October 17, 2024 • 10 mins
Legendary comedian and former Monty Python member Eric Idle spoke to Clairsy & Lisa ahead of his sold out show Always Look On The Bright Side of Life Live at the Perth Concert Hall next month. They talked about his days working with the Monty Python team, plus find out how long he had to hang from the cross while filming The Life of Brian.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A bit of a treaty here on a Friday morning list.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Do you have a very very favorite Monty Python moment.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm going to bring up with Eric Idle is something
that happened post Monty Python, and it is to do
with lumberjacks and a beatle that I'm going to be
talking about, So it's not necessarily from a movie.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Your favorite Munty Python moment? To answer my question, which
you did not know, we wouldn't be are you saying
it's I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, work all night? Absolutely,
get parrots sketch for me love?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Really? There you go.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, all of that I expect will be discussed at
the Perth Concert Hall on Monday, the eighteenth of November,
But only those who've managed to secure tickets to the
very very very sold out show will know. Always look
on the bright side of life live, Eric Idol, I
know that.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Giggle.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Eric, You're very welcome. It's nice to say hello to Perth.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's nice to say hello to Eric Idle. Will we
hear about at the show? Will we hear about Monty
Python Shenanigans?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
What's Shenanigans. I thought it was going a kind of
Irish dance sounds. Doesn't use them. They of course, nothing
but trouble. You know, we had to move them.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, hey, Eric, my wife about all sorts of things. Really,
I was good. Yeah, that's what we want, that's what
the fans want. Actually, what do the fans talk to
you most about? When you bump into them or you
see them after shows and they like Eric, they want
to talk about.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't really know, to be honest, I mean they
I always try, and you know, just ask them their
name and where they're from, and make sure that we
have a human contact rather than a sort of pam
legend contact, because there's very little to say when people
say you're a legend. You go, no, I'm not a
married man. No married man is a legend, not in
(01:59):
his own lunchtime anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, well, I'm sure they quite often lost the words.
That's the thing. When you may tell him that you
idolized that as way, I guess so.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean I always found that when I found somebody
I really admired, i'd even be too scared to say
hello you you know, yes, well, most of those people
have died now, so at anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How did you meet the other members of Monday Python.
How did it all come together?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, oddly, I met John Cleese sixty one years ago.
I was married sixty two years ago. I was nineteen
and it was at Pembroke College, Cambridge. I was actually
performing a sketch he'd written, and then he was there
to watching me do it, and he said, join the footlights.
And I went to the end of festival and there
(02:47):
I met Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Wow. And then
I met Graham Chapman, who was you know, he was
in London and he was at the same guy's hospital qualifying,
you know, trying to qualify to be a fully quali
find alcoholic. You're working hard on it, right, Yeah, yeah,
he got a degree in it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The doctors, doctors, you know, I'm mad they are. Yes,
we've met six years, six years. We've met six years
before we actually did pint.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, you know, they say, fine, do something that you
love and you'll never work a day in your life. That,
I mean, nothing could apply more surely to being a
member of the Munty Python Troop. I can't even imagine
how much you laughed on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
There was a lot of laughter. There was a lot
of laughter, but you know, it's also interesting hard work.
I mean sometimes we didn't have enough money. I mean,
you know, we didn't have We couldn't afford horses on
the Holy Grails, so we had to use coconuts. But
it would be quite cold and down to miserable. Always.
(04:00):
The BBC would always give us a camera crew in
November they head up for the Yorkshire Moors and we'd
be standing around in drag, you know, hitting each other
with handbags in mud in the Yorkshire. More so it
was it was looked funnier than it was.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
If you see what you were going, I guess, yeah, yeah,
well it makes it even more incredible that you were
getting the last and.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I think PA's funny. Yeah, it's fun It.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Must have been funny. Would you say the fish slept
Dance was the silliest moment in Python history or do
you think it got even sillier than the fish slapt Dance?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No? No, I think the fish snapping dance is very silly.
It is. I mean it was actually for a BBC
program on May Day. It was a Euros program. When
we first did it, right, And then only when we
saw it did we put it into the show. You know,
we've done it for this May Day celebration, a tradition.
