Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
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| Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl |
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| Directed by | Terry Hughes Ian MacNaughton |
| Produced by | Terry Hughes |
| Written by | Graham Chapman John Cleese Terry Gilliam Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin Tim Brooke-Taylor Marty Feldman |
| Starring | Graham Chapman John Cleese Terry Gilliam Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin Carol Cleveland Neil Innes |
| Music by | Ray Cooper Neil Innes Terry Jones Michael Palin Fred Tomlinson Terry Gilliam Eric Idle |
| Distributed by | Columbia |
| Release date(s) | June 25 1982 |
| Running time | 77 min |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Monty Python's Life of Brian |
| Followed by | The Meaning of Life |
| IMDb profile | |
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert film in which the Monty Python team perform many of their greatest sketches and skits in the Hollywood Bowl, including a couple of pre-Python ones.
As well as the on-stage sketches there are also filmed inserts, mostly taken from the two German Python specials (Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus).
The film stars all six Monty Python members, with Carol Cleveland in numerous supporting roles and Neil Innes performing songs.
Although it mostly contains sketches from the TV show, some elements in those sketches have been re-altered ("dustman" is now "garbage man;" "Of course you don't get bloody wafers with it" now goes "Of course you don't get fucking wafers with it, you cunt!;" Gilliam performs more, etc.).
[edit] Sketches and Songs
The sketches and songs performed are:
- "Sit on my Face" - A ribald parody of Gracie Fields' "Sing as We Go" performed by Cleese, Chapman, Gilliam and Jones in waiter outfits... minus the pants.
- "Colin 'Bomber' Harris" - Chapman is his own opponent in the wrestling ring as Cleese delivers play-by-play.
- "Never Be Rude To An Arab" - Jones performs an ostensibly anti-racism song filled with demeaning epithets, and is subsequently blown up. This sketch has two parts at different points in the show. In the first part, he's blown up and dragged offstage by a large frog. In the second, he's blown up and dragged off by a Christmas tree.
- "The Last Supper" - Michelangelo (Idle) defends his creative first draft of The Last Supper painting against the objections of the Pope (Cleese).
- "Silly Olympics" - In a filmed bit, athletes compete in absurd sporting events.
- "Bruces' Philosophers Song" - The University of Woolloomooloo's Philosophy Department throws cans of Foster's Lager at the audience and performs "The Philosophers' Song", accompanied by large Gilliam cutouts, detailing the drinking habits of history's great thinkers.
- "The Ministry of Silly Walks" - Palin has difficulty gaining funding for his (only slightly) silly walk.
- "Camp Judges" - British judges (Palin and Idle) behave unconventionally outside the courtroom.
- "World Forum" - Important historical socialist figures are asked general-knowledge questions in a quiz show format.
- "I'm The Urban Spaceman" - Neil Innes performs the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band number as Carol Cleveland tap dances.
- "Whizzo Chocolates" - Candymaker Jones answers to the police for his disgusting varieties of chocolates.
- "Albatross" - Cleese attempts to vend a sea bird to audience member Jones.
- "Nudge Nudge" - Idle pesters Jones with perplexing innuendo.
- "International Philosophy" - In a filmed bit, German philosophers take on Greek philosophers on a soccer field.
- "Four Yorkshiremen sketch" - Well-to-do Yorkshiremen try to top one another's tales of their austere beginnings, each story getting more exaggerated and absurd. Originally written for At Last the 1948 Show.
- The Argument Skit - Palin pays Cleese to disagree with him. Sketch interrupted by Gilliam performing "I've Got Two Legs."
- "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" - Neil Innes sings an ode to lunacy.
- "Travel Agency" - Palin attempts to sell a package tour to Idle, who will not stop talking and even interrupts the next sketch.
- "Comedy Lecture" - Chapman explains slapstick comedy fundamentals as Palin, Gilliam, and Jones demonstrate. Originally written for the Frank Muir series We Have Ways of Making You Laugh.
- "Little Red Riding Hood" - In a filmed bit, Cleese as Little Red Riding Hood endures a fractured retelling of the classic fairy tale. This piece is from Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus.
- "Bishop on the Landing" (aka "Salvation Fuzz") - A dead bishop disrupts a family's mealtime.
- During the performance of this sketch, the Pythons are openly trying to make each other crack up onstage. Eric Idle speaks in an overly dramatic tone ("What fish...do you have...that is not jugged?"), Terry Jones openly bursts out laughing, and even loses his Pepperpot wig, which goes flying across the stage. Graham Chapman and Michael Palin sidle across the stage in order to hide Jones as he replaces the wig.
- "The Lumberjack Song" - A rugged outdoorsman (Idle) unsettles the chorus by revealing his alternative lifestyle.
[edit] Box Office
A film version of the Hollywood Bowl performances, with direction credited to Terry Hughes, was given a limited theatrical release in North America beginning on June 25, 1982. It grossed a total of $327,958 USD during its theatrical run.
[edit] External links
- Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl at the Internet Movie Database
- Transcript of the Four Yorkshiremen
- Complete script
