John Cleese talks Monty Python, wokeness and turning 84 as his comedy tour heads our way

One of the funniest men alive named his current comedy tour as if he already was dead.

That's just the irreverent humor of John Cleese, co-founder of the famed Monty Python comedy troupe, whose "An Evening With The Late John Cleese" show visits The Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Oct. 26.

Cleese promises a memorable evening of comedy and conversation with all-new routines shaped by his impeccable timing, trademark eccentricity and clever wordplay on a tour that also appears at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading on Oct. 18; Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, N.Y., on Oct. 19; Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Massachusetts on Oct. 20; Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J., on Oct. 21; Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, N.J., on Oct. 22; Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on Oct. 25 and the Strand Theatre in York on Oct. 28.

Let's get straight to it, shall we, with our Q&A with the still-living legend, sounding as sharp, wry and unfiltered as ever.

Cleese begins with, "So, this is for the printed page, is it? I'm glad. You can ask me anything you like."

Q: Why do you call this "The Late John Cleese Tour"?

Cleese: Well, you know I died. You probably read about it in the paper. I died about six or seven weeks ago and there were several obituaries, none as complimentary as they should have been. But fortunately, I was able to rise again on the third day. I have an aunt who was a Christian. She told me how to do it. It's an old Christian trick, apparently. On the third day I rose again and have just been going along on my way. Just because you're dead doesn't mean you don't need money anymore. So, I'm just trying to make a little money before the next time I die.

Q: The tour's website says, 'In lieu of flowers, sign up for the meet-and-greet.' What does that entail?

Cleese: (Laughs). Well, after the show, people line up and they come and have a photograph with me, and we exchange insults or we tease each other or have a little gentle horseplay and then we take a photograph, and everyone goes away rather pleased. I don't know why they need a photograph. That's their problem.

It has been 10 years since your "John Cleese: Last Time to See Me Before I Die" tour. Luckily that wasn't true, right?

But it was a sensible precaution to see me, because I am going to die very soon. I'm nearly 84. And of all places, I turn 84 in Akron, Ohio, which lacks a little of the luster of Paris or Barcelona or Madrid or Berlin, but Akron will have to do. I'll have to have a little drink after the show and pinch myself in the beautiful little town of Akron.

The night before your birthday, you're in Greensburg, Pa. So technically, after your show there is over and you've done the meet-and-greet and you're back at the hotel, won't you be turning the big 8-4 right here in western Pennsylvania?

Yes, but we don't go back to the hotel, see? The great thing about a tour is we're on a bus. My daughter is performing with me, and a lovely guy named Andy Curd, who is sort of the director of the show. He cues all the lighting and sound and all those clips and photographs, and he's great. I've done over 300 shows with him. And we've a tour manager who looks after all of our logistics; where we're staying, where we're eating and what time everyone's got to be there. We don't go back to the hotel. We go back to the bus, we have a drink, we talk about the show and what needs to be changed. And then I go to the back to my big air bed and the others go off to their bunks and then off we go to the next town. And it's really rather fun, a little group touring together with lots of laughs and jokes and lots of really good delicatessen foods in the refrigerator. A very pleasant way of earning money.

Sounds like being a rock star.

Yes, but not the same money.

Talk about the format of the show. It says you're doing all-new routines. Can you shed any light?

The first thing is my daughter is a standup comedienne, that's how she earns her living, so she does the first 15 minutes, and then I come on and do about 35. I haven't decided quite what material I'll do yet. I've got four hours of material, and we've been doing this show for a long time now. The first time we performed together was 16 years ago, so we've got masses of material. Then after that we take an interval and then we come to the Q&A, which is always fun. She hosts it, as it were. People send in questions and she's very good at deciding which questions will become an entertaining answer, or which questions won't lead anywhere, like 'What's the average air speed of an unladen swallow?' That's funny to the person who sent the question, but it doesn't lead anywhere. Whereas questions like 'Why have you been married so many times?' or "Are you really as awful and unpleasant a person as everyone says?' lead to entertaining answers.

Do you get requests for Monty Python-style silly walks?

Occasionally, but I have to remind the audience I've got two artificial hips and an artificial knee, so the day I try my silly walks again will be my last day on earth.

TV audiences loved the tribute to (Monty Python co-creator) Graham Chapman where you and the rest of the original Python members dropped an urn and pretended to spill his ashes all over the stage. Have you thought what tribute you'll do if you outlive (surviving Python members) Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam?

