Monty Python Only Played the Hollywood Bowl Because They Were Avoiding Writing ‘The Meaning of Life’
1982’s Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, is one of the all-time great comedy concert films, perfectly capturing the iconic troupe’s electric stage presence back in the days when they were all still alive, and didn’t hate each other’s guts.
The Pythons spent four nights in September of 1980 headlining the famous venue, which they themselves revered. “There was just something about performing at the Hollywood Bowl which I think tickled all of us,” Michael Palin once confessed, “because we were all brought up on LPs of people 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl,' whether it was Sinatra or Errol Garner or the big bands that played on the stage there.”
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Terry Jones noted that it was “kind of a party,” and the chill vibe even infected noted crank John Cleese. “I enjoyed every minute of it, and had a wonderful time,” Cleese later admitted. That rock concert-like atmosphere really comes across in the movie, too.
But it turns out that the legendary show only happened thanks to good old fashioned writer’s block.
Following the success of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the group quickly began working on a follow-up film — not because they had an idea for one, but because their business manager at the time claimed that they’d “never have to work again” for the rest of their lives if they did. (Which didn’t exactly pan out.)
According to Cleese, “we kind of sat down to write without really having any idea what we were going to write about.” Early pitches included Monty Python’s World War III, which would have imagined a hypothetical modern conflict with soldiers branded in corporate advertising logos.
The frustrating writing process resulted in a number of disparate sketches, but, as Graham Chapman put it, there was no “order” or “shape” to it all.
When the Pythons played the Hollywood Bowl in ‘80, Cleese quietly admitted to Rolling Stone magazine that this creative hurdle was the secret motivation behind the concerts.
“The real reason we’re playing the Hollywood Bowl is that we’re absolutely stuck on our next movie,” Cleese whispered to the reporter. “We spent 13 weeks writing, but we just don’t have a central theme. We’ve got scenes set in 1980 and 1880, in England and in British India, but nothing ties them together. So I moved that we abandon the project for a good lump of time, and when we get back to it next September, maybe we’ll have come up with a plot.”
Cleese also noted that they were eager to earn some money after struggling to write the film project. “That left us with our falls free,” he continued, “facing the prospect of having worked for three months without making a penny. It made sense to do these shows: We’re able to come to Los Angeles, have a holiday in the sun and make enough money to tide us over.”
Less than two years later, in early 1982, the Pythons took a writing trip to Jamaica, which is where they came up with the idea of hinging all their the sketches on one person’s life, then the “Seven Ages of Man,” and eventually “The Meaning of Life.”
But we never would have gotten those classic concerts had the team gotten their shit together earlier.
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