I never wanted to write a blog… I wanted to be…. A Lumberjack!!! Oh, I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay, I sleep all night and I work all day…
Earlier this month I attended one of the live Monty Python shows at the O2 in London. The last live show was in 1982 at the Hollywood Bowl and the TV series itself ended in 1974 so I was fairly excited to say the least to be able to see my comedy heroes that I grew up watching.
The show featured every sketch I loved watching with classic footage and animations from the original series. It also featured the songs from the movies with a very camp and show tune version of ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’ with giant penises for extra emphasis. The two sketches I wanted so see, The ‘Dead Parrot Sketch being one of my favorites and ‘The right room for an Argument’ didn’t disappoint. However it was clear that John Cleese seemed to be the most doddery and less able to be as physical. Eric Idle on the other hand seemed to have more energy than them all put together.
The whole evening felt like a night at the Proms or at a Pantomime. The 20,000 or so audience were singing along to all the songs and joining in with the show.
I can understand why some critics found it boring but you don’t go the Proms looking for something new and original. You want to see the classic sketches performed live and given that its been over 30 years since the last time and probably the last time they will all be together again, I couldn’t have had a better time.
As the curtain came down and a final song of ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ was performed I felt sad that I’ll never see them all together again but happy that I did.
M