None Shall Pass

Has anybody else been watching the 6 part documentary on Monty Python on the IFC Film Channel? I have, and I have to say that it is wonderful. Most Python docs try to cram the last 40 years into a one hour show, and there is just so much missing. This one is in6 parts, and separates them into projects. The first being how they all met, and what they all did pre-Python, the second being The Flying Circus, the third being Holy Grail, and so on.

I have been a Python fan my whole life. I'm trying to remember how I got into them, and I think I came to it gradually. For years and years, on Sunday nights, I used to listen to The Dr. Demento Show, which I think is still actually on. In the early '80s, it came on way after my bed time, like 11:00 or something, so I used to set my digital clock radio* to wake me up. Then I would pull the radio under the covers and listen to the show at a very low volume, so as not to let my parents in on what I was doing, as they were in the room next door. Sometimes this back-fired when I fell asleep again, having forgotten to re-set the alarm, and my mom would come in to wake me up and wonder why my clock was in the bed. The excuse was always that I was fumbling with it, trying to turn off the alarm, and fell asleep with it after hitting snooze a few hundred times. My best friend Sean would do the same thing, and we would always be excited to see each other Monday morning. Singing our favorite songs from the night before, always made funnier by crackling voices, mis-remembered lyrics and sleep deprivation. Anyway, in addition to introducing me to Weird Al, Spike Jonze, and many many other weird novelty acts, Dr Demento also played a lot of Python. I think at first, I thought it was one guy named Monty doing a bunch of different voices.

Years later, my uncle Roger, who kept me in a good supply of cool music via dupes and mix tapes through out my formative years, let me on to the fact that PBS was showing The Flying Circus late at night on Thursdays. By this point, I was living in the basement**, and had inherited a computer when my dad upgraded. But not just any computer. It was the TRS 80 Color Computer. The TRS-80 ran off of a normal TV, and used normal cassette tapes to store data. It also had an insanely loud, 35lb daisy wheel printer which I wasn't allowed to use during football games, while Dallas was on, or if anybody in the house were asleep. This meant that I had a legitimate reason to have both a cassette player and a TV in my room(score!). My parents were naive enough to not realize that these things also worked outside the confines of the computer. So under the guise of studying, I would watch Python(and a ton of other quirky British shows like Dr Who, and whatever else) with headphones that since the TV was mono, sound only had sound out of one ear. This was just as well, because I needed the other ear to listen for someone coming down the stairs to make sure my "homework" was done. Often, I would hold the cassette player up to the small speaker and record the whole show onto an audio cassette, so Sean could at least hear it if he couldn't see it.

When the video age descended on suburban Denver, Sean had a sleep-over movie party to show off this new thing called a VCR. One of the movie we got was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and our lives were changed forever. Sean and I made it our mission to collect every scrap of Python we could get our hands on. Sean recorded The Flying Circus off of the TV, I slowly purchased all of the albums with paper-route money and allowance, we saved up and bought a copy of Holy Grail after having rented it enough times to buy it several times over.

We would be able to insert a Python quote into every situation possible. I once got in big trouble when I was on a vacation trip to my grand parent's house in KY, and was running around their gigantic house singing "Sit on my Face" at the top of my lungs. By 1989, when Graham Chapman died, they hadn't done anything as a group in such a long time, that everybody figured they were over, at least as Monty Python, and this turned out to be true.

I have followed every member's career, post Python as well. Some have had great sauces, like Terry Gilliam, and some less so, although I still count Erik the Viking among my favorite movies.

Every time I see John Cleese in a move I get excited, and he's everywhere these days.

The group will always remind me of Sean. Sean and I lost touch when he went to a different middle school than did due to district lines, but I would run into him or his parents from time to time. He died tragically in a construction accident some years back. I hadn't spoke to him in several years, but his mom made an effort to find me so I could go to his funeral, which I am very thankful for. He was a good kid, and from what I hear, an even better adult.

I'm glad those guys are (mostly)all still around and still being creative. They seem to be settling down nicely. I'm completely excited for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

-JP

* The first real luxury I remember having. I only got it because when I mom married my second step-dad, he already had a clock, so I got hers. Having access to a radio in my room was a big deal for me.

** As is every suburban weirdo's right by law.