Eric Idle Promises That His One-Man Musical Will Have One Single Fart Joke

When founding Monty Python member Eric Idle prepares to take the stage in his musical and musings show Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, he’ll want to eat an English breakfast full of that musical fruit.

As the most musically inclined member of the legendary surrealist comedy troupe, Idle’s tendency toward the melodic with his internationally touring stage show comes as no surprise. Idle once invoked the ire of his fellow Monty Python members while simultaneously stuffing their pockets when he wrote the Broadway adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot, and, given the recent unpleasantries shared between Idle and his ideological adversary among remaining Pythons John Cleese, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life may add to the canon of Idle’s catchy irritations to his cast mates as he promises to reminisce on his legendary entertainment career to the tunes of some original music.

In a recent conversation with the New Zealand news outlet RNZ, Idle claimed that Always Look on the Bright Side of Life will contain all the best qualities of his Monty Python work in droves, saying of the one-man musical, “It’s got comedy, it’s got music, philosophy and one fart joke.” 

Kiwis looking to score tickets to the tour would do well to avoid the front row — best not to be in the smell zone after Idle’s had all that Spam.

“We got a lot of surprises, and it is really a one-man-musical, and I’m trying to make it as entertaining and as funny and as interesting, ‘cause there’s a few little sad moments and philosophical moments and valedictory moments, and quite a bit of singing,” Idle told RNZ. Sir Robin, the-Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot also teased that the stage show will include many anecdotes from his experiences at the forefront of British counter-culture during the late 1960s and early 1970s with some special respect paid to Monty Python’s most iconic patron.

Idle revealed that his new musical will include stories about George Harrison of The Beatles, who famously helped to fund Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the group’s budget was bleaker than the Black Plague. “He put the entire budget up by mortgaging his house so he could see the film, and that film still would not have been made but for him,” Idle said of his old friend. “We were pals for quite a long time, you know, and went on holidays and things, too.”

“It’s nice for people to see this other side of people — you know, who were famous and legendary in their worlds — just as regular people enjoying their life and having a nice time on holiday and living like regular human beings, which they were,” Idle said of The Beatles and his pal Harrison, who passed away in 2001.

Idle even promised that the show will include new material about his parody of the The Fab Four, his pastiche rock band The Rutles, which Idle invented for his two-series sketch show Rutland Weekend Television in the mid-1970s and developed into the TV movie, The Rutles — All You Need Is Cash. In fact, Idle says that Always Look on the Bright Side of Life will include “lots of new stuff” about his parody rock band, teasing new info on “a sort of sequel that nobody knows about that I made.”

As for what kind of musical mockery Idle may have in store for his Monty Python colleagues with whom he so often squabbles, I’m sure he will waft something special in their general direction.