Michael Palin (Python and travel documentarian) Q&A with students in Dublin

ah water Oh iced water Cheers thank you all lovely audience yes okay that's all right back to anybody well it's good question I mean it well you can hear me can you hear me you're probably it was quite competitive that's a very good point I mean we actually got on very well but we got on well because we would make each other laugh but was definitely a sort of feeling that everyone had to get their bit in and you got to fight for your own bit of material what we didn't do was write the whole of Monty Python together all six of us we'd be separate writing groups John would write with Graham Chapman because that's the way they'd always done it I wrote with chariot as I told you that's we were right together Eric wrote on his own and so what would happen is after a few days we bring in all our kind of material and read it out and that was a very key time as to you know how it was read and how it would be received and that was quite competitive but I mean the great thing about laughter is it's not something you can fake and it's something works it really works it was some of the some times there were things that were sort of gold dust we just put them on the first pile that's that's that's fine there are other things that sort of just didn't quite work but what would happen was the other two of the other writers would take it over and try and do it like I think Silly Walks was actually written by myself and Terry to start with and then John and Graham in the end or the other way around a and then there was a final pile of sketches we just you know never quite made it and but to be quite a fight for those people would fight and say no this really is punic Terry was really funny and say it's not something you can fake if it wasn't funny it wasn't funny the more indignant he got that became quite funny so occasionally you've got the two extremes of Terry being welcomed very passionate would get very excited about things and John being very English and sort of cutting and sardonic words just stoked area completely and the quiet down after a bit when Terry threw it right at it kept in quiet for bit but no it was it was actually a very it was a great experience the writing it really was and we all we all knew I mean was going to be fun to act it but that just a group of us together reading all the material adding bits all the linking stuff was usually done in a group was was very very productive very exciting so I read as a child viewer in other trainspotters do you think that this was a later hint to your later career in being a travel document documentarian well I mean possibly it was really I like to think that the Trainspotting was a sort of siding in my life and sure when I use a railway expression rather than the main line it was a combination of two things really it was one because my sort of anal neatness and with love keeping lists and all that sort of thing and Trainspotting is about lists it's about underlining the Train you've just seen the engine you've just seen or but also its to do with them I mean I was born abroad at my Sheffield and I never thought I'd go anywhere else in the world really people didn't go very far from Sheffield and one of the things I would do my sister's ten years old me worked in London and she we used to go to London on the train and it was very exciting to go down to the station and the Thames Clyde Express would come in have her coming all the way from Glasgow to through Sheffield and down to San Congress to but four days but anyway it was just exciting in these places your Glasgow Carlisle you know everything else will settle all these names on it I thought this is wonderful so that appealed I think to my to a very very early sort of need to travel and know about places that weren't Sheffield so I think it was a combination of the two the trek the Trainspotting and in the end I still do keep this I'm quite anally retentive and I do absolutely love travelling still so yeah it's I think you've got a key thing that Freudian sort of version of other people that sex me it was railway and I suppose the next question is sewer travels after all of your documentaries and traveling all around the world do you feel like your life perspective had changed well I think I've been really really lucky to go to the places I've been to and to travel in the way I've been able to travel just not in a tour group but the very tight schedule all games the market on the same day or whatever anything was that to be actually there to try and produce a report really bring bring and just the five of us five others in the team it's a great way to see the world and you get access to places you would not normally go to and also because you know it's you've got to fill the program out we work every day you know you've got a there's not a day we still stay in bed today and we just have a meal you've got to go out there and you've got to get the material so I feel enormous leap privilege to have be able to do that and do it for a nine Series I think what it does it just gives you a worldview that's all it makes you far I bet it makes you realize how small your own little world is and you live in London you turn think it's the center of the earth other people tend to the center of the earth as soon as you go away you realize there are lots of people out there and then what's going on don't care what's going in the pond in London or New York or Paris or anywhere else I mean now is in in place called Agadez which is in Neesha as pretty much as a remoter places you get and these years I think was about two or three about second or third poorest country in the world and we got there and we heard about 9/11 and attack on the Twin Towers it was almost inconceivable but we didn't we all desperately on the roof trying to get connections back to London and find out what had happened and the next morning yeah I got up and I felt the world had changed totally and I walked out in the street and of course these people they weren't they haven't heard anything any news about it at all they don't really care they were just you know the same as they were the day before and so you realise that there was a global perspective which is interesting and I think it's important to see things from other people be able to see things from other people's points of view very very important exactly hassle on lot of the trouble moment in the world is that people get worried about that kind of freedom of information they get worried about sort of the choices the differences and they just want everything to be the same as they want it to be in that that's where we getting real problems at the moment so I think I think people know