was getting bored and his writing was repetitive. some of us were just finding where to go. ya know. there were other people taking off in different directions. Because John was like four years older than everybody else, and had done TV for three years before we go there, had been on "The Frost Report" so I think he was tired of the three-minuet sketch. But some of were not so tired ...
The last series show some quite wonderful imaginateve touches
Orr: yeah ... anmd it's not like nay of of you have stoppe being creative ..
Idle: Joihn ws just bored of being in agroup. he likes to be in control, John --
Orr: that's what you all say about him
Idle: It's true! There's tnothing wrong with that. His control is fabulous in the right product, but he couldn't be in control of that group because it's too anarchic. you can't be in contrl of Terry Gilloiam, you can't be in contrl of Terry Jones (laughin). Grahm was being ... I think he got bored with Graham., who was at his most alcolholic at that point .. being late, never showin g up or saying anything, being hungover .. so ll those things, you must always interpret whatever he says as their own -- their aresix different viewpoints.
Orr: (all these different things he did)
Idle: "Splitting Heirs"
Orr: How long will the tour go?
Idle: this tour will run for just over two months. it opens April 29 and we end at the end of June in Boston ..... US and Canada
Orr: What's after that?
Idle: I don't know? No idea.
Orr: Writing projects?
Idle: I've got a book I'd like to do, but I'd like a couple of months off with my daughter, and then I'll write something in the fall. I never know what I'm going to do next. It's sort ... I want to see how this goes. This is the most fun I think I've had for a long time. Because I can decide who's it in, what we're going to do, what wer're going to be, how long we do it ...
To put a band together and to do silliness is really good fun
Orr: who'll be acting in skits with you
Idle: I've got a guy called Peter Crab, who was a stand-up comedian form the Bay Area,and who worked with me at the Getty, Samantha Harris, who was in "Reffer Madness' in LA, she's really watchable and silly (laughing) and a guy named Mark Ryan who's actually a asinge and was in "Evita" the original Evita in London, playe Che. He's done a lot of musical comedy. and when I was audtioning him, turns out he is a Yorkshireman, he's from Yorkshire, so I go "We have to do the Four Yorkshirmen," then -- "You were lucky!" But I'm goign to use a lot of the band, too. and the're two backup singer s... and it;s foing to be funny ... we've got a set -- I've got 17 costume changes!
I'm doing Sir Dirk McQuickly of the Rutles, he'll be on as a tribute, I'm doing Dolly Taylor the transvestite country singer -- she'll be closing the first act, -- if I can make the change in time.
Orr: wasn't there some fuss about her? Didn't somebody complain about her?
Idle: No, she's new.
Orr: Oh. I've read so much about you the last three days, that --
Idle: I'm sure there WILL be a big fuss about her. (Laughs)
Orr: That's a good idea ... what will she be doing?
Idle: She'll be singing something -- I have thing called "Isn't It Awfully Nice to Have a Penis?" You know, the penis song, and I've written a sequel called "Isn't It Awfully Nice to have a Pussy?" which she will be doing.
It's not for children, or the faint-hearted, this show. And then she will be leading "The Shopping Anthem," which is a song from "The Owl and the Pussycat" and they all sing "Shopping, We're All Happy When We're Shopping" and then there's another one of those medleys, a huge medley that leads into the interval, ending with "Sit On My Face and Tell Me That you Love Me." We'll put the words up and the whole audience sings that --- it's really great fun. It's so grat to go to the interval like that. (Laughs)
At the Getty it was such fun to have 500 people singing "Sit On My Face."
Orr: Did you dress up, were you in costume for that show?
Idle: At the Getty I just had hats, but here, full spread, full changes.
And that's been half the fun, writing a show where I can actually get off, make a change, come on ... using all the members to do bits and pieces .. God's going to appear at one point, and complain.
Orr: Will you have the big animation things like you guys used at the Hollywood Bowl?
Idle: I'm not going to use Gilliam animation. I've shot some special stuff, uh, to do links. Uh, Clint Black is doing (laughs) a link for me. I shot something last week -- the subtext of the thing is "Liver Dance." And, I'm doing "Spot the Loony" and the person who's dressed up most stupidly in the audience will come on and we'll ask if we can have their liver. We'll do a live liver removal on the stage.
Orr: Donate the liver .. you were talking with Conan about that last night ...
