Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert film in which the Monty Python team perform many of their greatest sketches at the Hollywood Bowl. 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 and transferred to film. In the wake of the worldwide success of Monty Python's Life of Brian, the Pythons originally planned to release a film consisting of the two German shows edited together, but this proved impractical, and so Hollywood Bowl was released instead.
The film stars all six Monty Python members, with Carol Cleveland in numerous supporting roles and Neil Innes performing songs. Also present for the shows and participating as an 'extra' was Python superfan Kim 'Howard' Johnson.
Although it mostly contains sketches from the TV show, some elements in those sketches have been 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 has more acting roles and 'the Lumberjack Song' follows 'Salvation Fuzz' rather than 'Homicidal Barber' or 'Pet Shop'. The lineup includes some sketches that predated Monty Python's Flying Circus, including the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch", which dated from 1967's At Last the 1948 Show.
[edit] Sketches and songs
- "Sit on my Face" - A ribald parody of Gracie Fields' "Sing as We Go" from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, performed by Cleese, Chapman, Gilliam and Jones in waiter outfits, sans trousers or underwear.
- "Colin 'Bomber' Harris" - Chapman is his own opponent in the wrestling 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 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. Also from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
- "The Last Supper" - Michelangelo (Idle) defends his creative first draft of The Last Supper painting against the objections of the Pope (Cleese). Was originally written for the TV series by Cleese and Chapman but somehow never got on the air, and was first performed for one of the Secret Policeman's Ball shows. It's based on a historical incident involving the Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese.
- "Silly Olympics" - In a filmed bit, athletes compete in absurd sporting events. This piece is from the first Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode, dubbed into English.
- "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. Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Neil Innes play three "Bruces" (from the classic sketch of Flying Circus, Season Two).
- "The Ministry of Silly Walks" - Palin has difficulty gaining funding for his (only slightly) silly walk. This also contains colour footage of the same archival 'silly walks' seen in the first episode of the second Python television series.
- "Camp Judges" - British judges (Idle and Palin) 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 and constantly loses timing of the song.
- "Whizzo Chocolates" - Candymaker Jones answers to the police (Chapman and Gilliam, who vomits into his helmet) 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 football 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 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 Sketch - Palin pays Cleese to disagree with him. Sketch interrupted by Gilliam performing "I've Got Two Legs." Cleese ends Gilliam's singing by shooting him with a shotgun.
- "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" - Neil Innes sings an ode to lunacy.
- "Travel Agency" - Palin attempts to sell a package tour to Mr. Smoketoomuch (Idle), who will not stop talking about travel difficulties, 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 comedy fundamentals in an extremely highbrow manner as Palin, Gilliam, and Jones demonstrate. Originally written for Cambridge Circus.
- "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 the first Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode, dubbed into English. (Some VHS versions of Hollywood Bowl omit this piece.)
- "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). Eric Idle has trouble keeping a straight face while delivering his lines with an extraordinarily overwrought accent, which also causes Terry Jones to openly burst out laughing. At one point, Jones loses his Pepperpot wig, which goes flying across the stage. Graham Chapman and Michael Palin slide across the stage in order to hide Jones as he replaces the wig, after which case 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.
- "The Lumberjack Song" - A rugged, masculine outdoorsman (Idle, as opposed to Palin in the original BBC series) unsettles the chorus by revealing his fondness for women's clothes.
[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 25 June 1982. It grossed a total of $327,958 USD during its theatrical run.
[edit] DVD availability
In the United Kingdom the film is available as a standalone DVD. In North America it is available as part of a two-disc set titled Monty Python Live, which includes the 1998 Monty Python Live at Aspen retrospective and the first episode of Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus. It was also released as part of The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset.
[edit] External links
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