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Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian (2008)

par Kim "Howard" Johnson

Autres auteurs: John Cleese (Avant-propos), Terry Gilliam (Avant-propos), Eric Idle (Avant-propos), Terry Jones (Avant-propos), Michael Palin (Avant-propos)

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Biography & Autobiography. Performing Arts. Nonfiction. In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus-Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends. He also kept a detailed journal of what he saw and heard, on set and off, throughout those six weeks. The result is a unique eyewitness account that reveals the Pythons at work and at play in a way that nothing else written about them could do. Now, for the first time ever, the inside story of the making of the film is revealed through the fly-on-the-castle-wall perspective. Even the most diehard fans will get a fresh take on the comedy greats through some never-before-revealed nuggets of Python brilliance: what John Cleese offered to exchange for suntan lotion; Terry Jones directing in drag; Michael Palin's secret to playing revolutionaries and peasants; Graham Chapman gets naked; Terry Gilliam gets filthy; Eric Idle haggles; the secret of the Thespo-Squat; Mrs. Pilate; talk of George Harrison; the cake-flinging that jeopardized the production; badminton, impromptu cricket, and erotic frescoes; and the first-ever presentation of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Here, uncensored, are the legendary Pythons in their prime. It was a period of comedy history that will never be duplicated, and Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday captures the wit, the genius, and the sheer silliness of the six men that comprised Python.… (plus d'informations)
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review of
Kim "Howard" Johnson's Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 19, 2012

I stopped watching tv when I was 16, around 1969 or 1970. I still think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Monty Python's Flying Circus started broadcasting in England around the same time. I don't know when the program started being broadcast in the US but I'm sure I knew about it when it happened. Undoubtedly I witnessed bits & pieces of it here & there & found it extraordinarily funny & interesting but I STILL didn't sit there in front of the boob tube, even for programming that good. I was too busy living my life.

As the Monty Python movies came out I probably saw some of them in the movie theaters. I probably enjoyed them.. but, in the end, my own life was more interesting & I didn't exactly become addicted to them.

Recently, tho, I acquired a 6 box set of what appears to be the 1st 3 seasons (39 programs) of the tv program at a thrift store. I then made a point of checking them all out in chronological order. Mind you, this was 40 yrs later. They are BRILLIANT. I loved them. They pioneered so many formal subversions that I was astounded. They had visual black-outs - still a 'no-no' to this day, they started off their programs pretending to be other (nonexistent) programs - still a 'no-no' to this day.

I remember witnessing a few movies in the past by Python members spun off from the Python project & not being very impressed. A Fish Called Wanda, eg, struck me as mediocre. I'd decided that John Cleese wasn't really that great. Now, after 39 episodes of Python my enthusiasm for Cleese is much higher. The silly walks, alone, are comedic genius. I even checked out A Fish Called Wanda again & liked it more this time. No such luck w/ Fawlty Towers.

Finally witnessing the 39 episodes got me to listening to the records, wch I'd previously liked but not ultimately cared that much about. Even w/ all the repetition of routines of the live records, I find them utterly fantastic now. Monty Python's Flying Circus have reached the pantheon of the absurdist gods: they rank w/ Jarry, Albee, & Ionescu.

It's been a while since I've checked out Life of Brian but I remember it as being one of their best. Inspired at a level that few people are lucky enuf or talented enuf to ever approach. So here I am in Awesome Books in Pittsburgh, a bkstore I'm particularly fond of, &, Lo & Behold!, there's a hardcover bk about the making of it! This might be really interesting, right? Wrong. It was boring as heck.

I'd never heard of the author but he's touted as having written at least 3 other bks about the Pythons & others about comedians. Perhaps he's a 'successful' author who makes a living off his bks. But what he ultimately is is an uninspired & incredibly bland 'fan' whose writing has so few imaginative moments that reading the bk is like having yr blood drained from you. A colorful world goes white before yr eyes. This bk sells b/c there are people like me who love the work of the Pythons who are hungry for their special & liberating take on the world & we end up w/ this.. mediocrity.

Even the plentiful photographs reveal such a lack of "an eye" for such things that one's reminded of why most people are so boring: put the most exciting things in the world in front of them &, after they're done filtering them thru their utter lack of imagination, you get a world as bland as can be.

When I read bks, these days, I tend to write notes in pencil in the front of things that I'll want to refer to in my review. Sometimes I wrote nothing b/c I know that I won't need to refer to notes in the review. Sometimes I write an enormous amt & I'm overwhelmed by how specific I want to be - knowing that I'm creating a huge job for myself. In the case of Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday, I wrote 2 notes:

"53 Arabic nonsense phrase":

John Cleese tries to learn "I can kill bats with an egg spoon" in Arabic. This produces something like "Neshum noctul edebeya dim rafa ita cauwa".

"78 good line":

"Today was also Graham's nude scene. He was a bit apprehensive about it, as it involved standing completely naked in front of nearly two hundred people. Before the filming began, a couple of older Thomson's ladies were walking around the dressing caravans, apparently looking for autographs. They stuck their heads into Graham's quarters, only to find him standing there stark naked. Both of the women grew pale and were completely at a loss.