(05:00):
We paid sure said it was a tradition, the fish
lapping mountains on May Days. So I like it. I
put it into I put it into the Silly Olympics
because I think it was very much. It should be
a spect it should be a sport.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, yeah, maybe more so than break dancing, which we're
seeing now.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Eric Sports.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Slept with the trout, so so good.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Than that. Speaking of the Olympics, the London Olympics, how
much fun was that? Was that more stress than anything?
Working that one up? It is so incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The city I was singing at the Olympics was the
Olympic Games.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh yes, London.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Fairly incredible and also a bit scary. You know, you
pop up and the two billion people wat. Yeah, funny,
but you've got to make sure. I was singing live.
A lot of the rock stars were miming, and I'm thinking,
here's a comedian, it's to sing live, you know, wonderful
tell us it was. It was a totally memorable moment.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, it's quite I reckon, it's such an honor. Can
you tell us a story about how The Meaning of
Life was green lit by the movie studio? But eventually,
after you wrote them a poem.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
That's right, they wanted to see the script and he said,
you can't see it, and they said why not. They said, well,
you can't tell us how to write a Monty Python film.
And they took that argument, and so I wrote them
a very rude poem and we gave them a budget
and they green lit the movie on that, which is
which is a bit very daring for a studio. But yeah,
(06:30):
it's quite smart because right when I taxed the guy
who did it many years later, I said, I thought
that was very brave. He said, not at all. He said,
because of that, all the comedians in Hollywood came to
their studio, like Richard Pry and everybody wanted to make
their film with them because they had made The pythonsm.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
We're talking about innocent times, pre internet, phone cameras and
the whole lot of work attitude around the planet. They
were very different times. How do you see it now?
When you walk on stage, do you get concerned about
upsetting people? Erica? You just get out there and do
your thing.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I like entertaining people. I keep one hand in, you know,
I like to do it. You know, I don't like
to stop doing it. I like to be able to
make them laugh. And it's interesting because they tell you
what's funny. You don't tell them what's fun You propose
something is funny, and if they laugh, they agree with you.
If they don't, you should leave the business.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Eric, I guess it's safe to say that one of
the brightest moments in your illustrious career was spent hanging
from across singing about looking on the bright side of life.
Do you recall how long you were up there for?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh? Yes, you don't forget being crucified.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You had your chance to get out any Badi's offer.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think we were all up on the cross at
one point and there was only three labbages and people
between breaks. Want to feah over here quick, pee boy boy.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's my best boy. That's amazing. Hey, every I walked
into my lund room the other night and your butt
cheeks were on my TV. And I'm going to say
my wife was watching, so sorry.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I tried to leave the room before you got in, But.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What do you mean my wife was my wife is
watching concert for George George Harrison twenty odd years ago,
and you guys were doing Lumberjack and you turned around
in there were those butt cheeks, which was no. We
were one on my face, said my face love.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
We were singing it, yes, but I thought that was
you know, because they aren't. It was a concept. It
was two thousand and two, I think it was. And
we were doing as a tribute to Georgie died before
and Olivia said she wanted meet us to sing little Piggies.
I wanted it all to beat George's music. Yeah, And
I said, you know that's not what we do. We're
not really a group. We don't sing. So I said,
(08:56):
why don't we do this? On my face? So good,
very very bravely, he said yes. I thought. I thought
Joyce would have loved that. I thought he would have
loved he did that. He did love you, Yes, see absolutely.
