-This is very exciting.
You're traveling around with "Monty Python
and the Holy Grail," a personal favorite of mine. And so people
love this movie now. It was not a joy to make,
though. Is that accurate? -Oh, it was miserable.
[ Laughter ] It was Scotland in April, and the weather in Scotland
is really bad except for two weeks
in September. -Yeah.
-And we were just miserable. We were wet. We got on the mountainside with that strange chainmail
with knitted string. And after about 10 minutes,
it would start to rain, and we could afford
about three umbrellas. I mean,
the film was made for $400,000. -That's crazy.
-Crazy. -I mean, the interesting thing
is it looks beautiful because Scotland looks old. So it looks accurate
to what you were doing. -And the castle -- we were only allowed to film in
this one castle, Doune Castle. And we tried to film
everywhere else. They said, "Oh, no, you can't
have comedy here. There's real history here.
You can't do comedy." It is now a tourist spot.
-Really? The actual Monty Python? -Doune Castle,
the actual Monty Python, attracts tourists
from all over the world. -That's so funny. And you did have to come up with
some inventive things that people probably credited as
comedy writing, but were actually done out of
necessity for your budget. Like the actual coconuts
for the horses. -Yeah. -You guys couldn't afford
horses. Is that true? -No, no, that's --
[ Laughter ] That is why Michael Palin,
bless him, came up with the idea
of the coconuts, you see. -That's so funny.
-You know it is that -- Necessity is
the mother of invention. Sometimes you don't have much
and you have to improvise. That's sometimes when the very
best ideas come through. -Did you ever --
So, "Monty Python," you made that for $400,000, that was your first one
of your movies. Yes?
-Yes. -Did they start giving you more
money for the other movies or were they always shoestring? -Well, then after that,
we did "Life of Brian," and this extraordinary --
[ Applause ] -Yeah, please.
-Thank you. This is an extraordinary story. We couldn't get anyone
to give us ££2 million to make "Life of Brian." You know, it took a fortune.
-Yeah. -We couldn't get anyone. And we went 'round to England
and then we came to the studios here in Hollywood and New York, and nobody was prepared
to put the money up. -Was it because they didn't --
But was it because about the -- that it was about religion, or just they didn't think
it would work? -Well, I don't think that
at that point that was so much of a problem.
-Oh, funny. -But then the most extraordinary
thing is, Eric Idle rang us all up. I'd already made arrangements
to do a movie in Vienna with Peter Sellers because I thought it wasn't
going to happen. -Yeah. -And Eric said,
"The movie is on." And we said, "W-W-Why?" And he said, "George Harrison is
putting the money up." -Wow! -He knew George --
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah. He knew George. He gave George the script, and
George rang him up the next day and said
"I'm putting the money up." [ Laughter ] And Eric said, "What are you
talking about?" He said,
"I'll put the money up." -That's amazing.
-And Eric said, "Why?" And dear George said,
"I want to see the movie." [ Laughter ] Isn't that amazing?
[ Applause ] -That's fantastic.
-I know. So I mean -- you know, I think it's the best film
Python ever made. -Wouldn't have been made if it
wasn't for George Harrison. -Yeah, oh, my goodness.
God bless is right. [ Cheers and applause ] You do a Q&A
when you show this film. -Oh, yes. -And what sort of questions do
people ask you? -That's what I love,
is you don't know. You see, when you do
your one-man show you say pretty much the same as
you said the previous night. And if it's a great audience
you have a good time, and if it's a slow audience
like El Paso -- hint, hint -- [ Laughter ] You wonder at the end whether
they're going to kill you. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -And they're very nice
and they clap. So that was their way of
enjoying it. -Yes. I do like -- It's nice to engage
with people. Do you do your Q&A
at the end or -- -Yes. I do it at the end. You never know
what they're gonna ask. I mean, when I was doing it
with Eric a couple of years ago, one -- one quite young, very
attractive woman said to Eric, "What is your favorite
sexual position?" [ Laughter ] I thought, "How is he going to
get out of that?" And without batting an eyelid, Eric said,
"Oh, the male marital position. That's the man flat on his back
with his wallet wide open." [ Laughter and applause ] But the strangest one, I mean
the one that totally broke me up was in -- It was in Florida, and a lady, rather smartly
dressed, middle-aged lady, but very smart, got up and said, "Mr. Idle, Mr. Cleese, may I ask
you a serious question?" "Of course." She said,
"Did the Queen kill Diana?" [ Laughter ] [ Laughter ] 2,000 people there all went...
[ Gasps ] [ Laughter ] And I was the only
one laughing. You know, I was floored. In the end, I had time to think
and I said, "Well, certainly not with
her bare hands." [ Laughter ] But it's great when you don't
know what's going to happen. I love that. -You also -- Every now and then somebody will walk out
of your show. -Oh, yeah.
-And you celebrate that. -Well, I think it's very brave.
-Yeah. -You know?
Because after all, most -- [ Laughs ] Most Python fans
aren't Trump fans. Let's face it.
-Yeah. That's true.
There's not a lot of -- [ Cheers and applause ] -And if I --
if I do a Trump joke, sometimes you can see
somebody go... and they get up and they
walk out to the aisle. And I say,
"Was it the Trump joke?" And sometimes they say "Yes!"
or sometimes they go... [ Laughter ]
And I think that's great. I say, "Please,
a round of applause for this very,
very brave person." And they get
a nice round of applause. -Oh, that's nice.
-Yeah, it's nice. -You just don't let that catch
on or else people are gonna just start leaving just for the
applause, you know. You don't want that getting out.
-True. -It's always such a pleasure to
see you. Thank you so much
for coming back. -Thank you for having me.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Come soon.
Don't stay away this long.
I’m sure it’s stated in earlier postings, but on IMDb in the trivia section where they reference this they also say the Monty Python guys used to say “it’s the most expensive movie ticket ever”, as George a Harrison had been quoted saying he funded the film merely because he “wanted to watch it”.
Didn’t you learn this when it was posted a week or so back ?
Just search "Life of Brian" in TIL.