Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idleis an English comedian, actor, voice actor, author, singer-songwriter, musician, writer and comedic composer. Idle is a member of the English surreal comedy group Monty Python, a member of The Rutles and the author of the Broadway musical Spamalot...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth29 March 1943
comedy
I don't necessarily know much about comedy, I don't spend a lot of time watching it. Mainly because all my life for about 50 years I've had comedy.
comedy
Executives do not on the whole do well with comedy. They can't understand it, they can't read it, they can't spot it.
comedy tradition
I got locked into a tradition [at Cambridge] of doing comedy.
writing comedy performing
When we graduated [ from Cambridge], we were grabbed right into television. I was grabbed straight into the practice of writing comedy. It was all writing and performing. You wrote something in order for you to perform it.
comedy man secret simplicity truth
I think he's the most intelligent man I've ever met. Honesty, simplicity and truth are the secret to his comedy.
accord amount claim claiming clearly comedy comment deal freedom function groups healthy humour immunity laughter licensed light obviously permits privileges release responsibility safety satirical searching society special survive taboo
At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.
beatles george known tried
George once said to me "If we'd known we were going to be The Beatles we'd have tried harder.
amazement dallas loving people places watching
It was extraordinary. I mean, for us it was just an amazement that people were watching it in Dallas of all places and were loving it.
buying change complete nice records
I think the nice thing for us has been that every 10 years there's been a complete change in technology. It's like buying your own records again.
ego walking
I didn't want to be big Mr. Ego walking around.
audience
I liked doing live things, and with the Circus we had a live audience.
wrong
But we were wrong and we were amazed.
accurate
A lot has been said about politicians; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate
antagonism arguing chair group healthy held tension throwing
There was often antagonism and chair throwing and stamping of feet, which is kind of a healthy thing to do when you're arguing about what's funny. That healthy tension was something that held the group together.