He was busy that night.
shareIt makes me sad he couldn't make it. I know we'll never get a full Python reunion, but showing up for this show would have been amazing.
Oh well, it was great even without him.
I was at this show and thought it was brilliant, but I think he was Preparing for his One man show which he was doing in Norway so as to help fund his Divorce.
shareHe was the closest to Graham Chapman, they were writing partners so it would have been very sad for him to have to reenact the old material without him. Rather than spoil the jolly good fun of that evening it was best he stayed away to keep the mood comedy rather than melancholy.
Man this bollocks is obvious do you really need to ask? These people are humans, just think how you would feel.
Now if someone could insert a joke to lighten the mood.
I missed the parrot. He didn't have any speaking lines.
"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." -Douglas Noel Adams
I don't think Cleese was sad. A few years ago there was a Python reunion at a comedy festival in, I believe, Las Vegas and all of the Pythons were there, except of course for Graham Chapman, whose ashes were brought on stage and then promtly spilled by Eric Idle. They tried to scoop the remains back into the urn but a butler type came out with a Dust Buster to clean up the mess. I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard.
shareI don't think Cleese was "sad" either.
I love Cleese, but it becomes fairly clear when you read other Python's accounts of his behavior that he was, and remains, something of a self-involved prick, often to the detriment of the whole group. I'm sure Cleese wasn't involved because there wasn't enough money in it for him to inconvenience himself.
Note this has no reflection on my regard for his comic talents, which were at one point quite high, though he seems to have been largely coasting for the last 20+ years.
I find it particularly amusing that he turned his nose up at Terry Jones and his relationship with that very young, beautiful Swedish woman (more power to you, Terry!), considering Cleese's own sordid history with women. Sadly, that seems to be quite typical of him.
There have been many instances over the years where Cleese has shown an almost phobic fear of singing in public. What's hilarious about this is that he actually did a Broadway musical before Monty Python, HALF A SIXPENCE. But as he described in his autobiography, SO ANYWAY, he was such a bad singer that he couldn't believe they hired him (they wanted him because even then his comic talent was legendary). It turns out they would hide his inability to sing by only letting him MIME singing with the chorus. He states that one time he forgot and actually tried to sing with the chorus, and was warned never to do it again.
Note that the character assassination of him by the poster above me is sheer hyperbolic speculation, and there is ample evidence that there is still a great deal of affection between him and the other Pythons. Yes, his behavior can be prickly at times, but all the Pythons have been difficult at times during their existence (except possibly Michael Palin), and the fact that Cleese doesn't always want to participate in every Python event is no justification to simply slander him personally.