McCartney Times

Perched on a presumably comfy chair, actor, writer and comedian John Cleese answered questions about what’s funny, what’s not, politics, his movies and Britain on Friday night for rapt fans at the Orpheum Theater.Cleese, co-founder of the Monty Python comedy troupe, was in rare form in a relaxed, frank and funny free-for-all with local radio personality Scott Voorhees. The conversation followed a showing of 1975’s “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”I came away with a new appreciation of Cleese’s many accomplishments. Some tidbits:» He doesn’t like the ending of the “Holy Grail” film. I’d never seen the whole thing before Friday, and I admit the end was a surprise. In case you haven’t seen it, that’s all we’ll say. British recording companies whose artists included Pink Floyd, Genesis and Led Zeppelin financed the film.» Beatle George Harrison put up the money for “Life of Brian,” the second Python movie.» When asked what he finds funny today, he paused, then said: “Well, the news.” He went off on a riff about last year’s U.S. presidential election: “I couldn’t stand either of the candidates.”» Why doesn’t he make fun of British leaders? “Because there aren’t any.”» Silly humor is the best, he says. He used a joke from British actor Jim Dale to illustrate: “What is black and white and crawls along the ground? A wounded nun.” That kept him laughing for weeks.» He loves cats. Unlike kids, they don’t come to you as adults to tell you how you screwed them up. He joked that he’d rather lose a friend than a cat.» His comic roots come from watching and listening to Americans such as George Burns, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and Bob Newhart.» Today’s world confuses him. “I don’t understand anything anymore, ever since Facebook. Why would anyone want to be the star of their own gossip column?”

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