John Cleese is touring England soon to pay off his third wife–or something like that.
John Cleese is to embark on his first-ever UK tour next year at the age of 71. The comedian, who recently agreed a divorce settlement believed to be in the region of £12m, has dubbed it the “Alimony Tour”.
Cleese, who rose to fame with Monty Python, promised the show would be “an evening of well-honed anecdotes, psychoanalytical titbits, details of recent surgical procedures, and unprovoked attacks on former colleagues, especially Michael Palin”.
He started the tour here in Southern California last year, and Jane and I were able to get tickets. (They hardly advertised it; I just happened to be walking by the theater a couple of days prior, and managed to snag some nosebleed seats, which were all that they had left. The show was ultimately sold out.)
It was quite funny, and he didn’t actually attack his former colleagues. I was impressed, also, that he didn’t really attack his ex-wife, either. That is to say, he gave a strong impression of attacking his ex-wife, but he didn’t in fact say anything about her beyond extremely vague generalities. Whatever actually happened in their marriage, he kept it private.
I guess they didn’t need much advertising.
Over at YouTube you can check out some of his early pre-Python work, on the 1948 show. (You might try ‘A look at science’)