{"id":56648,"date":"2025-07-11T10:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T10:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/56648\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T10:50:09","slug":"id-be-proud-to-be-thrown-out-of-america-eric-idle-on-trump-life-after-python-and-not-talking-before-lunch-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/56648\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019d be proud to be thrown out of America!\u2019 Eric Idle on Trump, life after Python and not talking before lunch | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

When news broke in 2021 that Eric Idle<\/a> had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, dismay was followed by relief when he survived to get the all-clear. Now 83, Idle is thriving and about to embark on his first UK tour since 1973.<\/p>\n

Over haddock and chips in London last month, a gentle and friendly Idle answered questions submitted by readers and fellow writers, actors and comedians about his time as a Python, Broadway smash Spamalot \u2013 his musical adaptation of Monty Python<\/a> and the Holy Grail \u2013 as well as selfies, Peter Cook and why he feels sorry for the royals.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s genuinely funny about Donald Trump?<\/strong> Tracy Ullman
There\u2019s nothing funny about Donald Trump. What will be funny is when he leaves office and we have a big party and dance in the streets. Trump seems to have no end of capacity for stupidity. I think he\u2019s a treasonous monster who works for Putin.<\/p>\n

Every summer I go to France because I can\u2019t stand the news. I can\u2019t stand hearing about that man every minute of every day. They\u2019re completely obsessed by him in the US. It\u2019s like they\u2019re addicted to him.<\/p>\n

Since you have made so many people happy to laugh or sing out loud, what\u2019s the best thing in a day that gives you a smile? <\/strong>traleebob
My friends are either comedians or musicians, so we play and sing all the time and I like that. It\u2019s lovely because you are not yourself any more. You are part of this human thing going on. What makes me proudest is that Always Look on the Bright Side of Life<\/a> has become a funeral song. I find that very moving.<\/p>\n

Idle as Mr Cheeky, looking on the bright side in Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian, 1979. Photograph: Landmark Media\/Alamy<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve taught generations to laugh at death, class, religion<\/strong> and even bad theatre. <\/strong>Is there anything left you haven\u2019t skewered that you still dream of turning into a joke? <\/strong>Catherine Zeta-Jones
That\u2019s a difficult question. If I thought of it, I would! I think the point of comedy is to examine everything. It\u2019s very scary now because they\u2019re stopping comedians at the border and if they have pictures of Trump on their phone they don\u2019t like, they don\u2019t let them in.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a green card for about 28 years. I\u2019d be proud to be thrown out because I\u2019d be in very select company. The last English comedian to be thrown out of America for political reasons was Charlie Chaplin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether you can go too far in comedy depends on who you are. If you\u2019re Lenny Bruce, you would begin by going too far. But I do take note of it. If I\u2019m going to do a tour, I will ask my goddaughter: can I say this? There are certain categories of people you don\u2019t want to offend, who have been laughed at, and that was completely unjust and unfair. But I think you are obliged to question things to have any relevance at all. Otherwise, you\u2019re just telling jokes.<\/p>\n

I know people coming up and asking for selfies and such would be a problem in the real world, but a<\/strong>re you able to <\/strong>go and just sit in a pub for a few drinks or <\/strong>have a Sunday dinner in peace in public? <\/strong>Harrymeadows
I used to be really unpleasant. Then Robin Williams taught me that that sort of encounter is very important to people. So be nice, not brusque, because they\u2019ll never forget it. But you don\u2019t want to spend 20 minutes with them, so when they come up, I say: \u201cI\u2019m Eric, what\u2019s your name?\u201d Then they become a person and see you as a person, too. There\u2019s a human connection, not some stupid, starry thing. It becomes more normal and easier to leave.<\/p>\n

Olivia Arias, with George Harrison, who she married in 1978, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam at the premiere of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Hollywood in July 1975. Photograph: Trinity Mirror\/Mirrorpix\/Alamy<\/p>\n

