This was a belated birthday celebration for Ed and it has some special signficance for the two of us. See, Ed was actually born during the Dark Ages and ... oh, that was just uncalled for. No, it was called for but I was the one calling .. so that makes it just plain mean.
At one point, when I was still living at home, Ed had his own place right around the corner; he had a TV, we did not .. or he got more channels ... at rate he could access television shows I could not. One day Ed came flying around the corner, yanked me out my of my chair and dragged me to his house, yelling "You have to see this" Indeed, I did.
What I saw was something that, quite literally, would change my life forever. Deceased parrots, fatal jokes, a man called Two Sheds, mountain climbers rapelling up a sidewalk and a song about Spam ... it was Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Ed and I became devotees of the series and soon became able to quote entire episodes word for word. And often did. Including accents. People loved that. No, they really did, people often begged for more .............................. ok, so I used to smoke pot, what's your point?
For me, it would only get better. That was with the release of Monty Python's Holy Grail. To this day, without a shadow of a doubt or moment of hesitation, I consider this one of the funniest movies I have seen, if not the funniest. I love history, I love the myth of Arthur and this movie totally destroyed both of those .. as well as music and gender and heroisim and even movies themselves. One of the first times I literally laughed till I cried. I quickly became adept at quoting almost the entire movie at will. And did. An thrilled the masses, moving them to adore me .......................... ok, I did acid too, leave me alone.
So all of this means that we learned the musical stage version of the movie ... Spamalot .. was returning to Toronto, we knew we absolutley had to see it. It was being staged at the Canon theatre, which seems to bear an eerie resemblence to the Pantages theatre where we saw Phantom of the Opera, the Lion King and most recently We Will Rock You.
To say that I enjoyed the play is an understatement. Half way through the first act I was laughing so hard my face hurt. If I was an American perhaps I would be considering litigation. The play definitely used the movie as its base, stealing dialouge and scenes directly from it, but it was pretty wide open, poking a lot of fun at Broadway and musicals in general. There is one scene with Lancelot and the Lady of the Lake where they sing a love duet ("This is the song that goes like this") and come out in a little boat, a chandelier hanging over them, al la Phantom .. the fact that we were in the Pantages was hilarious.
We got to hear a couple of Pythons. Before the play started we heard the voice of Eric Idle saying "Feel free to use your cell phones during this performance but please be aware that there are several heavily armed knights about and if they hear you, you will be impaled" Later on, when Arthur and his men recieve his quest, the voice of God was played by John Cleese ... well, duh, that is type casting. I think John Cleese may be the funniest human ever to live. John Cleese just walks into a scene and I break down in laughter.
I will spare you having me recite the entire play but trust me, you would be thoroughly entertained and thrilled to no end ............................ ok, I still drink, stop bugging me about it.
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