John Cleese: It's very, very hard, really, to make people laugh
John Cleese raised absurdity to new heights as part of "Monty Python's Flying Circus," which, as he'll be the first to tell you, was no small challenge. Tracy Smith has our Sunday Profile:
John Cleese says he realized very early on "it's much easier to be clever than to be funny. Much easier."
Meaning? "It's very, very hard, really, to make people laugh."
It's a well-known truth that comedy is hard, but somehow, Cleese always manages to make it look easy.
He created the 1970s British hit "Fawlty Towers":
He traded barbs with James Bond:
And he played it straight on "Will & Grace":
Cleese: "I'm going to stick to you like bangers to mash."
Megan Mulally: "You're not getting your banger anywhere near my mash."
But this is how he'll likely be remembered:
Cleese is co-founder of the British sketch comedy troupe Monty Python. He co-wrote much of the material, and his athletic 6-foot-5 frame was a gag in itself.
There's nothing silly about his walk anymore: A knee injury in 1985 ended all that. But at 75, Cleese is still a rock star. "He's a legacy for Britain!" said one fan in passing on London's Regent Street.
His fans are keeping the silly walk alive. He says when fans talk to him about their favorite bits, "it's Monty Python in America. Here, 'Fawlty Towers.'"
And is there one bit above all? "People are often on about the Dead Parrot sketch."
The Dead Parrot sketch is from 1969, but absurdity has a long shelf life: A huge dead parrot turned up in a London park last summer to promote a Python reunion show: it sold out in under a minute.
Smith said, "You're arguably the most famous of the Python members -"
"Oh, much more famous!" Cleese replied.
"What's your relationship with fame?"
"It's beyond ridiculous."
"You find it ridiculous?"
"Oh, please."
"Does it make you uncomfortable when people approach you?"
"When they gush at me and tell me how wonderful I am, I don't know what I'm supposed to say. Do you see what I mean? So I usually say, 'I know! But you have excellent taste to recognize it!'"
His background is somewhat more humble.
Born in England in 1939 and raised in a middle class home, John Marwood Cleese went to Cambridge as a law student, and wound up an actor with the esteemed Cambridge Footlights theatre group.
In 1963, the group had a brief run at a London theatre. It was where Cleese got his first real taste of the big time -- and the stage fright that went with it: "It was this fear of being bad, much more than the desire to be good. Sad, really, isn't it? When you're in what I used to be, which is frightened of making a mistake in live television. I had a minor breakdown quite early on for three hours after I'd done a show and I'd completely forgotten some lines. I just cried and sobbed and sobbed because of the tension."
"If you were crying and feeling sick, what out-weighed that?" asked Smith.
"Well, I think it was because I liked writing so much, and performing was kind of completing the circle."
"And that was worth the nerves?"
"Yes, and the nerves got better after a while -- that was '66 -- and then as the audiences got more and more friendly on the Python tours, you know, they were all on our side."
And as he writes in his recent memoir," So Anyway" (Crown), it seems Cleese learned to cope with anxiety at an even earlier age.
Smith asked, "What was your mother like?"
"Frightened, angry, needed to have everything her own way because she felt she couldn't cope otherwise. You see what I mean? So, she ruled from weakness."
"How did that affect you?"
"I think I was frightened of her, 'cause when she got angry she got really angry," Cleese said.
He says his relationships with women suffered -- he's been married four times -- but Cleese eventually came to terms with his mom, and was the dutiful son until her death in 2000 at the age of 101.
"She had a wonderful black sense of humor," Cleese said. "On one telephone conversation when she was really telling me all the reasons why she didn't wanna go on living -- I said to her, 'I have an idea.' And she said, 'Oh, what is it?' I said, 'Well, I know a little man in Fulham. And if you're still feeling this way next week, I could give him a call if you like, but only if you'd like, and he could come down and kill you.' And it was just a long pause, and she shrieked with laughter!
"She really laughed at it. And it changed her mood. I could move her into a different part of her mind through humor."
And at one time or another he's moved us all in the same way.
After "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Life of Brian" and "The Meaning of Life," Cleese co-wrote the 1988 hit, "A Fish Called Wanda." The script earned him an Oscar nomination, but he's not in it for the accolades.
"I was offered a CBE, a Commander of the British Empire -- one of those things you can put after your name," Cleese said.
"Which is very cool!" said Smith.
"And I said, 'What British Empire?'"
"You literally said that?
"We've still got the Falklands!"
He may poke fun at the honors, but Cleese has come to realize that his calling is nothing to laugh at, even after studying for a career in law. "Do you think you have a different take on show business, because it wasn't a childhood dream of yours?" Smith asked.
"I always thought of show business as essentially trivial," he said. "There were serious things going on, like countries being run or armies fighting. And as I've gotten older I realized the whole place is a mad house. You know, it's a complete write-off.
"And then I did a talk show -- it was Graham Norton -- and Neil Diamond came on and sang. And the whole audience sang 'Sweet Caroline.' And I looked at this audience and I thought, 'They're really happy!' Benevolent and warm and having a good time. And I suddenly thought, 'My God, show business is important.' It's not trivial, [and] I always thought it was."
"That must make you feel better about your life's work then," said Smith.
"I think it does, yeah. 'Cause I know people used to come out and say, 'Oh, you're so wonderful.' 'What are they talking about? I didn't invent a cure for cancer, you know? I'm not Jonas Salk or something.' But now I see it more. I see that it's a way of just introducing happiness."
"Maybe you are pretty wonderful."
"Well, I think I am!" he laughed.
- WEB EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS AND TRANSCRIPTS: Read an extended transcript of Tracy Smith's interview with John Cleese
For more info:
- TheJohnCleese.com
- "So Anyway" by John Cleese (Crown Archtype); Also available in Trade Paperback and eBook formats
- montypython.com
- "John Cleese and Eric Idle: Together Again at Last, for the Very First Time" (Through Oct. 31) | Tour Dates and Tickets