a lot more about the world now than they used to and I certainly do and I feel better for it so I read that when we were doing now I think it was in Sheffield that you could never sort of tell your presidency felt that you were doing TV so I'm just wondering how did you actually break it to them or how did they find out ah well when I left the university I you know my father really wanted me to go into one of the professions or at least make some money because he hadn't got much money he didn't have any money to pay for me either and I really wanted to go into as I said into writing on and possibly performing on television but the first job I got so I left Oxford University with a second class honours degree was to be a compare on a pop show called now exclamation mark which produced by local television in Bristol and you know it was a very underfinanced pop show but you'd get occasional good guests we couldn't get Beatles or the stones but you get the yardbirds and people like that and Eric Clapton people like that and Engelbert Humperdinck oh yes those are the days and that's what I was doing and I but I would go up there and for a day's work I'd be paid 35 pounds which was a lot of money then and so I've been yet I couldn't tell my parents that this was what I was doing I just said I'm working in television I didn't like to tell them that I was humiliating myself doing ghastly badly written sketches before introducing Patti LaBelle in their bells so I just kept quiet and but then the frost report thing was easier because that was BBC and also my parents wouldn't have seen now because it wasn't broadcast in East Anglia fact so I was just everything I was working in television and they thought it was the first report but I could never have you know I could never have kept going on the money we got from the frost report I could never got married I've got a car and all those other things so now despised and scorned though it was actually helped me for about six months to make enough money to say well I got married in 66 and then now it was it was never a big ratings hit but it became then after about six months and that was the end of it but I'm deeply grateful to being asked to be on that it's saved and saved my bacon the time enabled me as I say to tell my parents I was working in television do you have a proudest moment in your life and if you do what is that proudest moment so very big how this moment ah that's very very difficult it's very difficult well yeah this award this award apart I would say it's probably family things it's like having your first child or oh your second child or do the third yeah so a bit of that but well you know what's like then but in terms of work and all that I am it's it's really hard to tell I think I think it was I'll give you one instance where I just was so surprised about the fourth series we made was called Sahara and I can remember it was a hard sell to the BBC understandably so you know whole series about sand and all that but we had a very good guy called Peter salmon who I was the BBC and he just said I think you could make it work all right I'll accept your premise that there is more to the Sahara than you can see it was on the old trading routes and all that there must be a lot more jog rafi lot more interest and a lot more history and I thought well God you know we we set off and there was a lot of sand and I thought oh dear have we blown this and it was very different from pole to pole the witness seen so many people it's different from 80 days there was no time constraint and I just remember being upstairs at my desk the night after it had gone out and you're always a bit sort of nervous then and was anybody watching at all and not the old fax machine so cluttered through this bit of paper came through and it said congratulations first episode watched by 8.4 million people and that was just a great moment because I was so pleased for all the team you know it was a hard thing to do it was a hard sell but the fact we've managed to interest people you know in in in sand dunes and and all that sort of stuff I mean wasn't a lot more to it but the fact that we we pulled that one off as well I have this very proud moment I always felt great that countries like we went to place like Mauritania which I barely knew where it was I mean you know that was on the second episode and that got about 8 million people so I think to get to get that many people curious about parts of the world they knew nothing of was was quite an achievement of what what proud about that so my last question that is what's got to be particularly proud of well I call that fish slapping downs that's I always say that's my favorite because it's there's no way you can rather criticise that you either like it or you don't because it would have been better with different sized fish or whatever I mean just is what it is and it was sort of made out rather at the last minute and what I like about it is it is very very short but it's sort of it just builds up very nicely within that and there's one particular bit where well several sections to it I'm not gonna get Bo online seminar but first of all the little fish that I slap John with I mean it was very good casting that because I know that John doesn't like to be slapped with fish or product or in any shape or form so as I was doing it I knew I was making him a bit ratty even though he was doing it for money indicating pay for it so that was a nice moment but then he did a brilliant thing where he gets the big fish out instead of just hitting me with it he does a very military sort of aiming which is just a wonderful thing and there's a little pause then he gets whack and I just think there are moments like that there were pages and pages of writing that just something spot-on and dear Ronnie Corbett who died you know recently was that the absolute master of comic timing and we could just make anything funny just by putting the right paws in at the right moment maybe I'll stand there to make sure we don't miss money ok yes well maybe I'll stand I'll just generally move around well the reason I always say no because if you know if you haven't actually made your plans then what you're going to get is about 500 letters the next day saying why don't you go Sam said why yes that's rather private I'd have been ready bloody adventures cor blimey no my wife is very you see in my seeing as much of the world as possible that's a fair point you never discouraged me from going mad she bought maps and things like that analysis that at the moment all I can say is that I would still like to travel again now if people use this word the landscape of television has changed them in the BBC no longer Commission nor does anybody a