– When I interviewed John Cleese and Terry Gilliam, they swore you would never reunite.
“There, you see? And in the end I am the one who gets blamed (laughs). That’s just like us, promising something one day and doing the opposite the next day.”
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– So what convinced you all to come together now?
“The first reason is that some members need the money. John Cleese had a very expensive divorce from his third wife. Terry Jones is worried about his mortgage …”
– You’re kidding.
“No, no, he really has to pay the mortgage, he just moved to an expensive place in London. Besides, we had a lawsuit that has confounded us. Someone who was involved in the film ‘Holy Grail’ sued us somehow over rights from the musical created by the film, ‘Camelot.’ Legal fees increased and the funds of our company became depleted. We decided to replace our agent and the new guy who came was very experienced in major concerts. He told us, ‘Look, if you want to cover your debts, all you have to do is perform at the O2 Arena’ – that convinced us.”
“But above and beyond the pure economic issues, I think we all wanted to deal finally with the desire of the audience for one last reunion. After all, we really like the material. We love being on stage. And we are all, to some extent, exhibitionists.”
– What’s going to happen in the show?
“The show will have many of our classic skits, including ‘Argument sketch, ’ ‘The Lumberjack Song’, ‘Nudge Nudge’ and ‘The Dead Parrot’.”
– Will we see you in women’s clothing?
“Do I see a spark in your eye, Yonatan?” He laughs. “So yes, there is a skit where I appear in drag. Also, one of the most beautiful and important things we have done is to connect somehow with Graham Chapman and ‘communicate’ with him, as it were, during the show through video screens in the hall.”
– Will there be new things?
“There will be something relatively new. We have a skit called ‘Blackmail, ’ where I play a TV presenter who displays pornographic films of politicians and calls them up demanding money to stop transmission. You know it?”
– By heart.
“So we’ll refresh it. We will try to write in something modern that will relate to current generations of politicians. I don’t know if it will work. We’re still working on it. Everything else will remain the same, however. We came to the conclusion that you cannot update the original sketches. But we will make the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ first time live on stage.”
– Is there a fear of disappointing the fans?
“Certainly. We can get up on stage, do something very energetic and have a heart attack. We’re old guys, you know. People aged 70 and over are not supposed to hop around on stage in women’s clothing. Of course there are concerns that something will go wrong, but I do not think it will happen.”
“Ultimately, we are still professionals, we did it so many times before. I do not think anyone will allow himself to be unprepared. And another thing – our audience are our fans. They didn’t buy tickets to see what Monty Python is all about, they come to enjoy what they already know. They will probably shout out the lines with us. So, if we do forget something, they will help us.”
