Monty Python

I'm a Python fanatic, make no mistake; I've memorized their albums, studied their films, scrutinized their TV series ... and for Python's three-night filmed-and-recorded stint at the Bowl, I was not alone. Dozens of Hollywood denizens entered their seats singing the "Lumberjack" song, many wore knotted Gumby hankies on their heads, and several hundred of us later raised our voices in the Philosopher's Song ("Emmanuel Kant was a real pissant ...")

Like any good rock band, the Pythons (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin) stroked their audience with familiar stuff: the Argument Clinic, the Pet Shop (received with a roar of recognition and approval, their Greatest Hit, as it were), Nudge-Nudge, the Travel Agency, the Four Yorkshiremen, all of them done handily, wittily--and almost exactly like their records and TV shows. There were a few miscued lines, and Cleese and Palin broke up unexpectedly at the end of the Pet Shop routine, but most of the evening was predictable. Their new material is certainly up to their standards, there just wasn't enough of it: a professor (Chapman) reciting the components of slapstick comedy as acted out by Gilliam, Jones and Palin, complete with a Three Stooges pine board and lots of cream pies; a filmed retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood legend, with Cleese as Ms. Hood and the rest as seedy rapists; and best of all, another filmed skit wherein the German philosophers (Hegel, Heidegger, Nietzsche, et. al.) played soccer against the Greek philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, etc.). In appropriate costumes, they dashed onto the field and fell immediately into deep personal contemplation, until Archimedes yelled "Eureka!" and scored. The Germans disputed the goal, claiming it may have existed only in the imagination ... you get the picture.

Python was assisted by Neil Innes, who did most of the musical interludes and was one of the unexpected delights of the evening; and Carol Cleveland (both are Python TV and film alumni)

With the enormous size and erratic sound of the Bowl, and with the relative paucity of new material, I kept wondering why the Pythons were doing this show. If they were indeed taping the performances for theatrical or television distribution, it seems a bit of a cheat to include so many skits that have already been seen. Much as I love this group, I was ultimately unsatisfied with the show: lots of teasing and panting, but no climax. No encore, either.