George Harrison <\/strong>agreed to fund Life <\/strong>of Brian because he wanted to see it. If he hadn\u2019t <\/strong>been so forward-thinking and <\/strong>unfazed by controversy,<\/strong> might we have lost an iconic, groundbreaking movie? <\/strong>Les Dennis
He changed my life. We were very close. I was there at his deathbed. He wasn\u2019t frightened of death. He thought he\u2019d escape rebirth<\/a>. I said: \u201cI\u2019d give anything to be reborn.\u201d Only thing we ever disagreed on. He still laughed when I said it.<\/p>\n

A lot of being funny is the lack of a censor mechanism. I said at George\u2019s funeral: \u201cI\u2019d like to thank Marlboro, without whom you wouldn\u2019t be here this morning.\u201d Huge laugh. It\u2019s really not the right thing to say, but also, let\u2019s name the names of people responsible. The way people respond to comedy is not to think and then decide to laugh. They find themselves laughing spontaneously. And they also start to trust that this person will tell the truth no matter what.<\/p>\n

I think aliens have a sense of humour, because it\u2019s about self-knowledge. Every society has one, as do some animals. AI, meanwhile, can only copy. I don\u2019t think it would ever say something remarkably and originally funny. That\u2019s its weakness.<\/p>\n

Do you listen to audiobooks? <\/strong>RDMiller
I\u2019m a big reader but it\u2019s the voice of the author I want to hear in my head. I think a lot of the audiobook business is a scam. They pay badly. They rip you off and you work for days reading the damn thing. And I never want to hear my voice back.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read<\/strong>, presumably based on Monty Python and Beyond the Fringe<\/a>,<\/strong> that nice people went to Oxford, and not so nice people went to Cambridge. Any thoughts<\/strong> on this<\/strong>? <\/strong>Maldontyke
That\u2019s absolute bollocks. All politicians went to Oxford, because they do PPE, and the nice, clever people went to Cambridge. I like Cambridge people.<\/p>\n

Which comedian, from any time, do you believe would have <\/strong>complemented the Pythons ensemble?<\/strong> BanjoPlayingFool
Dan Aykroyd, because he was a writer and a performer and could melt his ego into a crowd. On the whole, we didn\u2019t try and upstage each other on Python. You were supportive.<\/p>\n

Idle in front of Palace theatre, London, while the musical Spamalot<\/a> was being set up in 2006. Photograph: Linda Nylind\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Without going into specific facts and figures, h<\/strong>ow much <\/strong>more<\/strong> money have you made from Spamalot than <\/strong>Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus and<\/strong>, given that many of the core elements were generated from the efforts of the whole circus,<\/strong> do your former comedy teammates get a ton of royalties from Spamalot?<\/strong> (I\u2019m assuming not).<\/strong> <\/strong>DrJWCC
They got more fucking money than they\u2019ve ever been grateful for. They got fucking millions and they\u2019re miserable and horrible and bitchy about it. I spent 20 years working for Python and then two years on the O2 show. They were there for two weeks.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really motivated by money, to be honest. Anyway, the producers get all the fucking money and divide it up according to the contract. Someone sued us for years, saying I was paying the Pythons money from my back pocket. And I said: why would I risk going to an American jail to give John Cleese more money?<\/p>\n

Pythons always played the women \u2013 why? Michael Palin told me it was because you were all scared of them. <\/strong>Tracy Ullman
Well, he\u2019s definitely scared of them. I wasn\u2019t scared of women because when I was president of Footlights, then an all-male club, I changed the laws to admit women. The first woman who came in was Germaine Greer. It\u2019s always hard to find a funny woman if you don\u2019t admit them to the club. I was very proud of doing that.<\/p>\n

I think some of them were scared of women. John Cleese and Graham Chapman were very nasty to Miriam Margolyes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the reason was that six people were just trying to grab a decent role. But if the joke was about sex, it was better if we had a real woman \u2013 it was weird otherwise. But if it was about our mothers, it was funnier it we played them.<\/p>\n

I think some of them were scared of women. John Cleese and Graham Chapman were very nasty to Miriam Margolyes<\/a> and she\u2019s hated them ever since. I always have to remind her that we were friends and I stayed at her apartment. It wasn\u2019t all of us. But most of that generation were terribly cruel.<\/p>\n