Oh yes. I'm very much hoping they all die before I do because then I can go on tour as the only remaining Monty Python and I won't have to share the money with them. It's going to be absolutely wonderful. I think it will be between Palin and myself. Gilliam had a stroke, but he'd already been confused and slurring his speech for decades earlier. Eric Idle is very funny but we haven't heard from him in years. It was recently said he has not died from pancreatic cancer, which is very good news, but I still think he'll go before me. I think it'll be a close-run thing between Michael and me, because he's always been very fit, but he's also very nice, which is not a good weapon to have in the survival state. Whereas I'm spiteful and use my elbows a lot. I'll outlive the lot and go out on tour as the only living Python and make huge quantities of money and not give them any. Good plan, isn't it?

You can't easily make jokes like that today, with political correctness. As a comedy expert, what do you think about what's allowed in comedy these days?

I think it's a shame what has happened. Let me put it like this: I really don't think that people with very little sense of humor should get to decide what people with a good sense of humor should get to laugh at. It's kind of puritanism, which we all know what happens when you get puritans, you get a lot of witches burned. Once people get more pure than they really are, they get into a psychological mechanism of denial and projection and all sorts of terrible things happen, like witch hunts. So, I think it is very important we point out to our woke friends some of the things they advocate that are actually quite harmful. I'll give you one example: They believe every feeling that you have is valid, which means everything from Sigmund Freud has been a waste of time. No, you should always take note of your feelings. You mustn't think them as literally true each time. Because supposing you think you're Napoleon? You look at your feelings and examine them. Is this feeling helpful? Does it make my life better? Or does it make it more difficult? A bunch of things people are advocating makes them more difficult.

Back to the Monty Python years. Did you guys grasp early on the worldwide impact you would have?

Absolutely not. The first season passed, and I'd say a very small number of people loved it. and most people didn't even know about it. And then right at the beginning of the second series a very good journalist named Alan Coren wrote a very complimentary piece about it, which was published in The Times. And after that, it all changed. It was almost as if people had been given permission to like us. It was very slow. For example, Monty Python never appeared on American television until we finished making it. And the only reason it appeared on American television was because a gentleman named Ron Devillier ran a PBS station in Dallas. I spent some time with him about three years ago − he's just recently died, and was a lovely man − and he told me all the other big PBS stations − New York, Chicago, Austin, Boston, San Francisco − had all passed on Monty Python, and when it came to him it was almost a last-ditch try. And he took a huge risk. He put Monty Python on in Dallas, of all places, and all his PBS friends called him the next day and said, 'What happened...what happened?.., did they burn the station down?' And he said, no, and then they all started to put it on, but none of that happened until after we stopped making Python. And if he hadn't, none of you would have heard of us. It's extraordinary how much luck and chance there is in life.

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There are countless people who can recite verbatim famous Monty Python skits from 50 years ago. Do you have those committed to memory?

No, no. I'll tell you a silly story. Michael Palin and I were in New York and going on "Saturday Night Live" and the "Saturday Night Live" people said, "Let's do the Dead Parrot sketch,' and Michael and I said, we don't want to do that again, and they said, "no, you must, please do it." So we sat down, and we couldn't remember it. (Laughs). I said, why don't we go out on the street and ask someone?

And all the other successful stuff you've done over the years; The acclaimed "Fawlty Towers," plus "Shrek," "Harry Potter," "James Bond," there are generations who know you more for that. Do you have a favorite role from, say, the past 30 years?

Hmm, past 30 years takes me to '92. I did a movie with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn called "The Out-of-Towners" and I played a hotel manager, and I thought that was very good. I also was in "Rat Race" and was very happy with that one. I played the guy who owned the casino. I also made a little film about going to Madagascar to see how some lemurs were doing that were bred in captivity and were then released into the wild. I'm very fond of that. A very low-key but sweet program.

You've written books including "Life and How to Survive It." Do you plan any sequels?

Yes, I'm one of the people who really believes in the afterlife. I don't know what it is, but I'd like to spread the idea it's a very good explanation of a lot of phenomena that can't be explained in any other way. But I think I'd need to do that as a television show and a book. I think it would be very useful because of the idea that there's some kind of survival after death. It's very important in how it changes our attitude toward our lives now.

Scott Tady is the entertainment editor at the Beaver County Times and easy to reach at stady@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: A Q&A with comedy legend John Cleese about his tour that's headed here