Eric Idle Doesn’t Think Much of Monty Python’s Improv Skills
Proving that Canadian news shows aren’t always hopelessly dull, a vintage clip of the Monty Python gang improvising shtick for a Vancouver news crew recently resurfaced on social media. The young Pythons approach a “man on the street” reporter who’s holding a sign informing passersby that they can “say anything they want.”
Terry Jones proclaims that the show is doing a “real service to the community” by allowing people to say words like “grunties” on TV, but Michael Palin bops him on the head and then encourages Canadians to patronize the arts. Specifically by buying tickets to their show: “Remember a full theater is a happy promoter– theater!”
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Meanwhile, Eric Idle propositions Neil Innes (“Do you want to come back to my place?”), and John Cleese makes a royal plea. “I’d like to say that I think Prince Philip should come clean about his toupee,” Cleese deadpans, until he’s interrupted by the screeching brakes of a nearby car, prompting him to bellow, “Can you be careful please?!!”
Vancouver was the last stop of the troupe’s “First Farewell Tour of Canada,” their North American debut. When they arrived at the Vancouver airport they were subjected to a publicity stunt and immediately placed inside of a “giant cage,” which they promptly destroyed.
While the news clip of the fresh-faced Pythons may have been enjoyable for many fans, Eric Idle was less impressed. “You can see why we stuck to writing…” was his only comment on the matter.
He’s right in the sense that the video wasn’t exactly the funniest of improvisations. And Idle and Innes’ bit was basically just a recreation of the sketch in which Palin claims that his wallet has been stolen.
That’s because the Python’s didn’t typically improvise — at least not in front of the camera. “Most of the improvisation is done in rehearsal or when we’re writing,” Palin once explained during a Reddit AMA. “When we actually have to film the movies, because there’s a camera crew there, they need to know where we’ll be. It’s very nice sometimes to have a handheld camera and invent little things on a tape.”
“The proportion of ad libs was about 0.0001 percent,” Cleese agreed, adding, “I admire improv but don’t want to do it myself. I prefer writing.”
The Pythons’ long-time producer John Goldstone claimed that the lack of improv is what allowed them to work so efficiently during their shoots. “The screenplays don’t really vary that much,” Goldstone noted. “A certain amount of work happens in rehearsals, but essentially they keep to what’s on the page; it’s not as if they’re improvising or doing anything unpredictable. It’s all been worked out before.”
So it should really come as no surprise then that their classic sketches aren’t nearly on the same level as some random news footage.