In the early <\/strong>70s, I was told<\/strong> that \u201cNurse Idle<\/strong>\u201d, who gave me my school vaccinations, was in fact your <\/strong>mum. Could this have been true<\/strong>, or have I been living under a heinous misapprehension for <\/strong>50 odd years. If it <\/strong>is<\/strong> true, then it counts as the closest I\u2019ve ever got to a celebrity<\/strong> <\/strong>ConradTurner
Oh yes, that\u2019s true. She did give school vaccinations and she would have hated Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a> because she knew how important they were.<\/p>\n

I love your songs and sing them frequently, including the now unacceptable I <\/a><\/strong>Like Chinese<\/a>, which increasingly just sounds like pragmatic foreign policy. But h<\/strong>ow did it feel in those early days being the Python who wasn\u2019t part of a writing team, given there was Chapman\/Cleese and Jones\/Palin, and then Gilliam as the fully odd one out?<\/strong> Steve Coogan
I don\u2019t like being part of a writing team because I don\u2019t like talking before lunch. I wake about 5:30am and love discovering what\u2019s in your mind. You don\u2019t judge it, you just find it, write it and create it, and then do a lot of rewriting.<\/p>\n

\u2018We bonded immediately\u2019 \u2026 Idle, left, with George Harrison and John Cleese in Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd\/Alamy<\/p>\n

What was hard was that the other Pythons had two votes to one. When I first met George Harrison, we bonded immediately and talked all night and I realised we played the same roles in our groups. There were these two heavy, powerful blocs, and we were in the middle. We didn\u2019t have as much power but we learned a lot from it.<\/p>\n

And actually I did find somebody I could work with: the musician John Du Prez, who was a brilliant partner for 44 years. He could do everything I couldn\u2019t and it was fabulous.<\/p>\n

Other than George Harrison, what was your relationship like with the other three Beatles? Did you count them as friends too? <\/strong>Jwillchad
I\u2019m still a friend of Ringo\u2019s, and Paul\u2019s always very nice and friendly, but we\u2019re not close.<\/p>\n

If you could have written one song, which one would it be, and why? <\/strong>ThankYouJohn
Song to the Moon, from the opera Rusalka by Dvo\u0159\u00e1k. Beautiful. Unbelievably fine. But I don\u2019t feel: oh gosh, I wish I\u2019d written, say, a Beatles song, because they did it so well.<\/p>\n

You always seemed to perform so unselfconsciously and with so much abandon and joy \u2013 and write so efficiently and quickly and confidently. <\/strong>Was there ever a time<\/strong> you were insecure about your work,<\/strong> either as a writer or an acto<\/strong>r? <\/strong>And if so, what did you do to overcome those self-doubts and nerves? <\/strong>Hank Azaria
I think the answer to that is ars est celare artem \u2013 \u201cthe art is to hide the art\u201d, which is the motto of the Footlights. There\u2019s a great deal of work and effort that goes into making it look effortless. The secret of performing comedy is to really know what you\u2019re gonna do.<\/p>\n

Even now, I\u2019m never secure, but always exploring and trying to improve. I don\u2019t feel I write; I feel I rewrite<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whenever you start, you\u2019re insecure. If you feel secure, you\u2019re a bit of an arsehole. And even now, I\u2019m never secure, but always exploring and trying to improve. I don\u2019t feel I write; I feel I rewrite. Spamalot was about 17 drafts. It got better as my mind resolved things. That\u2019s what I do when I perform: I write a draft, and another, and I keep going until I\u2019m confident with every bit. It\u2019s always a theorem for me: if I say this, they may laugh. And then you find out.<\/p>\n

I remember once that the Pythons were on the Tonight Show. We\u2019d been over in Canada touring and they laughed like crazy at everything we did. But on the Tonight Show they were just silent. We did 20 minutes, then ran outside and we laughed and laughed and laughed. There\u2019s nothing funnier than people not laughing at you.<\/p>\n

The day this will be published is my birthday, so, related <\/strong>to that, w<\/strong>hat <\/strong>has been your favourite celebration of your birthday? <\/strong>Nanu
I think the older you get, the less you like to celebrate your birthday. On my 80th, I had my friend Puddles do a Pity Party. I don\u2019t like being the centre of attention like that. It\u2019s a bit embarrassing. In my private life, I\u2019m not well-known; I come somewhere below the dogs. Nobody goes: \u201cOh, good morning, legend!\u201d I live a very quiet life.<\/p>\n

