''Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl'' is a 1982
concert
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Terry Hughes (with the film segments by
Ian MacNaughton) and starring the
Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...
comedy troupe (
Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the Surreal humour, surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel (Monty Py ...
,
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...
,
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam ( ; born 22 November 1940) is an American-British filmmaker, comedian, collage film, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Pa ...
,
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke Co ...
,
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones a ...
, and
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
) as they perform many of their sketches at the
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...
. The film also features
Carol Cleveland
Carol Cleveland (born Carol Gillian Frances on 13 January 1942) is an American-English actor, comedian, dancer, and model. She is particularly known for her work with Monty Python.
Early life
Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United ...
in numerous supporting roles and
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Py ...
performing songs. Also present for the shows and participating as an 'extra' was Python superfan
Kim "Howard" Johnson.
The show also included filmed inserts which were mostly taken from two Monty Python specials, ''
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'', which had been broadcast on German television in 1972. The performance was recorded on videotape during the show's four-day run starting September 26, 1980 and transferred to film. In the wake of ''
Life of Brian''s worldwide success, the Pythons originally planned to release a film consisting of the two German shows redubbed and re-edited, but this proved impractical, and so ''Hollywood Bowl'' was released instead.
Although it mostly contains sketches from the television series, the scripts and performers are not identical to those seen on television. The line-up also includes some sketches that predated ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...
'', including the "
Four Yorkshiremen sketch", which dated from 1967's ''
At Last the 1948 Show''.
Sketches and songs
* "
Sit on My Face" – A ribald parody of
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...
' "
Sing as We Go" from ''
Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album
''Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album'' is the final studio album by Monty Python, released in 1980. As the title suggests, the album was put together to complete a contract with Charisma Records. Besides newly written songs and sketche ...
'', performed by Cleese, Chapman, Gilliam and Jones in waiter outfits, sans trousers or underwear.
* "
Colin 'Bomber' Harris" – After an introduction by Palin, Chapman is his own opponent in the
wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
ring as Cleese delivers play-by-play. This is a mime piece that dates back to Chapman's college days.
* "
Never Be Rude to an Arab" – Jones performs an ostensible 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 Kim Johnson dressed as a large frog. In the second, he's blown up and dragged off by Johnson dressed as a Christmas tree. Also from ''Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album''.
* "The Last Supper" –
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...
(Idle) defends his creative first draft of
The Last Supper painting against the objections of the Pope (Cleese). This sketch was originally written and performed by John Cleese for the first Amnesty benefit show ''
A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)'' in 1976, with
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Adam Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English film director, screenwriter, and actor. He directed the comedy films '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', '' My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He also co-created and co-wrote the ...
as Michelangelo. It is based on a
historical incident involving the Renaissance painter
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...
.
* "Silly Olympics" – In a filmed section, athletes compete in absurd sporting events of the "Silly Olympiad," an event traditionally held every 3.7 years. The events include
**The 100m for Runners with No Sense of Direction. On the starting gun, the runners run off in every single direction.
** The 1,500m for the Deaf. They don't move because they can't hear the starting gun.
** The 200m Freestyle for Non-Swimmers. At the starting whistle, they all jump into the water and immediately sink without surfacing, to which the commentator remarks that they'll return to the swimming when they start "fishing the corpses out".
** The Marathon for
Incontinents (people with extremely weak bladders). In this, runners fall away from the group every couple of meters to relieve themselves, giving others the lead. This also shows them all running into the men's room on the starting gun and running past a water table without any of them getting a drink.
** The 3000m Steeplechase for People Who Think They're Chickens. In this, the runners are all doing chicken movements all over the course, and seem to be trying desperately to lay eggs on the hurdles.
** The High Jump briefly features, with one of the Pythons, perhaps Cleese, dressed as a woman. He takes a run-up, then jumps ridiculously high over a wall and onto a high balcony.
The "Silly Olympics" sketch is from the first ''
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'' episode, dubbed into English. The original version also featured the events "1500m for people and their mothers" and "Hammer throw to America", whereas the latter acted as a link to the next sketch.
* "
Bruces' Philosophers Song" – The University of
Woolloomooloo's Philosophy Department throws cans of
Foster's Lager at the audience and perform "The Philosophers' Song", accompanied by large Gilliam cutouts, detailing the drinking habits of history's great thinkers and project lyrics for the audience and viewers to sing along to.
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke Co ...
,
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
, and
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Py ...
play three Bruces. Originally from the second season of the TV series.
* "
The Ministry of Silly Walks" – Palin has difficulty gaining funding for his (only slightly) silly walk. This also contains colour footage of the archival 'silly walks' film seen in the first episode of the second Python television series.
* "Camp Judges" – British judges (Idle and Palin) behave unconventionally outside the courtroom. From ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', series 2.
* "
World Forum/Communist Quiz" – Historical socialist leaders
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
(Jones),
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
(Cleese),
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...
(Palin) and
Mao Tse-tung (Gilliam) are asked British football trivia questions in a
quiz show game hosted by Idle. From ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', series 2.
* "
I'm the Urban Spaceman" – Neil Innes performs the
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (also known as the Bonzo Dog Band or the Bonzos) was created by a group of British Art school, art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelic music, psychedelia with sur ...
number as
Carol Cleveland
Carol Cleveland (born Carol Gillian Frances on 13 January 1942) is an American-English actor, comedian, dancer, and model. She is particularly known for her work with Monty Python.
Early life
Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United ...
tap dance
Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...
s and constantly loses timing of the song. The song dates to 1968 and was performed in ''
Do Not Adjust Your Set
''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' is a British television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, and then by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969. The show took ...
''; this staging of it as a comedy dance routine previously appeared in ''
Rutland Weekend Television'' with
Lyn Ashley as the dancer.