Idle: Yeah. Well, I'm going to do that. We shot that, so that' s going to be, hopefully, that's done as a kind of trick.
So, all of this is written, the script's ... some time, but we start work on Monday, so it's all subject to change. And obviously when we hit Phonenix and the audience it'll change again.
Orr: Oh, you haven't acutally rehearsed this yet
Idle: Starts on Monday. Put the guys together ... and then, there's bits I've left a bit loose, that I'd quite like to just talk to the audience. So I'll just come on and say something about Pythons ..
Orr: much live performance?
Idle: well, I'm in "Suddenly Susan," which is, like every week with a live audience. I like live performing. I think ... I don't think they all do. I like it. I find I get big buzz from kidn of gtting up there and talking and being funny.
Like, on Conan -- I never do pre-interview anymore. I don';t ell them ... 'cause I don't want to know what Im supposed to say, because then I can forget it. So I just go and do it. and you see I'm looking panicked , because they don't like it if you don't do pre-interview. but he's learned to trust me know, (laughs) Thank God.
Orr: one of the things I was thinking about last night while I was watching that show is that Conan does some pretty strange stuff --
Idle: I wonder how much they kept -- there was about three different things -- they must have cut Jon Stewart saying "mother fucker" right?
Orr: I did not hear the words "mother fucker"
Idle: Yes, that'd have to go. How about the Lincoln obscene?
Orr: Yeah, now, see now, ThAT's something --
Idle: They kept it in? 'Cause the censors went nuts! They really were.
Orr: (Explaining to Maria) There's a scene where Abraham Lincoln is doing "money shots." The shots where, in porn films, when somebody is coming. So all you see is his face. You know what he's doing, you know..
Idle: And they kept it? Wow!
Orr: And I was thinking, "If it wasn't for Eric Idle and the rest of those crazy guys.."
Idle: (laughs) Blame me! Yeah, right! (laughs) We wouldn't have got NEAR a scene like that
Orr: and probably, you know, the censors would have cut it, had you not been there and intimated them ...
Idle: Well, everything's pushing the envelope a little bit, isn't it? You know? ANd, you know, they're right, actually! because, at that time of night, it's only a dial-switch to HBO, it's only -- there's no censorship at that time, you know what I mean? people go .. it's good to sort of have that left .. it's a vestige ... so what is it? It's 1:30 at night, isn't it? So, who's going to be offended?
Orr: That's a point, and really, a lot of it is funny stuff. In a way it was funny to see that --
Idle: Welll, I was amazed!
Orr: Just because it's shocking
Idle: Yes ... I'm amazed they won that battle.
Orr: mumble mumble
Idle: no no
Orr: I'm just teasing, because i know better than that. But His show does that -- I mean .. one of his standing character is the masturbating bear
Idle: laughs
Orr: Have you seen that?
Idle: No (laughs) way too late for me!
Orr: It's a person in a bear suit, running around going like this (demonstrates) in front of himself.
Idle: God! (laughs)
Orr: He doesn't have anything in his hand, but obviously that's what it's about. And again, I'm thinking, espeically after I've read some of the quotes from you fellows about how what you did then was shocking,
Idle: right
Orr: and now it's considered it's just the norm -- which I don't think all of it really is
Idle: Some of the movies are a bit extreme. "The Meaning of Life" is still a bit extreme. The live donor and the vomit -- we still -- well, that's pushing it a little
Orr: She (Maria) loves Mr. Creosote
Idle: I love Mr. Creosote, too, but don't you think it's still a little extreme, for television?
Orr: Oh yeah. i like the story about how Cleese said no, and month later he said yes, and came up with the wafer thing
Idle: mumbles. take nice credit for that .. (laughs)
Orr: I don't member if who gave him credit for that
Idle: I think Jonesy. Terry Jones talks about it. Because it was sketch that was cut. (Then restored) It was Terry wrote that.
Orr: The Abraham Lincoln thing was strange, but it wasn't funny as, say, (describing, poorly) the fish poem in "The Meaning of Life."
Idle: Oh, I know, the fishy thing --- Fishy fishy .. I ooh ... it's very odd and bizarre isn't it? It's very strange. And I don't know how that's achieved, because ... it's Terry's poem, I think but it's so wonderfully art-directed. I mean it's something with an elegant nose and very, very stragne ... but it's very stange. it's like a visual nonsense.