Peter Cook, right, with the cast of Beyond the Fringe, from left, Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, and Dudley Moore in 1964. Photograph: Ronald Grant<\/p>\n

Which comedian, living or dead, do you most admire?<\/strong> Jane Leeves
Peter Cook, Billy Connolly, Robin Williams, Eddie Izzard. I would say my comedic voice is somewhere between Eric Morecambe and Peter Cook. When I was growing up, I loved Frankie Howerd and Jimmy Edwards. Comedians used to go from place to place doing the same act and lots of them were really funny but TV finished them off, because they couldn\u2019t adapt or write enough new material.<\/p>\n

In the oncoming revolution that may sweep the UK, whose side will you be on \u2013 and what to do with the royals? <\/strong>Darkness
I don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be a revolution in England. They\u2019ve already screwed my life up, anyway. Eight years ago [pre-Brexit], I could live in any country in Europe. Now, I can only spend three months a year in my house in Provence, and I built the bloody place.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived in LA for 30 years, but it seems to me that the UK class system is still just as prevalent. I think it\u2019s a complete waste of time and it filters down. It stops some people \u2013 and it spoils others.<\/p>\n

Inspiration \u2026 Frankie Howerd at the Lyric, Hammersmith, in 1990. Photograph: Tristram Kenton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

I feel really sorry for the royals. Sometimes they\u2019re very nice and human, and other times they become monsters, because if you are called \u201cSir\u201d at five, you are putting trouble into people. King Charles is very funny. He was at Cambridge. He did comedy and loved Spike Milligan and would always come to Billy Connolly\u2019s. But it\u2019s not a society I would be happy to live in.<\/p>\n

The thing I like about America is it created itself; it\u2019s the only place that wrote a script for itself. But it needs a rewrite to bring it up to date. The second amendment says at 16 you are allowed a major weapon of war. I really think they\u2019re serious about wanting to get rid of liberals and lefties. They\u2019re very crazy.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve described feeling abandoned when you were placed in a boarding school aged <\/strong>seven, and you\u2019ve also said you like living in the US<\/strong> because you\u2019re \u201cmore comfortable not feeling a part of everything\u201d. Do you think the sense of detachment that comes from being a foreigner is always a response to childhood trauma? <\/strong>Charlesosbourneprague
Yes, I was abandoned, but I like being a foreigner. I like living in France because they\u2019re very nice to me, and it isn\u2019t my culture so you don\u2019t have to worry. And it\u2019s slightly like that in America.<\/p>\n

With his daughter, Lily, and wife, Tania, in Hollywood, in 2002. Photograph: Maury Phillips\/WireImage<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m in the UK, I miss the wife and the daughter, but when I\u2019m in the US I don\u2019t really miss the UK because I have the football and cricket on.<\/p>\n

Are you going to smash <\/strong>Titus Andronicus or <\/strong>Iago for us one of these days? Or is <\/strong>\u201cshouting at night\u201d, as Ralph Richardson once called <\/strong>it<\/strong>,<\/strong> too damned tiring? I\u2019d queue overnight for you.<\/strong> Janet Suzman
No, I\u2019ve done my Shakespeare, back in Cambridge. I couldn\u2019t do it every night. I don\u2019t know how people do Broadway \u2013 eight performances a week! On tour, I insist on having a night off after each show. The audience want your energy. You need to be fully there and as confident as possible in order to relax them.<\/p>\n

Janet was brilliant in Nuns on the Run. Amazing actor. And Robbie Coltrane was wonderful. Michael Palin turned that part down, but it was much better with Robbie. He was just so funny as a nun.<\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t people realise about Robin Williams?<\/strong> bumble
That he was so sick. I\u2019d invited him to perform in the O2 shows. He said he didn\u2019t want to and I said: \u2018Never mind, just come to the last night.\u2019 He was going to but didn\u2019t. And shortly after came this really shocking thing: he killed himself. Next door to his wife, too.<\/p>\n

