A real character

TOM AINGE ROY

JOHN CLEESE: "One of the slightly sad things about being a comic for 40 years is you really have heard most of the jokes"

John Cleese is confused.

"Now where is my room?" he mutters as he peers at the near identical brass nameplates adorning the wall of the hotel corridor, "Was it 3404 or perhaps 05?" I have just emerged from the elevator on the top floor of Sydney's Four Seasons hotel to interview one of the world's great comic writers and actors.

Unperturbed by his bafflement, the rather tall, now rather aged, Englishman strides confidently down the hall, his pants hitched high on his waist, diffused light reflecting off his balding head. A somewhat frazzled PR lady appears out of the door Cleese just walked past. "We were running early, we are now running late, would you like something to drink?"

The room she leads me into is plush, but, like most five-star hotels, typically devoid of any personal touches, with the exception of an assortment of lights and cameras. After some time Cleese arrives and we are formally introduced. "Ah yes, we met in the hallway," he says in a tone that suggests he had always expected us to meet in such a fashion. "Fire away."

Even seated Cleese, 72, cuts an impressive figure. He speaks with an easy authority and every sentence is delivered as if he had been deliberating on the subject for some time, which, having been in the film and TV business for the past 40 years, could well be the case. His dress is appropriately English, pants and a suit jacket, but his Californian tan offsets the look and gives him a strange sort of radiance, almost as if he's glowing.

Cleese is in this part of the world to promote Spud, an independent South African feature in which he plays an eccentric, alcoholic schoolteacher, and to showcase his new live act, An Evening with John Cleese. But really we are here to talk about being funny.

It is hard to overstate Cleese's impact on the comedy industry. Beginning with the TV series of Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969, Cleese would go on to write or star in screen classics such as Life of Brian, Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda, a couple of Harry Potters, and the Shrek series, many of which have reached near canonical importance to fans and comedians alike.

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have said Python was their comedy porn and Hank Azaria of The Simpsons went so far as to say that the very structure of Simpsons episodes is based almost entirely on a formula first developed by the Pythons, a fact Cleese seemed delighted to hear.

"Really? I never knew that. How interesting." A poll by the UK's Channel Four listed John Cleese as its number two comedian of all time, beaten only by fellow Englishman Peter Cook.

It is with this legacy in mind I ask Cleese what makes him laugh today. The answer, he says with a resigned sigh, is very little. "One of the slightly sad things about being a comic for 40 years is you really have heard most of the jokes.

When I was young, I would discover Buster Keaton for the first time, or W C Fields or Tony Hancock, or I would discover things which would delight me for a long time." He came across US comic Bill Hicks just before he died.

"Now it's quite rare; when Eddie Izzard came along I thought here's someone who is very special." (Izzard did a show in Aspen with the Pythons in the late 1990s.)

"What I laugh at now is the absurdity of real life. Most recently, the biggest laughs I got were the News International execs trying to persuade us that they weren't lying and and it kinda struck me as hilarious how they presented themselves, as these businessmen of utter rectitude when it was obvious . . . they're real scum of the earth people, all of them using this kind of pompous speak that they'd sort of learned from British politicians in the 50s, that used to literally make me fall about."

As for those producing unfunny comedies, the chief perpetrator in his firm opinion is Hollywood. "Now American movies are largely made for young males between 17-24 who know about celebrities, sport and computers and they are otherwise astonishingly ignorant."

Cleese says it was the strength of the script that attracted him to the small budget indie film Spud, and the opportunity to do something different. "I've never done a drunk scene before. I had an idea of how I would feel and one night I drank some red wine, more than I would normally, just to try to register in my mind how I was feeling. I said to the director Donovan Marsh, 'Is this working?' He said 'It's fine', so I thought well maybe I got it right, and I went on doing it."

His live show debuted to mixed reviews, with some critics slamming it as a cash drive, a fact Cleese admitted himself in his Brisbane show: "I have a lot of alimony to pay. I'd just like to thank everyone here for the contribution."

Cleese is three- times divorced, shelling out an estimated $23 million on his last one, though Australian media reported him on this trip spending cash in Melbourne boutiques with current girlfriend Jennifer Wade, three decades his junior. Regardless of the truth of his finances, Cleese performed to many sold-out shows across Australia.

When it's suggested that he's a natural comic who doesn't have to do much to get people to laugh, he demurs. "We're all a lot of different people, and if you're an actor then you draw on different parts of your personality. It's not like you turn into someone else, it's just you put the accelerator down on this particular set of emotions and attitudes and you put the foot on the brake of others."

Comedy is much harder than drama, he says, but you can develop natural talent. "I see a lot of parallels with sports when you can see a young player hit a tennis shot or golf shot or kick a football. If you know how to do it yourself you can tell within five or ten seconds if they have the talent." He doesn't think he could write a really great dramatic character, however. "When I read great novels I realise that creating a really great dramatic character is an extraordinary talent."

I ask what could have been had comedy and acting not worked out. With a wry smile on his face but genuine warmth, he says, "I could have been a zoo keeper. I like working with animals and I like being in zoos because the people there are among the nicest human beings I've ever met." And if the zoo hadn't worked out for him, there was always a backup plan.

"The odd thing is I've always been fascinated by the idea of being part of the management structure of a big department store. I like the idea of the variety of what goes on and what you would learn if you were running Harrods. You would have to know all about women's fashion."

Spud is showing now.

- © Fairfax NZ News