part series like we used to do I mean I think full circle around the Pacific was ten episodes and I think it built rather well that was part of it but for some reason now they're very nervous of long series being commissioned so for is about the maximum and I think it's a shame but anyway so and they're also I'm very much aware that there are some very good other people making programs at the moment other people are travelling and lots lots of people have done travel documentaries since you know joanna lumley and Stephen Fry and and and lots of people saying it in the end you've got to find make sure that the way you're doing it is fresh is different it's not just doing exactly the same as before so the I mean the inclination is still there and it's just got a click with a way of presenting a show and way of doing something that will be as striking as the ones we've done before and there is that mean there is a a proposal at the moment to go and do something which I won't tell you about now because it may may be completely the last you'll hear of it but we're going to see the BBC on Monday and that might turn out to be the next series and it would be over before episodes so I'm quite keen to go but there's also a couple of films parts I've been offered and they've got to think they actually happen that I won't have time to do the travel but they don't have that and do the travel so that that's where we are at the moment bit of a win well yeah I think I can't I just be in homeroom Oh actually not in the end I mean what happened with the with the reunion show was that I mean we've had many attempts at reunions in the past it's never quite worked out there was something in Las Vegas Rosalina's Vegas in 1998 and I was and I think Terry Gilliam both against that partly because it was quite soon it was less than ten years after Graham's death and it seemed not to do Python reunion without Graham as I said Python was a really self-contained unit we all needed each other absolutely writing and performing and also didn't feel Las Vegas particularly the place to do to do a Python reunion but it was sort of ticked over the idea was there it was somewhere in our subconscious but what happened was we had a court case against a man called not for Stata who was one of the producers of the Holy Grail and it was all to do with a share of marketing revenue from Spamalot it was quite an obscure thing but we went to court over it and we won on two points and lost on another but going to court whether you win or lose is very very expensive and we had a barrister life so python was actually a bit short of money and we had we hadn't been terribly well managed for a while there was just nothing in the coffers and we got new manager a guy called Jim Beach Jim was a friend of Eric's from from Cambridge and he's also he's the manager of Queens he knows how to make money and knows how to keep things turning over and he just we sat down and he said well you know if you want to make clear your debts and make some money from all this all you do is a couple of nights at the at the o2 I just have a lot you know the o2 I mean the pop group play that pop stars play there and all that sort of thing you said yeah we fill the old so he said well you could certainly do a couple of nights so we all something all right well okay so the decision was taken within seconds nobody said no because I think we had confidence that Jim wouldn't have said this unless he felt it could happen of course in the end once he started to so they put the tickets on sale five shows were just sold out straight away and we then did another five so we did ten altogether far more than we intended to do but once the ball had started rolling it was you know it's quite difficult along the way deciding what was going to be in the show how it was going to be produced where you would you have to answers would you have music how big a set all that sort of thing but it all fell into place and one of the key things was that we had a big screen on which we could show for the first time because the technology was so good all sorts of clips and lots of grams stuff and animation all that so Graham was very much integrated into the show which I covered a lot of my concerns and it was I suppose we were a little bit worried about what it would be like when we actually got out there but it was the atmosphere absolutely extraordinary just such a wave of sort of emotion kind of and love and all that sort crap as we got out and you could just feel it then we just felt all we've got to do is just stand there my German gods stand that we also got to be really good at what we're doing to live up to it but you just felt you were amongst a lot of people are very pleased that you were there and so the the 10 shows we all survived pretty well I mean everybody slightly creaky an old doddery all got a kind of boost from the from the reaction which lasted through the 10:00 show so it was a very enjoyable great was very young me yeah was he young me 70 years ago I would give my essentially because I was quite you know quite shy at school that wasn't yeah wasn't one of the ones that put their hand up the nudity again and and yet I really enjoyed acting you know I enjoyed playing other people other characters but I suppose this happens a lot a lot of actors are quite quiet people and I just remember I would go to movies and I guess wanted I would I would watch whatever it was a mile and Brando or a Western or or whatever and want to be one of the people in that movie and I was for at least an hour or an hour and a half afterwards I was that person in that movie you know if they were dangerous I'd be dangerous if there was sort of you know and swaggering of swagger a bit I just would love to be in that sitting i remember thinking god what a great job that must be you know to be a lot of scream that big you know and doing all this stuff and how it'll never ever ever happens it doesn't happen to people Lula Sheffield if they doesn't after shyboys a live in Sheffield so I suppose I might my young self would be pretty amazed to you know see me standing up here now in front of everybody else and talking about myself but also acting on the big screen and all that I mean it's it's an I just something I didn't ever ever expect but I don't I don't see that I'm a different person see I'm still the same person but I'd rather feel I've got away with it you know but someone's gonna suddenly come along and say excuse me Palin shyboys from Sheffield what do you do that yeah Hollywood off Sudan Thank You mr. Brando oh yeah I mean I would sort of encourage any young writer to try and sort of just be brave about what you want to write don't try and just fit in with the way you think