Orr: What you guys did was so subtle .... eveything worked, because some sublte thing makes it work
Idle: I like that film. It still looks great. It was art-directed really well
Orr: Of course, the sperm song is brilliant ...
Idle: a wonderful sort of -- it is a musical, that film. There are eight songs in it.
Orr: The thing aobut seti -- I hope you find some intelligent life out there, because there's bugger all on earth ...
Idle: The Galaxy Song. I love that.
Orr: You wrote that
Idle: Yeah, I wrote that song. It's a nice song (somebody Clint Black?) recorded it
Orr: When I first that film, that moment is what stuck in my mind (along with the sperm song and Jones having the baby ... you already said you'd do the sperm song
Idle: The sperm song, absolutely, the galaxy song, ya know, there are a lot of really nice songs .. and they'[re very silly, too. so i've been able to put together-- it goes song-sketch-song sketch, the classical musical revue .. with dancing ... we've written a couple of ofther htings -- the liver dance will be new
Orr: can you tell me the liver dance song?
Idle: It's just sketched out ... and it's a little Irish number, whilst we're removing the liver (In Irish brogue) -- de dum de dum de dum ... I don't recall the lyrics right away
Orr: You did just a bit of it last night ...
Idle: I was just doing the joke ... to keep the liver in ... ya know, because it suddenly occurred to me, that's kind of why they dance like that.
Orr: (explaing to Maria) You didn't see it, but he's dancing around trying to keep his liver in -- he's showing the river dance ...
Idle: I do that dance holding the liver
Orr: I was falling down .. after that, he puts on that hat over there --- the Australian cork-fly hat ...
(Condensed stuff)
About wife Tania... met here at a SNL party, 23 years ago, been together ever since
Lily his daughter is nine ..
Publicist: running out of time ..
Orr: The A&E Special .... new Pepperpot stuff ... it was them, and Eddie Izzard .. because his initials are EI ... playing me
Orr: Dead sheep? You're going to have dead sheep in this show?
Idle: Conan got that obsession, so I went went with it. That was like their obsession. I'm not going to have dead sheep.
He said, would there be any sheep in it? and I went off on some kind of .. said they would be dead (laughs) ... now having said that, we'll have to fine a dead sheep to drop in ...
Orr: a small historical question ... when you were president of the Footlight Review, you added women, for the first time ever? Why?
Idle: Well I like 'em! Laughs), It seemed to mean, insane. I mean ... it was 1965 -- 64-65, and the footlights had been going since 1883, and it was sort of like, a lot of guys dressing up as women -- which is also quite funny, but we always wanted real good funny girls for the revue. but without them being members of the club, they couldn't get any experience, so it was very hard to find them for the revue at the end of the year... at any rate, it was tough ..
Orr: did you want to bring Carol Cleveland for this revue
Idle: No ... I've kept everybody ... I've got singers, really
Orr: what's funny today
I" I like Steve Martin,Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy.... I don't watch cutting edge. I don't watch late night TV, I don't watch TV. I read books ...
Orr: do you watch "Suddenly Susan"
Idle: No! (looking at me as if I was quite daft) Do you? Laugh
Orr: I don't
Idle: Does anybody?
Orr: Is it off the air now?
Idle: It's finished, but we've done about 12 that haven't yet been seen. the finale. Interesting experience.
Orr: a paycheck .. and ..
Idle: A good experience for me. I liked doing a show every week. It put me back on .. I mean to .. my bits were just little my bits, still it was good to learn a bit, and be up there and try to make people laugh
Orr: Have you ever been tempted to try to develop a TV show?
Idle: No. Not on a network. They make it too hard to be funny. ANd when they help it's much harder.
I think if HBO ... great! Because they leave you alone to be creative. But not anything else
Orr: Have you talked with HBO?
Idle: No, not yet ... I don't think so. it'sa lot of work.
Orr: people are always talking about getting the five of you back together again, but has anybody ever actually come to you with a large pile of money to do something?
Idle: We turned down a large amount of money. We turned down $10 million to tour. I say we (laughs)
It was a serious offer .. you know ... we'd gotten to the stage of organizing theaters and dates and everythng like that, so it was a late pull-out. but I've totally forgiven Michael for that, and we're all pals .. yoou know .. I think everybody's right to say no. You know?
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