Ocelots and lemurs: the John Cleese interview
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 15, 2006 9:00 p.m.
John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, will perform his
one-man show, “Seven Ways to Skin an Ocelot,” in Royce
Hall for one night only: on Saturday, March 18. In the middle of a
hectic worldwide touring schedule, Cleese found time to answer five
of the Daily Bruin’s questions.
Daily Bruin: What are the seven ways to skin an
ocelot?
John Cleese: Slowly; very slowly; very, very slowly; quite
quickly; extremely quickly; phenomenally quickly; and at about the
usual pace.
DB: You previewed the show in New Zealand in late 2005 and
then rewrote it. How has the performance changed?
JC: The great thing about a stage show is that you can keep
changing it. Sometimes the changes are mere polishing, no more than
rehearsal to refine a particular moment. But some of the changes
are substantial, because you can never anticipate what audiences
will find funny.
For example, a monologue that stopped the show in New Zealand
simply puzzles the Americans. A piece that I wrote especially for
America about “Class” in England was received by a
bemused silence in Santa Barbara and has been dropped. It’s
puzzling and perhaps there are no perfect answers.
DB: When dismissing the idea of having a Monty Python
reunion, Eric Idle said that “comedy is really a young
man’s game.” Do you agree?
JC: I think it’s harder to find an audience if you are
older, because so much comedy is aimed at young audiences. But I
sense that there are still enough people out there who like what I
do.
The question becomes this: How do you get to them when there are
so many film and TV executives who have no idea what they’re
talking about? With my stage tour and Web site, I have not had to
listen for one moment to the views of people who have never
written, acted or directed anything in their lives.
Of course, it’s true that I don’t have the raw
energy that I used to, but I am craftier about finding ways of
keeping things simple.
DB: Your Web site has a lemur in the middle of the page that
seems to be featured more than you are. Also, you recently gave
your name to a new species of lemur, now called
“Cleese’s woolly lemur.” Why lemurs?
JC: Lemurs have always been my favorite exotic animals, ever
since I fell in love with one in the Bristol Zoo in 1953.
Because of my connection with them, I was asked to make a BBC
documentary about the release of some American captive-bred
black-and-white ruffed lemurs in Madagascar. After that, my
identification with lemurs continued in the conservation community
““ hence, the naming of the species.
DB: Not that you would, but how many ways are there to skin
a lemur?
JC: There are unfortunately no ways of skinning a lemur.
Interview conducted by Jake Tracer.
