Photo courtesy of John Cleese and Eric Idle
The Johnny Mercer theater hosted “John Cleese and Eric Idle: Together Again At Last… For The Very First Time” on the evening of Oct. 20. This was their 10th stop on the tour that started in Fort Meyers, Florida on Oct. 1 and will end in Baltimore on Halloween night. The event that British comedy legends Cleese and Idle referred to as “an evening without Michael Palin,” and what was originally “the world tour of Florida” was packed with loving fans of “Monty Python” spanning generations.
The show began with a film reel of some of their more memorable clips, with sketches from “Fawlty Towers,” “Flying Circus” and several feature films they collaborated on. Cleese and Idle then emerged from the wings with a standing ovation from the audience, making themselves comfortable and telling the story of how they met. After the audience had become just as comfortable with their tale, they finally cracked out a few sketches leading into the intermission. Cleese was the first to return, offering some sardonic nationalisitc humor while Idle provided the musical entertainment with some classic and newer hits.
It was made clear from the opening act (which bordered on worrisome for the first slow 45 minutes but soon quickened its pace) that this was a show meant for the fans and maybe for themselves. The crowd’s participation — solicited or otherwise — proved that the loyalty that brewed over the course of nearly 50 years didn’t need more than the minimal marketing used to promote the tour. The duo kept a casual air from beginning to end, and it was so convincing you almost bought that the visual and sound cues on the projector were improvisational. They may have started slow, but once the momentum picked up, every joke landed and every nostalgic nerve was tickled. If there were any newcomers in the audience that night, they received a thorough education on The Pythons.
The night closed with a Q&A session, answering anonymous questions from attendees written before the show, and a heavily anticipated sing-along to “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.” By then, the crowd’s energy was in full force, ending the show on a perfect high note.
Cleese and Idle personified your celebrity grandparents, telling you the story of their younger years at Christmas dinner and then telling all the corny jokes you know by heart but love all the same. The space was by no means an intimate one, but the feeling throughout the night was pretty close.
