Exclusive Portraits: New Book ‘So, Anyway’ From ‘Monty Python’ Member John Cleese

Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 30, 2014 - 9:50pm

CHICAGO – John Cleese, the tallest member of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” has written a new book, and came to the Chicago suburbs to promote it. Anderson’s Bookshop sponsored Cleese’s appearance at the Tivoli Theater in Downer’s Grove for his memoir “So, Anyway.”

The 75-year-old comic legend has a long show business career. After graduating from Cambridge University in the early 1960s, he was part of the “Cambridge Circus” revue that eventually played Off-Broadway and on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. He met his future Monty Python co-writer Graham Chapman while writing for BBC radio and “The Frost Report” (starring David Frost).

John Cleese at Tivoli Theater on November 11th, 2014
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

In 1969, a group of British comedy writers and performers – including Cleese and Chapman – came together and formulated BBC-TV’s “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” PBS television in the United States picked it up, and the rest is comedy phenomenon history. Cleese broke out of the group first, and established another BBC-TV and PBS hit as Basil Fawlty in “Fawlty Towers,” while also working in a series of Monty Python films including “Holy Grail,” “Life of Brian,” “Meaning of Life,” and creating a huge solo movie hit in “A Fish Called Wanda.” He continues to work in various projects, and although Graham Chapman passed away in the 1980s, the remaining Monty Python troupe reunited in 2014 for a “final” concert.

Last month, John Cleese made a special appearance to promote his new memoir, “So, Anyway,” sponsored by Anderson’s Bookshop of Naperville, Ill. The event took place at the historic Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove, and was accompanied by a screening of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com was there to capture this Exclusive Portrait.