He paid for the Life of Brian.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow, because he had his film company.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, Mortgage's house, Mortgage's business, raised the cash from the
bank and put it all on the Life of Brian.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It was not amazing. It was his last money. Yeah,
they haven't been made money, he got his go up
and back on his house back anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Actually, that night backstage YouTube to Tom Hanks and said,
I think I might get a butt tuck. Did it
ever happen there?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I think it was too late.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Well, look, Eric, we're going to have to let you
go Monday the eighteenth November. For those lucky enough to
have been able to get tickets, can I just say
that no one has made me personally laugh more in
my life than you and your lot and your mob,
and continues to do so to this day. I thank
everything for Monty Python, and thank you so much for
(10:10):
joining us this morning.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, look forward to seeing you in perthin.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Absolutely been my pleasure. Thank you, Eric.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Thanks
A bit of a treaty here on a Friday morning list.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Do you have a very very favorite Monty Python moment.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm going to bring up with Eric Idle is something
that happened post Monty Python, and it is to do
with lumberjacks and a beatle that I'm going to be
talking about, So it's not necessarily from a movie.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Your favorite Munty Python moment? To answer my question, which
you did not know, we wouldn't be are you saying
it's I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, work all night? Absolutely,
get parrots sketch for me love?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Really? There you go.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, all of that I expect will be discussed at
the Perth Concert Hall on Monday, the eighteenth of November,
But only those who've managed to secure tickets to the
very very very sold out show will know. Always look
on the bright side of life live, Eric Idol, I
know that.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Giggle.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Eric, You're very welcome. It's nice to say hello to Perth.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's nice to say hello to Eric Idle. Will we
hear about at the show? Will we hear about Monty
Python Shenanigans?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
What's Shenanigans. I thought it was going a kind of
Irish dance sounds. Doesn't use them. They of course, nothing
but trouble. You know, we had to move them.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, hey, Eric, my wife about all sorts of things. Really,
I was good. Yeah, that's what we want, that's what
the fans want. Actually, what do the fans talk to
you most about? When you bump into them or you
see them after shows and they like Eric, they want
to talk about.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't really know, to be honest, I mean they
I always try, and you know, just ask them their
name and where they're from, and make sure that we
have a human contact rather than a sort of pam
legend contact, because there's very little to say when people
say you're a legend. You go, no, I'm not a
married man. No married man is a legend, not in
(01:59):
his own lunchtime anyway.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, well, I'm sure they quite often lost the words.
That's the thing. When you may tell him that you
idolized that as way, I guess so.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean I always found that when I found somebody
I really admired, i'd even be too scared to say
hello you you know, yes, well, most of those people
have died now, so at anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How did you meet the other members of Monday Python.
How did it all come together?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, oddly, I met John Cleese sixty one years ago.
I was married sixty two years ago. I was nineteen
and it was at Pembroke College, Cambridge. I was actually
performing a sketch he'd written, and then he was there
to watching me do it, and he said, join the footlights.
And I went to the end of festival and there
(02:47):
I met Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Wow. And then
I met Graham Chapman, who was you know, he was
in London and he was at the same guy's hospital qualifying,
you know, trying to qualify to be a fully quali
find alcoholic. You're working hard on it, right, Yeah, yeah,
he got a degree in it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The doctors, doctors, you know, I'm mad they are. Yes,
we've met six years, six years. We've met six years
before we actually did pint.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, you know, they say, fine, do something that you
love and you'll never work a day in your life. That,
I mean, nothing could apply more surely to being a
member of the Munty Python Troop. I can't even imagine
how much you laughed on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
There was a lot of laughter. There was a lot
of laughter, but you know, it's also interesting hard work.
I mean sometimes we didn't have enough money. I mean,
you know, we didn't have We couldn't afford horses on
the Holy Grails, so we had to use coconuts. But
it would be quite cold and down to miserable. Always.
(04:00):
The BBC would always give us a camera crew in
November they head up for the Yorkshire Moors and we'd
be standing around in drag, you know, hitting each other
with handbags in mud in the Yorkshire. More so it
was it was looked funnier than it was.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
If you see what you were going, I guess, yeah, yeah,
well it makes it even more incredible that you were
getting the last and.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I think PA's funny. Yeah, it's fun It.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Must have been funny. Would you say the fish slept
Dance was the silliest moment in Python history or do
you think it got even sillier than the fish slapt Dance?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No? No, I think the fish snapping dance is very silly.
It is. I mean it was actually for a BBC
program on May Day. It was a Euros program. When
we first did it, right, And then only when we
saw it did we put it into the show. You know,
we've done it for this May Day celebration, a tradition.
