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“It’s …”

This afternoon I went to my local theater to see the live broadcast of Monty Python Live (Mostly) from the O2 Theater in London. I’ve been a Python fan ever since some friends introduced me to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” back in high school and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see their last live performance.

It was really cool to see John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin on stage together and even better seeing them dressed as women (even with beards) or in other crazy costumes as they performed some of their classic sketches: Spam, Dead Parrot, Cheese Shop, Crunchy Frog, Spanish Inquisition, Argument Clinic, Australian Philosophers, Four Yorkshiremen, Nudge Nudge, Exploding Penguin, even the Spanish Inquisition (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!), just to name a few. Even Carol Cleveland (the “unofficial 7th Python”) made several appearances!

The live sketches were interspersed with classic Gilliam animations, or clips from the Flying Circus (like Philosopher Football, which was appropriate since the World Cup just ended). Plus there were quite a few musical numbers like “The Lumberjack Song” (I always wanted to be … a systems analyst!), “Sit on my Face,” “Bruces’ Philosophers Song,” “Every Sperm is Sacred,” “Galaxy Song,” and, of course, the encore: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” It was quite a surreal experience being in a sold-out movie theater full of people singing and whistling along to that song and knowing thousands more around the world (and 0 in Brazil) were doing the same thing at the same time.

The forgotten or flubbed lines, the crack-ups, the ad-libs, the celebrity appearances (by Mike Meyers and Stephen Hawking) all made for a hilarious, truly memorable experience and a fitting sendoff for the troupe (RIP, Graham Chapman!)

And now for something completely different …