"How can you get 200 Canadians to jump in a pool?" Say, please jump in the pool," laughed John Cleese, dry humour firmly intact while talking with Alberta Prime Times from his Los Angeles home in advance of an upcoming cross-Canada tour. "Canadians are almost too polite; but I don't hold that against you." Cleese is already being silly--perhaps warming up for "An Evening of Exceptional Silliness" tour which comes to the Edmonton stage May 9 and Calgary May 10.
The 82-year-old writer/performer/tall person (he's 6 foot-6), and comedic genius is best known for the iconic sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers (a series he co-wrote and starred in with his first wife, Connie Booth) and movies (A Fish Called Wanda, Life of Brian, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and as Q in James Bond films, among many others). Now, Cleese is ready to tickle our collective funny bones again, bringing his trademark dry wit and humour (and stand-up comedienne daughter Camilla too) on tour this spring.
"I've had two hips and my right knee replaced, darling, so there will be no silly walks: it's an evening of 'sit down' comedy," said Cleese. "But the shows are always playful, with a bit of stand-up, observational humour and other silly stuff, and then Q and A with my lovely fans. They're mostly older, of course, and no one is 'woke'. The wokesters don’t seem to understand there can be affectionate teasing. We all need to have a sense of humour."
Cleese may have reason to be sensitive about so-called 'woke' fans, cancel culture and being politically-correct, after experiencing push back at a recent comedy festival for comments he made about slavery and the Brits. "It's the same as when someone walks out of a show over a Trump joke. I never take myself seriously--and we're all here for a good laugh, aren't we? That event was a hugely affectionate laughfest," he wrote to his 5.7 million Twitter followers after the eyebrow-raising comments.
Python fans may clamour for a dead parrot or cheese shop sketch; maybe even a glimpse of the ministry of silly walks or 'something completely different' from the veteran performer, but these days, Cleese says his comedy is more about politics, climate change and getting older. He talks about death quite a bit, admits the funny man, because, "We're all going to face it. When talking about black humour, and things like death, we get very uptight. We pretend it doesn't happen. People repress the subject, but comedians bring this stuff out into the open." Case in point: In 2020, Cleese posted on Twitter, "a surgeon cut a small cancerous bit out of my leg. Very minor. At my age this sort of thing happens about once a week."
"I quite like my age," added the comedian, "though I dread flying, I'm stiffer than I used to be and I get tired a bit more easily. But I tell people the biggest thing I don't like about old age is when your nasal hairs go white."
If he had his druthers, Cleese admits he'd rather not be working as much as he is, "but I had to pay a $20 million divorce settlement, so I need to work. I've always been keen on the institution of marriage though--just shouldn't have married that one," Cleese said with a smile, adding he's been happily married to a 'nice English girl' since 2012, his fourth time down the wedding aisle. Two daughters, including 36-year-old Camilla who tours and writes with Cleese, live in Los Angeles.
Cleese says if he wasn't touring, he'd be writing, "but that doesn't pay so well. I do realize time is limited for all the things I still want to do, so I have to prioritize." Still, he and daughter Camilla are penning songs for a planned musical version of "A Fish Called Wanda' (the film earned Cleese an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay in 1988). And later this year, the comedy veteran is set to release a documentary about 'cancel culture' titled 'John Cleese: Cancel Me'.
Noting his last few tours across Canada have teased they'd be a final visit, i.e. the 2013 jaunt called "The Last Time to See Me Before I Die Tour," and 2019's "Why There is No Hope" tour, Cleese says he won't make such a declaration again. "I'm calling this my penultimate tour," he insisted, adding he's grateful he's had the opportunity to make people laugh for well over 50 years.
"Canada is lovely--it was our first stop when we started touring in 1974. But I don't like the cold," Cleese reminisced. "I had the best airline meal ever on a flight from Winnipeg to Calgary, and I've had dreams about a steakhouse in Calgary. If I'm not working, I like to eat."
What's to be the legacy, then, of one of the world's funniest men, who made people laugh from age 8 or 9, and went from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to comedy gold with the Pythons in the 1960s and beyond? Is it his Cambridge education, fame and fortune with movies, screenplays or stage productions? Maybe, in fact, it's the species of lemur that was named after John Marwood Cleese.
"I made a program about Madagascar lemurs--they are sweet little creatures. Later, when a Swiss guy discovered a new species there, he asked if it could be named after me. I was never so flattered," said the octogenarian, who can add the Bemaraha woolly lemur (a.k.a. Cleese's woolly lemur) as another feather in his cap.
"But who knows how I'll be remembered? A lot of young people only know me from Shrek or the 36 seconds I appeared in two Harry Potter movies. Now, as I mostly do concert tours, sometimes a 70-year-old stops to shake my hand, and they have tears in their eyes. Then I know making people laugh hasn't been just a luxury."
"An Evening of Exceptional Silliness" 'comes to Edmonton's Winspear Centre May 9 and the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary May 10. Tickets are at uniquelives.com.
