By Hunter P. Styles
Thursday, October 16, 2003
NORTHAMPTON - After years of comedic conquests overseas, as one-sixth of the British comedy troupe Monty Python, Eric Idle has continued to bring his deviant humor to film, television, books and theater.
And here he comes again, pulling an eclectic cabaret from city to city.
Last time it was "Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python." Now it is the "Greedy Bastard Tour," which stops at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Tuesday.
Despite the Python dharma his fans base are steeped in, Idle, who is 60, said by phone from his home in Los Angeles that he has been looking forward to revealing a different side, in a show that's heavy on new material.
The Greedy Bastard Tour opened Oct. 3 in Rutland, Vt., to a receptive capacity audience, Idle reports in his tour's Web journal.
He arranged for it to start in Rutland for reasons obvious to any admirer. Idle has just released a comedy album, "The Rutland Isles."
"I can't get over the thought of actually being in Rutland," he writes. "It seems to have lived so long in my mind as a fictional place that the reality of it is overwhelming. It's like having your own toy village come to life."
After stopping Tuesday in the Valley, Idle's four-member music and comedy revue heads off through the Midwest, then back up into Canada and down the West Coast.
The ex-Python promises a treat.
"I think it's going to be a nice, varied show, a different show," he said from California last month. "Obviously there's a certain requirement to do a certain amount of Python favorites. I'll have to do the lumberjack and things like that and the Nudge and 'Bruce's Philosopher Song.'
"But I've also tried to wring some changes, and do some sketches I have found funny over the years ... less familiar. And just some comments about my life - and things I want to say about what I'm interested in at the moment."
There's more to Idle than the killer rabbits of his earlier years.
Q: Does comedy play differently with song? How do you see the connection between music and humor?
A: I like it because it's like a musical, really. It becomes a stand-up musical. It's a nice change of pace. It's not all purely laugh, laugh, laugh. My songs tend to be odd, or quirky or rude. That's a different pace. It allows us to make the whole show move around. It's more like classical revue, in cabaret, than pure stand-up, with one person at a mic for two hours.
Q: This sounds much more extravagant.
A: Extravagant. As in extravagance.
Q: Is that an appropriate way to put it?
A: Yes I think so, absolutely.
Q: Will you have your pith helmet?
A: Pith helmets and shorts - all that sort of thing.
Q: How many pith helmets do you carry with you on the road?
A: We shall be carrying one and a spare and then we'll have the Australian hats, the corkies, we'll have three of those.
Q: Do you have a target audience?
A: I feel I know what the audience will be. I imagine it will be the same people who came out last time, a very pleasant audience and a mixed audience, of all ages. They sort of liked it when I talked to them. It was something I did for the first time last time about Python and things that had occurred in my life. I've expanded that part of the show, because when people come, I think they're kind of interested in my viewpoint and perspective of what's happened. It isn't boring - it's basing the comedy on that.
Q: Judging from your tour schedule, are you partial to the northern slice of the United States?
A: I hate the northern slices of anything. This will be the first time I've seen winter in 20 years. I'm dreading it, but we have a nice, warm tour bus.
Q: Why not the South?
A: Mainly because of distance. And secondly we're thinking of doing that leg in the spring.
Q: How receptive is England to your material these days?
A: I don't know. I haven't been on stage in England for a long time. They just asked me to go back and do "The Mikado," to celebrate the English National Opera's 100th year. But it doesn't quite fit in.
Q: I suppose traveling around you've gotten some dialects down, some good accents.
A: I was always somewhat of a parrot. I don't know why. England is full of accents, as you know. Its kind of harder to do American accents, for English people. But English accents and foreign accents I find quite easy.
Q: Are you good at memorization?
A: Of course after 50, everybody's memory goes. There's no actor over 50 who can memorize very quickly. It takes a much longer time. That's why I've been working on this things for two or three months, cause there's a lot I want to memorize and talk about. It's just a feature of the brain. Your brain is not evolved to memorize vast tons of stuff after 55 and 60. It's not necessary. Your memory cells are open early. Most actors will stop going on the stage.
Q: You've accomplished a lot in many fields - novels and screenplays, and you play music and act. What next? Are you going to Broadway?
A: Broadway is next. I've spent the last two and a half years adapting "The Holy Grail," with my partner John Du Prez. It's called "Spamelot" and it's being directed by Mike Nichols. We start that next year and it goes to Broadway in 2005. It should be fun, and an interesting experience. Since there are "Grail" dolls out there.
Q: Are you going to be in it?
A: Oh, no, no, no. We're way too old to be in it. We'll be looking for people 26 to 29 who can leap around with coconuts.
Q: And catch arrows nicely in their chests?
A: Yeah, exactly. We have read it with other actors and it reads pretty good. It's funny stuff.
Q: Are there any more novels in the works, after "Road to Mars"?
No, they were particularly sh--ty when I suggested the "Road to Venus." I was very, very upset.
Q: Would you consider going back to TV? Michael Palin has his travel show on PBS.
A: He's still on the road. He's in the Himalayas as we speak. I have my CD, the "Rutland Isles" CD. It's a phony travelogue and I thought of doing that as a TV show, but I haven't got round to doing that yet. There's only so much time. The last thing I made was a sequel to "The Rutles" called "Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch."
Q: Has that come out yet?
A: It still sits in a vault at Warner Brothers. They took it out and showed it the other day. It got huge roars or laughter, and then they took it back to the vault. Its under house arrest. It's a retro documentary. It's the same guy looking back on the career of The Rutles, using excerpts and interviewing famous people like Tom Hanks, Salman Rushdie and Jewel and Bowie and Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor, talking about the importance and the significance of The Rutles in the world today.
They were fabulous. Nobody said no, and they played along. Salman Rushdie was hilarious. And Robin Williams and Steve Martin. And Gary Shandling was fantastic. There's a great bunch of people. I still can't believe they can't sell it, at least release it on DVD.
Jewel had a fancy for Dirk McQuickly [who Idle portrayed]. People played along superbly. Graham Nash knew all the names and talked about his memories of The Rutles in the '60s. I love encouraging celebrities to lie.
Q: You've been in Los Angeles now for 10 years. Do you have a nice community of friends?
A: There are a lot of really funny people who I enjoy hanging out with. There's always people in LA because they have to come to work. There's always a pool of good and funny people.
Q: Is solitude necessary for you to rejuvenate your sense of humor?
A: I like the mornings. I'm up always very early so I can write two or three hours before I have to take my daughter to school. I like that time when your brain is very fresh. That's my time to be thinking and writing. I like to put a lot of thought into things and then make it look like you just came on. I think that's the art.
Q: Any other projects that don't fit into this show that you plan to develop later?
A: I tend to not plan too far ahead because I like the thought, 'Oh, what shall I do now?' I've always enjoyed that feeling. It leaves it free and creative. That's what I like most about what I do. I don't like knowing I'll be stuck in something for a long time.
