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.
6 Reviews
Only wish it could've been longer
Quinoa198429 September 2005
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!
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!
Humorous
sk076624 July 2001
HBO special. Although billed as an awards ceremony, it's mostly a retrospective of their past work with a couple of great new little bits that remind the viewer that their humor, intelligence, and bad taste still haven't changed much through the years. All of the Pythons are there (including Graham Chapman in powdered form), and is MC'd by a surprisingly un-annoying Robert Klein. Memories of the group's past are interspersed with bits from the Flying Circus show and their movies (except for Life of Brian, which is curiously censored due to legal reasons), along with a couple of contrived - but funny - new bits to spice things up. We've seen most of this stuff before, but it still brings a smile to the face nonetheless. Flashes of the audience center mostly on the previous cast of Cheers (why? who knows). All in all, a funny and enjoyable way to blow an hour.
Glad to See Eddie Izzard in the Intro...
libraria27 November 2001
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!
Love Them Pythons
vox-sane15 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
First, a personal note. I was an adolescent when "Monty Python" began showing on PBS in America. I had never heard of the show but was intrigued by curious TV GUIDE entries (i.e., Karl Marx and Che Guevara on a game show). The first episode I tuned in contained the "Silly Walks" sketch. I was, understandably, a Python addict from the first, and have remained so for upwards of thirty years.
Sketch comedy had been done before. Done, in fact, to death. Pryor to Python, it had even been done lopsidedly by the likes of Spike Milligan. Yet the six incisive brains behind "Monty Python's Flying Circus" saw ways to turn every television convention on its side, on the bias, upside-down -- every which way. They worked within the formula while pushing back its barriers. The boys, without network brass peering over their shoulders, were irreverent toward any institution.
While in America new ground was broken by "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in" Great Britain was treated to the earth-moving Pythons.
Ironically, the "Monty Python" crew were so successful, they became an institution. Like most counter-culture, the team eventually defined culture. Their humor had a broad appeal. They were all extremely well educated (5 of the six at Oxford and Cambridge) and while they cracked jokes mentioning Marcel Proust, their humor rarely rose above the sophomoric or scatological. Exploding animals and sketches about "argument clinics" and restaurants that only serve Spam do not require an intellectual quotient as high as the highbrows seem to think.
Nor was their humor truly outrageous, in the style of Olsen and Johnson. In "Live at Aspen", the celebrity audience roundly applauds when the Pythons explain how and why they were -- early on -- left alone by the suits at the network. But their material was always well written and meticulously threshed out. Their "freedom" still remained within the boundaries of their craftsmanship.
The Pythons were all skilled writers. Their sketches went through a careful weeding and re-writing process. Python shows were, from the beginning, carefully conceived and precisely written by professionals. That was the true reason for their success, rather than their much-advertised lunacy.
After the series ended and the team continued through the movies, while Python itself was becoming an institution, the Pythons never lost their edge. They may sometimes seem to be in a time warp -- like others who like to think themselves irreverent, they still tend to bash easy targets like the Church, despite society being largely unChurched, rather than taking on modern targets of the establishment like Global Warming.
And they were all able to parlay their success in Python into often lucrative success in subsequent endeavors -- John Cleese had tremendous success and lots of money in his acting and training films; Terry Gilliam leapt from the animation that gave Python its unique "look" to making movies of rare and individual brilliance; Michael Palin became the BBC's resident globe-trotter. But despite their individual successes, they were still "Python" -- as Eric Idle seemed to realize when he brought forth the popular stage-musical "Spamalot." Like it or not, once a Python, always a Python.
"Live at Aspen" is a group interview (conducted by comic Robert Klein) of the surviving Pythons before a live audience. "Aspen" masquerades as five wealthy, successful older men gathering to recount stories of their glory days (as in their sketch of the Four Yorkshiremen "We were so poor" sketch). The Pythons themselves are worth hearing. They have retained their irreverent edge, as personified by an infamous episode concerning the ashes of the late Graham Chapman.
