Prolific Monty Python alum Eric Idle brings his aptly-titled “Greedy Bastard Tour” to the Southern Theatre tonight.
The appearance is part of the British comedian’s globe-trotting tour which combines new material from his latest “Rutland Isles” album with old favorites from the Monty Python troupe and elsewhere.
“The whole tour is more like a carnival,” Idle said. “Like a ‘Rocky Horror’-type carnival because the audience has been dressing up for a lot of the performances. We asked people why they were dressed as trick-or-treaters, but they said they were just coming to our show.”
The tour coincidentally occurs just as the 20th anniversary DVD release of “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” is being rolled out. Idle said the reissue of the film is just another money maker for the disbanded Python crew.
“There’s absolutely no relation between the DVD and my tour. They are riding my coattails while I’m out trying to flog my own CD,” Idle said.
Idle admits that the tour is a money driven venture, but he concedes an overall love of the comedy trade as a motivation as well.
“If it wasn’t any fun I wouldn’t do it. I truly only do things that interest me and a grand road tour on a couple of huge buses traveling across America and getting laughs all the way is great fun,” Idle said. “Its a very good expedition.”
The 60-year-old Idle has been involved with show business in one way or another for nearly 40 years. Idle has sometimes worked simultaneously as a comedian, writer for television, radio and film, as well as an actor, playwright and musician. The Cambridge University graduate hasn’t necessarily enjoyed success the entire way, but he has managed to stay employed and maintain his sense of humor.
Chronicling Idle’s expedition is an online tour diary, updated daily with his trademark wit and social critiques. The journal – available at www.pythonline.com – is part satirist, part tourist and awash with pointed random thought. Commentary on the status of his 26-year marriage is followed by jabs at Comedy Central then inspirational descriptions of the day’s weather.
From day 24 he wrote: “I wake up outside a typewriter shop in Red Bank, New Jersey. I feel like a character on some episodic TV show, ‘This week he wakes up in…’, a cross between ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Rip Van Winkle.’ I haven’t even heard of a typewriter shop in twenty years, but this one sells old model typewriters and adding machines. Why am I here?”
“I do this diary and it’s very good to chronicle all of these different places and contribute my thoughts,” Idle said. “It’s fun to be any place for twenty hours and the diary helps me to get a good look at all the different places.”
Idle’s appearance at the Southern Theatre will be his second event sponsered by the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts.
“In terms of interest, this is perfect fit in what we do. A perfect mix. There are many major Monty Python fans out there, so obviously they’re enthusiastic,” CAPA spokeswoman Kelly Boggs said.
The tour is designed to whisk Idle and accompanying acts Bruises, Jennifer Julian and “mystery guests” across America in 80 days before entering Canada. The idiosyncracies of the American hearland are exciting, Idle said.
“We haven’t really made it across mid-America yet. I found Norfolk, Virginia to be quite interesting. The people there were completely nuts,” he said.
Eric Idle’s “The Greedy Bastard Tour” takes place at 8 p.m. tonight at the Southern Theatre. Tickets for the event are still available at the Ohio Theatre box office for $37 and $47.
