{"id":915398,"date":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/915398\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","slug":"john-cleese-is-not-dead-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/915398\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cleese is not dead yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

John Cleese\u2019s tour, Not Dead Yet!, is starting off with three screenings and Q&A sessions in Toronto.Supplied<\/p>\n

A few years ago in Los Angeles, the Monty Python comedian John Cleese had a precancerous growth surgically removed from his arm. It was a minor procedure that required a few stitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the guy left the room, he said, \u2018Tis but a scratch,\u2019\u201d Cleese says, speaking on a video call. <\/p>\n

The pop-culture reference \u201cTis but a scratch\u201d comes from the 1975 British comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Cleese, 86, is travelling with the film on a Canadian theatre tour that begins with three screenings and Q&A sessions at Toronto\u2019s Winter Garden Theatre (Sept. 30 to Oct. 2). The tour then moves on to Kitchener, Ont., Hamilton, Ont., Montreal and Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The film is a zany parody of the Arthurian legend, written collectively by Cleese and the other Python members: Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and the late Terry Jones and Graham Chapman. Idle later adapted the movie for the stage musical Spamalot, also known as Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot: A New Musical (Lovingly) Ripped Off from the Motion Picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Monty Python team in 1969, from left to right: Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin.Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The name of Cleese\u2019s tour is Not Dead Yet!, inspired by a memorable scene from the movie. An old man resists being placed on the plague cart because he\u2019s still alive. Other 51-year-old quotes Python aficionados like to throw around include \u201cJust a flesh wound\u201d and \u201cI fart in your general direction.\u201d Who knew flatulence humour would age so well? <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to think that people have these words in their minds,\u201d Cleese says. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s speaking from his place in London\u2019s Chelsea neighbourhood. \u201cIt\u2019s a 10-minute walk to Harrods, which pleases my wife very much.\u201d <\/p>\n

For those keeping track, Cleese is on his fourth wife. He says their flat is relatively small. \u201cIt\u2019s all I could afford after the divorce.\u201d (Cleese went on a tour called A Ludicrous Evening with John Cleese \u2212 Or How to Finance Your Divorce in 2009 after expensively splitting with his third wife, psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. Another series of shows, dubbed The Alimony Tour, followed.)<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Palin as Sir Galahad, Chapman as King Arthur and Jones as Sir Bedevere in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

Jokey online memes or lines from today\u2019s Saturday Night Live don\u2019t quite stick around the way Monty Python\u2019s catch phrases used to. Comedy fans remember lines from Kids in the Hall, older SNL sketches, SCTV, even the Cleese co-written Fawlty Towers from 1975 like they heard them yesterday. Contemporary equivalents, however, are ephemeral. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had much, much better television in England 40 years ago, on just four channels,\u201d Cleese says. \u201cThe sad thing about comedy today is that when you come up with something they ask, \u2018Can we make it into 12 one-hour segments, and can we put dragons in it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The troupe\u2019s second feature film, 1979\u2019s Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian, is prescient, even though it was a satire set in biblical times. Cleese wrote a scene \u2212 \u201cwith a little help from Graham Chapman, who was drinking quite a lot at the time\u201d \u2212 in which a man wants to be a woman (named Loretta) and have babies. <\/p>\n

Stan\/Loretta, played by Idle: \u201cIt\u2019s every man\u2019s right to have babies if he wants them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reg, played by Cleese: \u201cBut you can\u2019t have babies!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stan\/Loretta: \u201cDon\u2019t you oppress me!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was meant as satire on political thought in the 1970s, when the left in England had become splintered. \u201cWhat was funny, and is often true, is that they hated the splinter groups more than they hated the original enemies,\u201d Cleese explains.<\/p>\n

As for a man wishing to give birth, the idea had to do with the discussion on human rights in the 1970s. \u201cI was trying to think what would be a ridiculous right. Well, it\u2019s the right to have a baby if you were a fellow. So, that got sort of tacked on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The troupe released its final feature film, Monty Python\u2019s The Meaning of Life, in 1983. Unlike the narrative-driven absurdity of the previous two movies, it was made up of sketches and musical numbers. Cleese thought it was a backward move and wasn\u2019t happy with some of the sketches and began to branch out on his own. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy thought was that I didn\u2019t want to go on making other people\u2019s mistakes. I wanted to make my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

He first collaborated with British director and editor Charles Crichton on the well-received heist comedy A Fish Called Wanda in 1988. If there were mistakes with the film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Python\u2019s Palin and himself, they weren\u2019t noticed. At the 61st Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay and won a Best Supporting Actor statuette for Kline.<\/p>\n

Monty Python last reunited in 2014, when they gave ten concerts at the O2 in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy relies on freshness and newness,\u201d Cleese says. \u201cIn the beginning, it was as if were going into a field of flowers nobody had ever been in. We would go around picking flowers, these lovely sketches, but after a time there were fewer and fewer flowers that hadn\u2019t been picked. There\u2019s a certain point where you just run out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: John Cleese\u2019s tour, Not Dead Yet!, is starting off with three screenings and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,2922,1008],"class_list":["post-915398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack","tag-pleasemod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}