So, anyway ...

Format:

Book

Title:

So, anyway ...

Author:

Cleese, John.

ISBN:

9780385348249

9780385348263

9780385348256

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Publication:

New York : Crown Archetype, [2014]

Physical Description:

392 pages, 24 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

General Note:

Includes index.

Contents:

Hardback -John Cleese's towering comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp satirical eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy's DNA. In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway ..., Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. After getting his start as a writer and actor on the landmark David Frost-hosted The Frost Report, where he worked alongside many who would also later become comedy icons, Cleese landed his most famous role as a star of the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus. To the legions of Python fans and comedy aficionados, Cleese's work with the Pythons has become the stuff of legend. His signature characters -- including the Minister of Silly Walks and the owner (and would-be returner) of a dead parrot -- embodied his knack for madcap buffoonery played completely straight and catapulted him to the shortlist of funniest men alive. Twisting and turning through amazing stories and hilarious digressions -- with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what's funny and why -- this story of a young man's journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer.

Summary:

In this rollicking memoir, Cleese takes his readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown.

Personal Subject:

Cleese, John.

Cleese, John. (OCoLC)fst00075359

Subject(s):

Comedians -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Motion picture actors and actresses -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	927 Cleese, John	Searching... Unknown
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Searching... Silver Falls Library	921 CLEESE	Searching... Unknown
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Summary

John Cleese's huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers , and beyond now seem written into comedy's DNA. In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway... , Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown.

Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio. That fateful moment--and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humor revue to London's famed West End--propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world class actor and back again.

Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions--with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what's funny and why--this story of a young man's journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer.

Author Notes

John Cleese, October 27, 1939 - John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939 in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England to Reginald Cleese, and insurance salesman, and Muriel Cross. He attended Cambridge University beginning in 1960 and joined the Footlights Club in his second term. In 1963, a Footlights production called "A Clump of Plinths" became so popular that the production spawned Cambridge Circus and ran in London's West End. He eventually earned his law degree from Cambridge.

In 1964, the show traveled first to New Zealand and then to America for 24 performances on Broadway. By the late 60's, Cleese was established as an actor and a writer. In 1969, the BBC, looking for a new show to fill an empty time slot, coupled Cleese and pal Graham Chapman with three graduates from Oxford, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, as well as Terry Gilliam to create Monty Python's Flying Circus. The BBC produced 45 episodes which have been run and rerun over 30 years. Flying Circus became a cult classic and spawned yet another television show, "Fawlty Towers" as well as books and feature films such as "Monty Python's Life of Brian" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Cleese then came down with a debilitating flu-like illness which his doctor suggested might be psychosomatic. After working with a therapist, Cleese returned with no signs of the illness and even joined the doctor in writing two books, "Families and How to Survive Them" and "Life and How to Survive It." He went on to create training films for corporations through his company called Video Arts. These videos enabled training to be fun as well as informative. Through all of this, Cleese has demonstrated his ability to perform in all walks of life and has made a name for himself doing what he loves best.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

New York Review of Books Review

FULL DISCLOSURE: My reverence for Monty Python is nearly boundless. After I was force-fed a diet of mediocrity and cringe-worthy catchphrases from "Saturday Night Live" during my youth, discovering Monty Python's freewheeling, surreal style felt like a revelation. You mean, sketches could just end? You mean, things didn't need to make sense? You mean, you didn't have to make fun of whatever celebrities were in the news right that very second? Why hadn't anybody told me this before? I began watching them only years after they disbanded, but their comedy still felt fresher than anything I'd been exposed to. Even the name of the show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus," felt wild and anarchic, a dipsy collision of unrelated words more akin to Lewis Carroll than Lorne Michaels. John Cleese always seemed to be, if not the group's leader, then at the very least its standard-bearer. Perhaps that's simply because he is the tallest Python, at 6-foot4. His galumphing turn as the Minister of Silly Walks perfectly encapsulates Python's best trick: skewering fatuousness with gleeful stupidity. Cleese made himself a fine post-Python career doing just that, first with the classic sitcom "Fawlty Towers," and then through a lengthy string of plum roles in films and television shows. Through it all, Cleese has retained a kind of benign patrician air, which only made him funnier when he allowed himself to appear so foolish. So it came as a shock to me, upon opening his new memoir, "So, Anyway ..." to discover that John Marwood Cleese is not the black sheep of some titled nobleman's stock, but rather the only child of a rather ordinary and loving lower-middle-class insurance salesman and his fearful wife, with whom young John had a difficult relationship. Cleese does not pull punches in describing his mother: After listening to his veteran father describe a wounded soldier in World War I calling out for his mother, he thought to himself, "Why on earth would he cry for her?" Befuddlement is Cleese's stock in trade, an attitude he carries with him to a series of public (what Americans call private) schools, and then onto Cambridge, where his comedy career begins. As a young law student, Cleese almost accidentally joins the Footlights, the Cambridge theatrical troupe, where he starts writing and performing short sketches, few of which ever see the light of day. That is, he says, because "it is exceedingly difficult to write really good comedy.... On the other hand, there exist vast hordes who can write bad comedy, and they do so in immense quantities." For those who do wish to pursue the comedic arts, he offers a tip: "Steal. Steal an idea that you know is good, and try to reproduce it in a setting that you know and understand." This seems like suspicious advice from one of comedy's most original minds, but I suppose thievery has served artists of all stripes well over the millenniums, so I will not quibble. Cleese's comedy career ramps up almost immediately, when his Cambridge troupe is invited to perform their revue first in the West End, then New Zealand ("The country was basically completely clueless"), and then while in New Zealand, the group is invited, somehow, to Broadway. "We were bewildered. Who in America knew about us? ... It made no sense, but then that seemed the normal state of affairs in New Zealand." His incipient law career is immediately scuttled, and Cleese is off and running. Soon he is back in Britain, writing for and appearing on television, and slowly gestating the ideas he will bring with him to his most famous creation. Those looking for a Monty Python tell-all will leave disappointed, as the book ends just as Monty Python is beginning, with only a postscript about the group following their recent, wildly successful reunion shows at the O2 arena in London. Along the way, though, there are plenty of snippets about the other Pythons, especially Graham Chapman, Cleese's writing partner of 20 years, who died in 1989. Cleese has often spoken about how the Pythons were not especially close personally, but that does not seem to be the case with "Gra," with whom he wrote and laughed and lunched, never suspecting that his dear friend was gay. "Graham always used to say that I was shocked when he came out. ... Untrue. I was not 'shocked,' I was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very surprised." "So, Anyway..." ambles along in loose fashion, taking its time, stopping to admire the view here and there, dispensing a little social commentary ("The very group that was most disliked and belittled at Cambridge in the early '60s was running the country 30 years later. Or sort of running it"), and otherwise taking the scenic route through a mostly sunny landscape. The effect is a bit like having a long lunch with an amiable, slightly loony uncle. Who also happens to be John Cleese. MICHAEL IAN BLACK is an actor and the author, most recently, of "You're Not Doing It Right," a memoir, and "Naked!," a children's picture book.