It makes you very paranoid. The only good thing about Robin\u2019s death is that Lewy body dementia is more recognised as a disease and people put money into it. His suffering was enormous.<\/p>\n

Some of the songs you have written have <\/strong>become iconic. <\/strong>Did you realise that <\/strong>this was the direction your abilities were heading in <\/strong>as a young Python? <\/strong>Suzy Eddie Izzard
I began to play guitar aged 12 when Elvis came up. At Cambridge, I first learned a lot from Bill Oddie, who wrote really funny songs with great lyrics, like Flanders and Swann or Tom Lehrer.<\/p>\n

I just wonder, in your view, w<\/strong>hat <\/strong>you think <\/strong>is the solution to <\/strong>the narcissistic oafs of this world getting into power? <\/strong>TheRandinator
People with narcissistic personality disorder are always headed for power, so I would have them psychoanalysed before they can be elected. Mental health checks would stop them.<\/p>\n

Do you know where I left my keys? <\/strong>David Mamet
That\u2019s very funny. David once said the funniest thing he ever heard was the speech I made at Mike Nichols\u2019 75th birthday. I remember looking up and thinking: \u201cOh shit, I\u2019m killing David Mamet.\u201d He actually couldn\u2019t breathe.<\/p>\n

Is there anything you regret? Any piece of work in your past you now think of as rubbish? <\/strong>Bernardgeorgeshore
I don\u2019t think of things as rubbish, only unfinished writing.<\/p>\n

Was Peter Cook the funniest person you\u2019ve ever known? <\/strong>MFLOON
Yes. Beyond the Fringe changed my life. I saw that and that\u2019s all I wanted to be. I was at boarding school and didn\u2019t know you were allowed to laugh at the queen and the army and religion. It was very liberating.<\/p>\n

I<\/strong>f you hadn\u2019t pursued a life as a writer and performer, i<\/strong>s there anything else you might have found a career in? <\/strong>Jane Leeves
I dread to think. The great thing about doing comedy is you never have to have a proper job. I don\u2019t think of my life as a career; I think of it as a life.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you\u2019re enjoying yourself, then you\u2019re not acting or giving, you\u2019re just having a good time.\u2019 Photograph: Suki Dhanda\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In <\/strong>the <\/strong>Python<\/strong> TV shows and movies<\/strong>, you seemed to be enjoying yourself the most. Were you? <\/strong>PookieFugglestein
Some things in Python were very enjoyable and some were not. Holy Grail was cold and miserable. Sometimes that makes it funny. One of the worst things you can have in comedy is enough money.<\/p>\n

Python was quite a lot of arguing and fights and good work is often like that. The best thing about showbiz is when it\u2019s over. I think if you\u2019re enjoying yourself, then you\u2019re not acting or giving, you\u2019re just having a good time. Well, that\u2019s not funny.<\/p>\n

Neil Innes, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975. Photograph: Ronald Grant<\/p>\n

You\u2019re quite rightly celebrated as pioneering, or at least bringing to mainstream attention, new types of comedy \u2013 surrealist, satirical, mockumentary \u2013 but is there anything that\u2019s struck you as new or inventive in comedy that\u2019s come out in the last 20 or so years that\u2019s made you think \u201cI wish I\u2019d written that\u201d? <\/strong>LarboIreland
I watch very little. I see a lot of Netflix thrillers. I don\u2019t go to the movies because they\u2019re very boring and for 12-year-olds. I don\u2019t watch news and I don\u2019t read newspapers.<\/p>\n

Have you got any tickets for Chelsea?<\/strong> Bill Oddie
Bill and I used to have Chelsea season tickets next to each other in the 60s. I learned a lot about songwriting from observing Bill. He was effortless. I don\u2019t think he feels that confident about himself any more, which is a shame.<\/p>\n

Python was quite a lot of arguing and fights. Good work is often like that. The best thing about showbiz is when it\u2019s over<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did the <\/strong>Sit on My <\/strong>Face<\/strong> song get created?<\/strong> How <\/strong>did you come up with that<\/strong>? <\/strong>Mooreelat
It\u2019s actually based on a very famous song called Let the Rest of the World Go By<\/a> by Vera Lynn. Maggie Smith gave me a beautiful leatherbound copy of the lyrics to Sit on My Face because when she was working on a film with Michael Palin, she would make the entire crew sing it every day before they began. Isn\u2019t that sweet?<\/p>\n