things ought to be I mean that that's a course you can do that but I don't you'll never really discover how good you are unless you write something distinctively your own and the other thing I would say it's just it's very good to write in partnership again I was a little bit sort of I what I was I wasn't too pushy when I was a writer and I needed somebody like Skye at Oxford who said no no you can write you can do this yeah and and we collaborated together and a collaboration of any kind having a writing partner I found really really useful and just keep going at it as you can don't give up straight away it's hot it's hard and if you can act your own material then that that kind of helps I think it observe you know how these things came out of the machine that goes Bing and all that they just they come actually from situations there's usually a bit of context with it it's not just let's have a joke about a machine that goes ping that was really to do a Graham Chapman was a doctor and he was aware that that medicine was becoming very very high-tech and instead of human beings being around the body discussing it there were lots of machines and he didn't think that was a necessarily a very good thing so it was about the whole idea of machines being around the body and there they all got being at some point with a new being I mean we kind of used to it now so that was that was that and there was a rather nice here talking about things working out in a way that you'd never ever expected and also talking about my my own point about observing people especially at school we had a a teacher at a shows preschool and I was in the sixth form and he was very nice man called mr. McCain Lawrence McCain and he he was used to take lessons in the history six form library which was a nice lovely room bookshelves and all that sort of thing very nice for him to be he loved libraries he loved books so you'd actually not teach us very much he'd say no just just write a bit about this or or you know look at look do do a bit of reading or something like that and he what he would do is then look at the books in the library and he used to go round and we're all very quiet so just here I mean he made this rather characteristic noise as he sort of looked for the books and he would go down he rather sort of tight trousers and quite a large no area anyway and he would go down in UTMC and I just I I thought of must remember this somebody profess of my mind and we were writing the Holy Grail and I just one night so I write about a group of very threatening very threatening evil-looking people unfortunately saying and and and we did it and I remember thinking at the time is this gonna work you know it's kind of a that's the humor here I mean it was quite funny it made me laugh anyway the time but not doing it and then of course it's now a thing that lots of people say only you know we'd love to hear you say me and I'm actually met the teacher long time after that about thirty years later met mr. McCain and he said Oh Palin was it really is it true that the night of saying you were based on me and I said nope no of course not and he said oh and what a pity so I thought they were terrific so he endorsed them as well biggest Dickerson neck I don't think so no yeah lift but yet biggest stick my biggest stickers just a silly name really a very schoolboys name that some I think it was what we wanted was somebody because Pilate you know was a very very powerful figure with a power of life or death but he couldn't pronounce his ass very well it's not like Jonathan was so in he's doing a great you know we lose water ik you know you wank tired many warm and all that they all laugh at him so that was really about authority of being laughed at they all pretended yes well well yes the crowd were laughing but the guards around they knew that their job depended on not laughing which was so lost spluttering so that's why begot we decided that his friend should have a slightly different speech problems with a lisp you know we got there cry my friend Biggus Dickus yes life with you so but originally it was again there was a point it was about Authority in the best way we felt to encounter authority was to make people laugh about it rather than sort of you know start shooting so that was the idea well there were various people you know it's hard to say I mean I I don't I wouldn't say anybody actually is to me doing what Python did and a lot of people who say what we do is a tribute to Python and all that the Saturday Night Live people and all that but I think which is great but I think that Python was a much more sort of it's a very sort of intense thing have produced an awful lot of material it had to be done in a certain way it wasn't just certain sketches or certain jokes or funny voices I mean what we used to do which I thought was some you know I like most about Python was be so much in each half-hour some of it didn't work at all but it was you know really and the fact we had Terry Gilliam doing animation I've never seen anybody bringing animation to a comedy show the way he did so I don't think there is anything quite the same that people sort of in the same spirit Vic and Bob you know did actually a lot of very pythonic stuff The Fast Show did some great you know created some great characters wonderful characters but then those characters played out each week with Python we generally used to have a different set of characters each time I think we were we were just really lucky about the time II when Python came along though it hadn't mean anything really like that at all and the 1960s have seen you know the Beatles it seen Mary in music and Mary Quant in fashion and people actually doing different things in comedy that wasn't really anything that new until until Python came along right at the end of the 60s and so we we had the field to ourselves and we did lots of different things and lots of different characters and after that was very very hard for anybody else just to do something without someone saying oh that's like Monty Python and I wasn't helpful to some very funny people I'm picked it up in abduction no it's okay we'll do it again for the car okay yes yeah thank you very much to keep happening believe it well that'd be very well packed we must be warning thank you

Channel: UCD - University College Dublin

Views: 15,414

Keywords: UCD, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, UCD - University College Dublin, myucd, ucddublin, michael palin, monty python, the knights who say ni, Ripping Yarns, Monty Python's Flying Circus, And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, John Cleese

Id: cWYqr2QSdfI

Length: 32min 36sec (1956 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2016