Cleese retires
... to become a comedy guru
John Cleese is to retire from performing to write a history of comedy.
He says he has achieved all he wants, and now wants to become a self-styled ‘comedy professor’ holding masterclasses on how to make people laugh.
‘I’m too tired to write new comedy’ he said. ‘I can never do better than Fawlty Towers whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.’
Cleese, 66, revealed his intention to retire in an interview with The Times today.
He said: ‘I want to write a book which is the history of comedy. It will cover the greats of silent cinema to Ricky Gervais, who is the height of modern entertainment.
‘The Marx Brothers and Harold Lloyd will be in there too. But it is very rare today to see someone with that grasp of old-fashioned comedy."
‘The last truly excellent performance I saw was Eddie Izzard. But Ricky Gervais is also a match for the great American sitcoms.
‘My generation prized really fine acting and writing. Sometimes you have to go back to the basic principles which underpin great visual comedy.’
Cleese’s recent work has been limited to voiceovers for computer games and the Shrek films and a documentary on football for German television. And his role as Q in the James Bond series has been dropped from the latest in the franchise.
He said: ‘Q doesn’t appear in Casino Royale but it would have been nice if the producers had the courtesy to telephone me.’
Published: 12 Jun 2006