Who do you find the most challenging to work with, actors or comedians?<\/strong> Jane Leeves
I appreciate actors more and more. I learned so much from watching Mike Nichols giving notes. When he was firm, he\u2019d sometimes make the actors cry. But he\u2019d always say: you gotta take it seriously. If you don\u2019t, why should the audience?<\/p>\n

From your memoirs, you always seem very appreciative of the female form. Is that still the case?<\/strong> bumble
I\u2019m very grateful for it. But I\u2019ve been with my current wife for 48 years, so I have got used to it.<\/p>\n

Do you get back to South Shields these days? <\/strong>Fromthenorth
Not since I was two. I was hoping to go this time, and to Wolverhampton, where I haven\u2019t been since I was 16. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re playing nearby.<\/p>\n

The Rutles in 1978 \u2026 Ron Nasty (Neil Innes); Stig O\u2019Hara (Ricky Fataar); Dirk McQuickly (Eric Idle), and Barry Wom (John Halsey), posing for their TV mockumentary All You Need Is Cash. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of all the projects you worked on, <\/strong>which was your favourite?<\/strong> Nicens_boi
The Rutles and Spamalot were both just fabulous times. One of the things I talk about in the show, I call Mock and Roll, because we were all the same generation. The art school kids went into music, and we went into comedy. My theory is that Python is the first group of Mock and Roll, because we ended up in the Hollywood Bowl, like the Beatles. And I think the second group in Mock and Roll was Saturday Night Live. On the first show I hosted, Jim Belushi impersonated Joe Cocker to his face. They sang together and there was something magical about that.<\/p>\n

Are you happy to be captured by AI for posthumous performances and royalties?<\/strong> Tracy Ullman
They don\u2019t pay royalties. I always felt that we ought to protect our images after I saw that tacky advert with Fred Astaire and the vacuum cleaner. I felt very bad about that. So I felt that we Pythons ought to have done something to protect our image in a way that\u2019s appropriate. But I don\u2019t think there is a way that\u2019s appropriate.<\/p>\n

Looking on the bright side \u2026 Idle performs during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

I have had my image done in one of those extraordinary machines where 40 cameras capture you from every angle. It was for a film they wanted to make sure they could finish. But it worries me. I don\u2019t trust AI. I mean, look at how many times you have to correct a word. It completely misreads you. ChatGPT writing essays really bothers me. The point is to find out what we think, not what a machine thinks.<\/p>\n

Looking back on your career, from Monty Python\u2019s surreal comedy to Spamalot and beyond, w<\/strong>hat do you think satire can still achieve in today\u2019s world and has its power changed since the Python days? <\/strong>WeirdDug
Python\u2019s not satire. It\u2019s the opposite. Satire ends, it\u2019s dead. You don\u2019t watch early episodes of Saturday Night Live and think: \u201cOh, Gerald Ford fell downstairs!\u201d Python was always generic comedy and that survives longer.<\/p>\n

Who was your favourite Arthur King in Spamalot? Just kidding. As you know, it remains one of the best jobs I\u2019ll ever have. <\/strong>Is there a job <\/strong>or jobs <\/strong>that made you think: \u201cBlimey, I\u2019m a lucky bugger\u2019?<\/strong> Sanjeev Baskar
The Olympic games closing ceremony in 2012<\/a>, when I sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in front of 2 billion people, live. We never did a dress rehearsal. That was my first time on the stage. But you just get on and look like you know what you\u2019re doing. After, I turned to this lovely lady, Susan Bullock, who\u2019d sung with me, and said: \u201cHow did it go?\u201d She said: \u201cAre you kidding?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, the American Film Institute celebration of Mike Nichols. I came on after Simon and Garfunkel, dressed as Emma Thompson in Angels in America with huge wings. I was looking at Oprah and Spielberg and all these people in the audience and said to myself: \u201cI love my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Idle tours the UK from September. Tickets via bookingsdirect.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When news broke in 2021 that Eric Idle had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, dismay was followed by…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-56648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114834219047403604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}