Monty Python's Flying Circus: Live at Aspen

This stage production is a must see for any Monty Python fan. We the all the Python Cast , including Graham Chapmans ashes,on stage talking about how they all started and about the famous sketches and films and we see lots of clips of the show and films.What is great is that they all seem to get on with each other and enjoy reminissing .There are some very funny moments involving the Late Graham Chapman and the exeptance speech from John Cleese at the end had me laughing. The audiance seem to be celebrities. I bet they paid a lot of money for the privilage. 8 out of 10.

Robert Klein is the host for this reunion in Aspen. It is the guys sitting on stage and talking. There are plenty of greatest hit clips from the show and movies. John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin are brought in. They kick out Eddie Izzard and bring in the ashes of Graham Chapman.

Normally, I downgrade a clip show, but there is no way I would do that for Monty Python. The clips are simply superior. The boys have some good stories. For newcomers, this is a solid introduction although I don't know any newcomers. For old-timers, this is a nice time with friends.

This special appeared in the 90's on HBO, if memory serves, and at the time I didn't care much to watch it (mostly due to how I wasn't a Python fan at the time). But I got to see it finally as part of a Live Python DVD set, and while it wasn't great, it was good to see the five (err, six of them) back in action. Robert Klein hosted, with Eddie Izzard appearing in a bizarre cameo at the start of the show (I wonder if the audience, many celebrities, knew who he was at the time), and it was really half clips from the show and films (sans Life of Brian) and half recollections. The clips are fairly standard, although for myself having barely dipped toes into the Flying Circus sketches it was a grand sight to see anyway. I loved how when they were asked how they got together they started all talking at once, and also the very abrupt and suddenly improv form of comedy that comes forth after Gilliam accidentally knocks over Graham's 'ashes'.

Nothing at all, as a given of course, is taken too seriously with the accounts of their histories (though Gilliam gives a cool tale of the first reception of 'Holy Grail' at the premiere), and there is a genuinely uproarious story of visiting a concentration camp during their trip to film the German sketch. In short, it's an hour long trip into the Python world as only they could tell it and show it, but one wishes it could've been longer; Klein could've asked some better questions as well. On the other hand, it is technically an awards show (another element Cleese and Idle and the other play with in their acceptance speech), so it's hard to really dig in like say the autobiography of the Pythons does. To put it another way, for a reunion show it could do a lot worse. Three cheers for Graham's ashes!

"Live at Aspen" reunites the five remaining Pythons (the sixth one, Graham Chapman, also "appears" in the form of his ashes - a gimmick that is both macabre and moving) on stage for the first time in about 16 years. But although it's included in the same DVD ("Monty Python Live!") with "Live at the Hollywood Bowl", it's not really a live show. It's more of a documentary / tribute. It's nice to see that the Pythons still haven't lost their bad taste and unpredictability, and their fans will no doubt enjoy the archival footage from their movies and TV shows. It's a nice tribute and a minor diversion, but I got the feeling it could (and should) have been a lot meatier. (**1/2)

I love Monty Python, like many Americans, but I was glad to see relative newcomer Eddie Izzard worked into the intro ('Python Imposter'). Who was it, please, who threw something at him as he was leaving the stage? Ahem! Anyway, it was a charming bit they conceived for him and I only wished there could have been more time for Eddie (it was supposed to be a retrospective for the Python Players; I know, I know...) I figured this was the reason, at least in part, that he was in Aspen in 1998 - as he mentioned in his 1998 show 'Dress to Kill'. Deductive reasoning!