John Cleese is due to travel to Adelaide next month, February 2012, to perform his one man show, An Evening with John Cleese. The star of some of the most respected British comedy shows admits that the format for his show came about completely by accident.
Originally, the UK show was structured, with the performance being scripted. At first, Cleese would go on stage and perform this and that, with a Question and Answer section at the end when he had no ideas left. It turned out that the audience loved seeing Cleese put on the spot.
The audiences of John Cleese turned out to be:
“rather curious and quite nosey”
wanting to discover more about the writer and actor. The casual format has now become a greater feature of his act. Cleese said:
“The audience loved the direct contact with the performer, and anecdotes about things like the hotel that Fawlty Towers was actually based on. I guess they’ve probably seen the show an inordinate number of times and are desperate for something new.”
According to Cleese, writing the episodes of Fawlty Towers gave huge pleasure to himself and his ex wife, Connie Booth. He also says the friendship between the Python members continues on a yearly basis, although sadly, Graham Chapman has died. Although Cleese says that the Python members won’t work together again, they are all still amazed that their previous work continues to captivate and fascinate audience members of all ages.