(05:00):
We paid sure said it was a tradition, the fish
lapping mountains on May Days. So I like it. I
put it into I put it into the Silly Olympics
because I think it was very much. It should be
a spect it should be a sport.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, yeah, maybe more so than break dancing, which we're
seeing now.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Eric Sports.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Slept with the trout, so so good.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Than that. Speaking of the Olympics, the London Olympics, how
much fun was that? Was that more stress than anything?
Working that one up? It is so incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The city I was singing at the Olympics was the
Olympic Games.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh yes, London.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Fairly incredible and also a bit scary. You know, you
pop up and the two billion people wat. Yeah, funny,
but you've got to make sure. I was singing live.
A lot of the rock stars were miming, and I'm thinking,
here's a comedian, it's to sing live, you know, wonderful
tell us it was. It was a totally memorable moment.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, it's quite I reckon, it's such an honor. Can
you tell us a story about how The Meaning of
Life was green lit by the movie studio? But eventually,
after you wrote them a poem.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
That's right, they wanted to see the script and he said,
you can't see it, and they said why not. They said, well,
you can't tell us how to write a Monty Python film.
And they took that argument, and so I wrote them
a very rude poem and we gave them a budget
and they green lit the movie on that, which is
which is a bit very daring for a studio. But yeah,
(06:30):
it's quite smart because right when I taxed the guy
who did it many years later, I said, I thought
that was very brave. He said, not at all. He said,
because of that, all the comedians in Hollywood came to
their studio, like Richard Pry and everybody wanted to make
their film with them because they had made The pythonsm.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
We're talking about innocent times, pre internet, phone cameras and
the whole lot of work attitude around the planet. They
were very different times. How do you see it now?
When you walk on stage, do you get concerned about
upsetting people? Erica? You just get out there and do
your thing.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I like entertaining people. I keep one hand in, you know,
I like to do it. You know, I don't like
to stop doing it. I like to be able to
make them laugh. And it's interesting because they tell you
what's funny. You don't tell them what's fun You propose
something is funny, and if they laugh, they agree with you.
If they don't, you should leave the business.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Eric, I guess it's safe to say that one of
the brightest moments in your illustrious career was spent hanging
from across singing about looking on the bright side of life.
Do you recall how long you were up there for?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh? Yes, you don't forget being crucified.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You had your chance to get out any Badi's offer.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think we were all up on the cross at
one point and there was only three labbages and people
between breaks. Want to feah over here quick, pee boy boy.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's my best boy. That's amazing. Hey, every I walked
into my lund room the other night and your butt
cheeks were on my TV. And I'm going to say
my wife was watching, so sorry.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I tried to leave the room before you got in, But.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What do you mean my wife was my wife is
watching concert for George George Harrison twenty odd years ago,
and you guys were doing Lumberjack and you turned around
in there were those butt cheeks, which was no. We
were one on my face, said my face love.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
We were singing it, yes, but I thought that was
you know, because they aren't. It was a concept. It
was two thousand and two, I think it was. And
we were doing as a tribute to Georgie died before
and Olivia said she wanted meet us to sing little Piggies.
I wanted it all to beat George's music. Yeah, And
I said, you know that's not what we do. We're
not really a group. We don't sing. So I said,
(08:56):
why don't we do this? On my face? So good,
very very bravely, he said yes. I thought. I thought
Joyce would have loved that. I thought he would have
loved he did that. He did love you, Yes, see absolutely.
He paid for the Life of Brian.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow, because he had his film company.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, Mortgage's house, Mortgage's business, raised the cash from the
bank and put it all on the Life of Brian.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It was not amazing. It was his last money. Yeah,
they haven't been made money, he got his go up
and back on his house back anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Actually, that night backstage YouTube to Tom Hanks and said,
I think I might get a butt tuck. Did it
ever happen there?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I think it was too late.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Well, look, Eric, we're going to have to let you
go Monday the eighteenth November. For those lucky enough to
have been able to get tickets, can I just say
that no one has made me personally laugh more in
my life than you and your lot and your mob,
and continues to do so to this day. I thank
everything for Monty Python, and thank you so much for
(10:10):
joining us this morning.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, look forward to seeing you in perthin.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Absolutely been my pleasure. Thank you, Eric.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Thanks
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