John Cleese Why There Is No Hope Review
Review: John Cleese melds sense of humor with hopelessness at Jubilee Auditorium
"Is there any promise for the planet coming from bright people?" Cleese asked near the end of his monologue, only to supply the answer, "no".
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As a younger human being I was what y'all might call a "drinking glass half-total" kind of guy. And then I spent 30-plus years working in the media. Despite many positive experiences and meeting many fascinating people, it's hard to do that without getting a touch of cynicism.
And then when I was offered the chance to accept in an evening with actor-comedian-author-and all round master of hilarity John Cleese, an evening titled, "Why There Is No Hope" — well who could resist?
Who better to lead you downwardly the path to real hopelessness than the inventor of the giddy walk. This is a man so gifted at one-act that he was able to utilise the almost intricate concrete moves — a twitching eyebrow for instance, not to mention the light-headed walk — and to balance that out with thoughtful applesauce, with intellectual heft. This is the man who created a skit about arguing for a living.
Cleese is a complete comedian.
Merely Cleese on tour over again? This is the man whose concluding tour was dubbed The Last Fourth dimension To See Me Earlier I Die. Alas, Cleese apparently wants to buy another business firm somewhere warm and then, sellout crowds fill out halls like the Jubilee Auditorium equally it was Monday, ready and willing to enable his needs. Hopefully this testify helped to underwrite the cost of his new entrance hall or something.
If Cleese hadn't already been built-in, then somebody would have had to invent him. But he saved usa the trouble, adding richly to that particular storehouse of humour that feels quintessentially British in groundbreaking television like Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, and the 1988 movie A Fish Called Wanda, along with a few other memorable Python films.
His notoriously alpine stature was all the more than impressive as he stood behind a speaker's pedestal that looked sort of like a short porta-potty.
In his introduction Cleese reminded us that all three of those major successes had initially been turned downward by production heads at places similar the BBC. It wasn't self-flattery, though he did enjoy the rounds of adulation he got only for mentioning those titles.
Those experiences with the "skillful'due south" colossal errors in judgment were all further evidence for Cleese's argument about Why There Is No Hope. Information technology's all tied to the Dunning-Kruger Corollary, a scientific study that basically suggested the stupidest people are unaware of how stupid they are, that their level of confidence actually encourages them to show the remainder of us.
Suffice to say, Cleese made a very convincing argument and provided lots of evidence, frequently direct from his firsthand experiences in hotels across the planet (fifty-fifty 1 local luxury hotel). He convinced me that lots of the stupidity out there is tied to greedy power-mongers. It's an inherently human thing (apparently) to shore up one'south insecure ego past doing stupid things and trying to convince the rest of u.s.a. that you lot're smart. Remind you of anyone in a position of power?
"Is there any hope for the planet coming from bright people?" Cleese asked near the finish of his monologue, only to supply the respond, "no." Could there be any promise from then-chosen millennials? Cypher. It has something to do with their not-existent attention span and addiction to social media.
Or so says Cleese.
All this took the showtime half of the show before my gracious Journal colleague Fish Griwkowsky came out to facilitate the second one-half, a Q&A session with queries supplied alive from social media.
After some bits about fish — Cleese nicknamed his married woman Fish and he likes eating the creatures — we learned that in fact at that place is hope for certain parts of the world.
Canada is i of those parts!
Ha! Only the smart sometime tourista engaging the locals with compliments, you might say. Merely the man sounded sincere, and I so desperately wanted to believe him.
Further wisdom from the main of airheaded walks: don't get married, and don't have children. Cats are and so much better, much better than dogs (Cleese and his 2d wife take four cats). And he had positive things to say virtually former age too: "Y'all'll be dead soon so don't give a f— almost anything."
There was one unexpected admission, that he believes there is life later expiry for some people. Equally for trying to continue a humour, Cleese suggests watching White House aids like Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway.
Equally he heads towards his 80th birthday the man'southward finest moments may exist electronic artifacts of the last century, but Cleese stays busy with these humourous talks and that's only fine.
To the voice in the crowd (after the prove) who said, "he's an quondam guy who says f— a lot," I would remind you lot that Cleese only used curse words virtually eight times in ninety packed minutes. It was how he used them that made you remember. Another patron claimed he "was funnier last time around." Possibly (I wasn't there last fourth dimension), just I can't imagine that his talk was any better argued.
And that's one thing we demand in these hopeless times, right?
REVIEW
John Cleese
Where: Jubilee Auditorium
When: Monday, May 27
Source: https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/theatre/review-john-cleese-melds-humour-with-hopelessness-at-jubilee-auditorium
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