 "Photo: Erik Aguilar")
The last time John Cleese came to Laxson Auditorium he brought along an unusual prop — the taxidermied corpse of his mother.
“I was a little worried he was bringing that back,” said Daran Goodsell, the marketing and publicity coordinator for Chico Performances, the company that paid for Cleese to come to Chico. “This time he just showed pictures.”
Cleese graced Chico with his presence for the second time in three years Nov. 10, playing to a crowd of fans that filled the auditorium to hear the comedic icon crack some jokes.
Cleese, best known for his years with British comedy group Monty Python, British TV series “Fawlty Towers” and movies such as the late ’80s classic, “A Fish Called Wanda,” has hit the road again with the “Alimony Tour, Year One.”
The tour’s name — and a lot of his jokes — stem from Cleese’s recent divorce from Alyce Faye Eichelberger, his wife of more than 15 years. After the 2008 settlement, Cleese owed Eichelberger $13 million in alimony, immediately — with a stipend of $1 million a year for the next seven years.
The settlement will make Eichelberger more wealthy than Cleese — hence the need for a tour.
Cleese wasted no time in getting sweet, verbal revenge against his ex-wife and her lawyer. He pointed out that, with $20 million, he could buy 7,020 Bowflex machines or 19 armored tanks, making him more powerful than the entire Canadian army.
He also pointed out that, at a total of 5,486 days of marriage, Eichelberger effectively earned $3,650 a day just for being married to him.
“I, on the other hand, must soldier on,” Cleese said. “I must spend my twilight years attempting to amuse nut farmers and self-righteous bicycle riders.”
Before the performance, Cleese rounded up some of the staff at Laxson Auditorium and asked them to supply some local jokes he could use in the show. Sound technician Kirt Lind was in the group that Cleese talked to.
“I was a really big fan of the show as a kid,” Lind said about “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “It was kind of neat getting to talk with him and come up with jokes. It seemed like those were the jokes that people laughed at the most.”
Cleese spoke about his life and career, peppering the routine with stories about his family and the Pythons. No detail was spared the scrutiny of his dry wit. Cleese had the crowd smiling, chuckling and finally crying with laughter as he described the monotony of life in Weston-super-Mare, where he grew up and claimed was “about as lively as Red Bluff.” He then read off the long list of phobias his mother ascribed to, which included dwarves, Belgians and people wearing eye-patches.
When speaking about “Monty Python,” Cleese specifically focused on the “black humor” that the group specialized in, explaining it “makes people laugh because there’s anxiety in it.” The Black Knight scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is one of the best examples of this but, oddly enough, it was one of the scenes the producers wanted to cut from the movie entirely, Cleese said.
He ended the two-hour show by taking questions from audience members, cracking a smile when a man in the audience “silly-walked” back to his seat.
Students may not have been the majority demographic in the audience, but those who did attend the performance were entertained.
Senior James Harrison said he thinks Cleese has a fast wit.
“I’m just a big John Cleese fan in general,” Harrison said. “He’s still the same. I don’t even need him to make any jokes, I just needed to see him.”
Robin can be reached at
opinioneditor@theorion.com
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