The problem with the show is that it seems a little too canned -- and not just Graham Chapman. Klein's interview questions are often culled from the Python website, and most of them are softballs. The audience itself is comprised largely of actors, so the laughter is probably about as spontaneous as you'd see on a Dean Martin celebrity roast. And all the Pythons get a fair opportunity to speak -- which probably wouldn't happen if it was impromptu.
There's nothing new here for the long-term Python fan. But the group still manages some laughs, and one is left with the feeling that even at the geriatric stage, if they could get past tilting at the windmills of their society of forty or even fifty years ago, they could still put together a project that would best whatever else is out there.
Sketch comedy had been done before. Done, in fact, to death. Pryor to Python, it had even been done lopsidedly by the likes of Spike Milligan. Yet the six incisive brains behind "Monty Python's Flying Circus" saw ways to turn every television convention on its side, on the bias, upside-down -- every which way. They worked within the formula while pushing back its barriers. The boys, without network brass peering over their shoulders, were irreverent toward any institution.
While in America new ground was broken by "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in" Great Britain was treated to the earth-moving Pythons.
Ironically, the "Monty Python" crew were so successful, they became an institution. Like most counter-culture, the team eventually defined culture. Their humor had a broad appeal. They were all extremely well educated (5 of the six at Oxford and Cambridge) and while they cracked jokes mentioning Marcel Proust, their humor rarely rose above the sophomoric or scatological. Exploding animals and sketches about "argument clinics" and restaurants that only serve Spam do not require an intellectual quotient as high as the highbrows seem to think.
Nor was their humor truly outrageous, in the style of Olsen and Johnson. In "Live at Aspen", the celebrity audience roundly applauds when the Pythons explain how and why they were -- early on -- left alone by the suits at the network. But their material was always well written and meticulously threshed out. Their "freedom" still remained within the boundaries of their craftsmanship.
The Pythons were all skilled writers. Their sketches went through a careful weeding and re-writing process. Python shows were, from the beginning, carefully conceived and precisely written by professionals. That was the true reason for their success, rather than their much-advertised lunacy.
After the series ended and the team continued through the movies, while Python itself was becoming an institution, the Pythons never lost their edge. They may sometimes seem to be in a time warp -- like others who like to think themselves irreverent, they still tend to bash easy targets like the Church, despite society being largely unChurched, rather than taking on modern targets of the establishment like Global Warming.
And they were all able to parlay their success in Python into often lucrative success in subsequent endeavors -- John Cleese had tremendous success and lots of money in his acting and training films; Terry Gilliam leapt from the animation that gave Python its unique "look" to making movies of rare and individual brilliance; Michael Palin became the BBC's resident globe-trotter. But despite their individual successes, they were still "Python" -- as Eric Idle seemed to realize when he brought forth the popular stage-musical "Spamalot." Like it or not, once a Python, always a Python.
"Live at Aspen" is a group interview (conducted by comic Robert Klein) of the surviving Pythons before a live audience. "Aspen" masquerades as five wealthy, successful older men gathering to recount stories of their glory days (as in their sketch of the Four Yorkshiremen "We were so poor" sketch). The Pythons themselves are worth hearing. They have retained their irreverent edge, as personified by an infamous episode concerning the ashes of the late Graham Chapman.
The problem with the show is that it seems a little too canned -- and not just Graham Chapman. Klein's interview questions are often culled from the Python website, and most of them are softballs. The audience itself is comprised largely of actors, so the laughter is probably about as spontaneous as you'd see on a Dean Martin celebrity roast. And all the Pythons get a fair opportunity to speak -- which probably wouldn't happen if it was impromptu.
There's nothing new here for the long-term Python fan. But the group still manages some laughs, and one is left with the feeling that even at the geriatric stage, if they could get past tilting at the windmills of their society of forty or even fifty years ago, they could still put together a project that would best whatever else is out there.
Slight
gridoon9 July 2005
"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)
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
