By RAY ROUTHIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
You've got to like Eric Idle's honesty.
He's billed his current tour as "Monty Python's Eric Idle on the Greedy Bastard Tour: Another Stupid Evening."
"Most people are in show business just for the audience, people like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake don't do this for the money," said Idle, 60, during a phone interview from Toronto this week. "I'm just being honest. I'm just in tune with the Bush era. It's a greedy era."
Idle will certainly not be afraid to speak his mind when he performs at the Merrill Auditorium in Portland on Tuesday.
Idle, who gained fame as part of the groundbreaking BBC comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in the 1970s, says his show will include some "surprise" guests.
The show will be a mix of talking to the audience, songs and comedy bits, including some he made famous during his Python days.
Idle began his recent performing tour in Rutland, Vt. He had another BBC show in the 1970s called "Rutland Weekend Television" a TV parody set in fictional Rutland, a backward county in England.
From Rutland came a local rock band that made it big, The Rutles, who were a very thinly disguised parody of The Beatles. The parody became an NBC-TV movie in 1978 called "The Rutles: All You Need is Cash." The film opened the door for "This is Spinal Tap" and other so-called mock/rock documentaries.
A couple of years ago Idle made "Can't Buy Me Lunch," another parody interviewing famous people about the impact The Rutles had on them. But TV is not the same as it was 30 years ago, when networks took more chances on silly comedies, said Idle. As a result, "Can't Buy Me Lunch" has never aired and is "sitting in a vault somewhere in the Warner offices."
"When we were doing Python, the BBC were all former RAF men who smoked pipes and went out for a beer and left us alone," said Idle. "Today TV is filled with executives who couldn't get jobs in show business so instead they decide to control show business."
Idle has a 30-year-old son and a teenage daughter. When his daughter was born, Idle, who lives in Los Angeles, said he decided to stay home more to watch her grow up. His current tour is the most extensive traveling he's done in a decade.
He says he's looking forward to coming to Maine because he hears there are sharks here.
"Wasn't 'Jaws' filmed there?" he asks, but is told no.
Before going on this tour, Idle has spent much of last decade or so making guest appearances on TV, doing voice work, or writing. His voice has been heard on "South Park," "102 Dalmations" and "Pinocchio." He made a guest appearance on NBC's "Suddenly Susan" in 1999 and published his novel "The Road to Mars" that same year.
He says he enjoys his current tour, especially talking informally with the audience.
"It's more relaxing to just talk to people and do sort of an autobiographical review," says Idle. "But of course I like playing my songs too."
