November 20, 2009, 7:28pm Comments
Adam Bozarth Enjoys the Internet
Studying Abroad
I picked up the new documentary on Python and watched it all nearly immediately. I’ve also been rewatching Flying Circus on DVD a lot, and revisited the movies a few months ago. I’m sure I could go on and on about how much I love the series, and the great little moment each episode has. Instead, I wanted to address something that I hadn’t really noticed before until now.
It is part of the appeal that I wasn’t ever able to verbalize before until hearing someone else say it in the documentary. It’s first mentioned by people who had seen John Cleese perform with Cambridge Footlights Club. He stood out from the crowd because he was such a good actor and took everything he said very seriously. His characters always were very believable despite the fact he would speak complete nonsense. And in turn Python’s humor was very crude and silly, but it was dressed up in a very serious package. Think about Cleese conducting official Ministry business as straight-faced and deadpan as possible while flapping his legs and walking on his ankles. Or the Upperclass Twit of the Year being called expertly and efficiently as contestants kicked beggars and insult butlers. I digress.
The documentary continues on to talk about the Python films. Both Life of Brian and Holy Grail are specific period pieces and are shot beautifully as if they were epics. I imagine that if they were shot today, by studios, the authenticity and craft that went into those films would be sacrificed. Why put the time and money into a comedy? But if a studio filmed those movies today, they would be awful and have at least 20 percent more boob.
This idea of authenticity and acting commitment in comedy has, like I mentioned earlier, been somewhere in the back of my mind. I notice details more than the big picture sometimes. I remember as a boy whenever I would watch a movie and they would cut to the news or show a video tape, I would get upset if the broadcast was clearly filmed and not videotaped. Still does bother me. I want things to look correct.
I think that’s why Python ultimately spoke to me. They always seemed to know what they were talking about, speaking with such authority in all the sketches. I remember feeling really giddy at my first few laughs into Holy Grail, as if this drab old movie about King Arthur has woken itself up and started talking to itself or about itself. That’s something I noticed happen in Flying Circus a lot. It seemed as if that was the half-hour you got to look into the fevered subconscious of television. Again, I digress.
The lesson I am trying to take away from this big dose of Python in the past few months is that selling comedy takes work. Hard actor work to make sure that the comedy is served by authenticity. I am not sure why it took me so long to focus on this idea, as it is the thing that bothers me the most about bad comedy.
The tough part, now, is to learn how to do it in a split second.
November 18, 2009, 1:46am Comments
I love 5secondfilms so much. It’s like a video version of a newspaper comic strip, only really funny. Check out another personal favorite, Don’t Thinko de Mayo
November 13, 2009, 12:02pm Comments