""It's all right, I'm a doctor," Graham reassured them."

& that's about all I got out of this bk, folks. The 'moral'? Maybe Kim "Howard" Johnson shd've given up watching tv too. He might've grown up to be a person who lived his life instead of blandly standing on the sidelines watching others do so.

Oh, yes, there's the possibility that the author is fictitious. On the back cover, there's the following bit from Python Eric Idle:

""Kim 'Howard' Johnson was invented by Graham Chapman during an idle moment on the set of Life of Brian. 'Let's invent a person," he said. 'An American fan from the Midwest,' chimed in Michael Palin, 'who keeps a daily diary of Python filming. And then doesn't publish it for years and years.' How we laughed, and each day we'd make up stuff this 'person' would write about us.""

As far as I can tell from a very superficial web-surf he doesn't appear to be a fictional creation of Monty Python. If he were, that wd be alot funnier to me but I doubt that the Pythons cd write a bk this boring - even as a joke. But, of course, I cd be wrong. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
Once upon a time, it was possible to take part in a Monty Python work, simply by being a fan and striking up a conversation with one of the troupe. The author recounts his being invited along as photographer when the group filmed the Life of Brian on location. The author, in journal excerpts he kept at the time, describes the filming of various scenes, and his occasional appearance as an extra. Not a lot of laugh out loud humor, but good stories from someone inside the troupe. ( )
  NoTalentHack | Nov 19, 2016 |
When it takes thirty years for a book to be published, one of two things can be true. It might be that the author is a perfectionist, unwilling to allow the document to leave his hand for fear that some minor mistake might slip through. Or, the manuscript may have been shoved to the back of the drawer, only to be dusted off three decades later and published as is.

Sadly, the second appears to have been true with Tunisian Holiday. This chronicle of the filming of The Life of Brian may be of interest to rabid fans of Monty Python, but if so, it will be the content, rather than the writing, that carries them through.

The book was written by a man who was himself a rabid fan, an American who kept alive a fan community in the US in the days before the internet made that proposition simple. By dint of his efforts, he received an invitation to accompany Monty Python to Tunisia for the filming of The Life of Brian. There, he befriended the cast and served as an extra in the film for a period of about a month.

The book appears to be based very heavily on the notes and journal kept by the author on a daily basis. There are variations in tense and tone that prevent the story from forming into a cohesive whole. Other than the Pythons themselves, whose names would be well known to the reader, the personalities tended to blend together. No doubt each was well known to the author, who lived with them day by day, but no real effort was made to make them distinct to the reader.

There is a tone of effusion throughout, full of giddy incredulity at the prospect of meeting and working with the author’s heroes. Although it is moderated in later chapters, the feeling never quite goes away that Mr. Johnson was walking among giants, and knew it. We get very little introduction to the scores of other individuals who went to making the film possible. When the crew intrude into the story, they generally went unnamed; mostly, they were ignored.

The author did not accompany the Pythons through all of the filming, and as a result, the story kind of peters out at the end, with a feeling of incompletion. We do get an epilogue dealing with the reaction to the film, and its legacy, but this is the only attempt to bring the story into a modern context.

For fans of Monty Python who would like to vicariously experience the filming of a Monty Python movie, there is much to enjoy. More casual fans might be better served by simply watching the film with commentary turned on. ( )
  shabacus | Jan 10, 2012 |
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Nom de l'auteurRôleType d'auteurŒuvre ?Statut
Kim "Howard" Johnsonauteur principaltoutes les éditionscalculé
Cleese, JohnAvant-proposauteur secondairetoutes les éditionsconfirmé
Gilliam, TerryAvant-proposauteur secondairetoutes les éditionsconfirmé
Idle, EricAvant-proposauteur secondairetoutes les éditionsconfirmé
Jones, TerryAvant-proposauteur secondairetoutes les éditionsconfirmé
Palin, MichaelAvant-proposauteur secondairetoutes les éditionsconfirmé
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Biography & Autobiography. Performing Arts. Nonfiction. In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus-Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends. He also kept a detailed journal of what he saw and heard, on set and off, throughout those six weeks. The result is a unique eyewitness account that reveals the Pythons at work and at play in a way that nothing else written about them could do. Now, for the first time ever, the inside story of the making of the film is revealed through the fly-on-the-castle-wall perspective. Even the most diehard fans will get a fresh take on the comedy greats through some never-before-revealed nuggets of Python brilliance: what John Cleese offered to exchange for suntan lotion; Terry Jones directing in drag; Michael Palin's secret to playing revolutionaries and peasants; Graham Chapman gets naked; Terry Gilliam gets filthy; Eric Idle haggles; the secret of the Thespo-Squat; Mrs. Pilate; talk of George Harrison; the cake-flinging that jeopardized the production; badminton, impromptu cricket, and erotic frescoes; and the first-ever presentation of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Here, uncensored, are the legendary Pythons in their prime. It was a period of comedy history that will never be duplicated, and Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday captures the wit, the genius, and the sheer silliness of the six men that comprised Python.

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