* "
Crunchy Frog" – Candymaker Jones answers to the police (Chapman and Gilliam, who vomits into his helmet - Gilliam filled his mouth with cold beef stew when he ran off stage during the scene) for his disgusting varieties of chocolates. From series 1.
* "
Albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Paci ...
" – Cleese, dressed as a waitress, attempts to vend a
wandering albatross
The snowy albatross (''Diomedea exulans''), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae
Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are la ...
to audience member Jones. The sketch is stopped by the colonel (Chapman) for being too silly, who then orders Jones to report on stage for the next sketch. Originally performed during Season 1, although the film version uses adult language.
* "
Nudge Nudge" – Idle pesters Jones with perplexing
innuendo
An innuendo is a wikt:hint, hint, wikt:insinuation, insinuation or wikt:intimation, intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called in ...
. Originally performed in the
third episode of ''Monty Python''.
* "
International Philosophy" – In a filmed sequence, German philosophers take on Greek philosophers on a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
field. This piece is from the second ''
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'' episode. It is shown in two parts, with "Four Yorkshiremen" in between each.
* "
Four Yorkshiremen sketch" – Well-to-do
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
men (Palin, Idle, Chapman, and Jones) 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 Sketch – Palin pays Cleese to disagree with him. Sketch interrupted by Gilliam suspended from wires performing "I've Got Two Legs." Cleese ends Gilliam's singing by shooting him with a shotgun. The sketch originates from the TV series, though Gilliam's song was not part of the TV sketch.
* "
How Sweet to Be an Idiot" – Neil Innes sings an ode to lunacy. Also heard on the ''
Monty Python Live at Drury Lane'' album.
* "Travel Agency" – Palin attempts to sell a
package tour to Mr. Smoketoomuch (Idle), who has a speech impediment where he can’t pronounce the letter ‘c’. He then goes on a very long rant about travel difficulties and will not stop, even as he is chased by an asylum orderly (Cleese) all about the stadium. He even interrupts the next sketch.
* "Comedy Lecture" – Chapman explains
slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as ...
comedy fundamentals in an extremely highbrow manner as Palin, Gilliam, and Jones demonstrate, with Jones invariably becoming the jokes' victim. Originally from the
Experimental Theatre Club's revue called ''Loitering with Intent''. (This skit was actually done close to the intermission to give time for Jones to clean himself up, plus it includes Gilliam being forced to shove an entire banana into his mouth.)
* "Little Red Riding Hood" – In a filmed sequence, Cleese as
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...
endures a fractured retelling of the classic
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
. This piece is from the first ''
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'' episode, dubbed into English. (Some VHS versions of Hollywood Bowl omit this piece.)
* "Dead Bishop on the Landing" (aka "Salvation Fuzz") – A dead bishop on the landing disrupts a family's mealtime.
** During the performance of this sketch, technical difficulties (a microphone starts feeding back) make Terry Jones lose his place (he temporarily looks up with a smirk on his face).
Corpsing is rampant in this sketch;
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke Co ...
has trouble keeping a straight face while delivering his lines with an extraordinarily overwrought
Yorkshire accent, which also causes Terry Jones to openly burst out laughing. At one point, Jones loses his
'Pepperpots' wig, which goes flying across the stage. Graham Chapman and Michael Palin slide across the stage to hide Jones as he replaces the wig, after which they all have trouble keeping a straight face (particularly Palin). This was always a difficult sketch to perform live—on other occasions, the 'Hand of God' (a large Gilliam-designed cut-out) fingered the wrong character. Idle describes the sketch as "shambolic" as he segues into:
* "
The Lumberjack Song" – A rugged, masculine outdoorsman (Idle, as opposed to Palin in the original BBC series; Palin had also performed it in ''Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'') unsettles the chorus by revealing his fondness for wearing women's clothes.
* The following sketches from the Hollywood Bowl live show were cut from the film release: The Llama (opening sketch), Gumby Flower Arranging (second sketch); Mrs. Thing and Mrs. Entity (Pepperpots sketch) and, most surprisingly, the Dead Parrot sketch.
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 25 June 1982. It grossed a total of US$327,958 during its theatrical run.
Technical and release history
The show was originally recorded on a specially-made analogue
high-definition video
High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines ( ...
system called 'Image Vision' (an early
HDTV
High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...
system), provided by Image Transform from Universal City, California which output a 655 line, 24fps video signal. The show was edited on videotape and a 35mm negative was produced from the tape for the striking of theatrical prints.
In Europe, a 1.85:1 widescreen version was released on DVD in 2007. In North America, the film is available only as an older lesser-quality full-frame version, as part of a two-disc set titled ''
Monty Python Live'', which includes the 1998 retrospective ''
Monty Python Live at Aspen'' and the first (German) episode of ''
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus''. The movie was also released as part of ''The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset'' and as part of ''Almost Everything Ever in One Gloriously Fabulous Ludicrously Definitive Outrageously Luxurious Monty Python Boxset''.
References
External links
*
*
Complete script*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl
1982 films
Monty Python films
HandMade Films films
Concert films
Films with screenplays by Terry Gilliam
Films with screenplays by Terry Jones
Films with screenplays by John Cleese
Films with screenplays by Eric Idle
Films with screenplays by Michael Palin
Films with screenplays by Graham Chapman
Columbia Pictures films
Films about quizzes and game shows
Cultural depictions of Vladimir Lenin
Cultural depictions of Mao Zedong
Hollywood Bowl
Films directed by Ian MacNaughton
Films directed by Terry Hughes (director)
Films shot in Los Angeles
Sketch comedy films
1980s English-language films
1980s British films
English-language documentary films