Timehost: You may not have been expecting the Spanish Inquisition...but you're probably expecting our guest tonight, comedian, actor, world traveling author,
and one of the founding members of Monty Python, Michael Palin. Michael
Palin is now also a novelist. He's visiting the US on the occasion of the
American publication of his first novel, Hemingway's Chair. And we're happy
to have him here with us this evening. Welcome.
Michael Palin: It's good to be here; it's a new direction for me. Novel
writing used to be something of a Python joke, but this time it's serious.
Everything comes full circle.
Timehost: Let's take our first question from the audience.
Kool909 asks: Hemingway's Chair... What's This Then?
Michael Palin: The chair refers to a fishing chair used by Ernest
Hemingway in a fishing trip off Peru in 1952, during the filming of "The Old
Man And The Sea."
Michael Palin: it's one of the key elements in a story involving a man
with an obsession about Ernest Hemingway, and his battles against the enemy
in a small English coastal town. Circa, 1996.
Mr_Smee1 asks: How did being a part of Monty Python change your life?
Michael Palin: The things I learned from Monty Python were working within
a group, a respect for independence, both commercially and in the creative
process -- and both these were not incompatible with having a good time
and making people laugh.
Fish_Slapping_Dance asks: I loved the "Pole to Pole" program you did.
Will you be doing another program similar to that in the near future?
Michael Palin: "Pole to Pole" was the second of three long journeys that
I've made for the BBC. It was followed by "Full Circle," which was shown on
PBS last fall, and of which there is a book currently available, published
by St. Martin's Press. "Full Circle" was the longest of all three
journeys. We traveled 50,000 miles, and I think it's time to hang up my
traveling boots for a while. And concentrate on shorter journeys and staying
alive.
Timehost: Here's a follow-up question about Hemingway's Chair. You
talked about your protagonist taking on the enemy.
Bocephusjr_a asks: What exactly is "the enemy" that the protagonist
is fighting against???
Michael Palin: The enemy in this particular case, is the modernization,
but the dehumanization, of the postal service in England. It's progress seen
entirely in terms of technology, which is applied ruthlessly to the human
beings at the core of the novel.
Zenarcade66 asks: What do you think about Americans 'sense of humor?
Michael Palin: Well, I don't particularly put laughter in any sort of
national context. You know, there are funny things in every language, and
never forget that John Belushi was Albanian. But I find that there are a lot
of admirable things in America that make me laugh. I'm a fan of a lot of American sit-coms, but particularly
Garry Shandling's stuff, and "Frazier" which I see now and then. I think
that Woody Allen is one of the most consistently intelligent producers of
comedy around. I also find the work of Tom DiCillo, who made a brilliant
movie named "Living in Oblivion," a little-known but very satisfying slice of
American humor.
Cbuhl asks: Michael, who were your comedic influences growing up.
Michael Palin: Comic influences? "The Goons" was an American radio show
written by Spike Milligan. Very free-wheeling, original, fresh irreverent, all the
things that people called "Python" twenty years later were first applied to
the goon shows. I also was a fan of a number of English comedians and
writers. There was a series called the Turney Hancock shows -- a very good
character comedy. When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the Jerry Lewis
movies. I enjoyed good slapstick. So there's three of them. But you might
just as well say that my comic influences were the teachers at school.
Sometimes deliberately, because they encouraged my sense of humor. But more
often than not, unwittingly, because their behaviour was the reason for my
sense of humor.
Xbadger asks: How often do you speak with the Monty Python gang? Do
you keep in touch much?
Michael Palin: With Graham, very rarely. With the others, on the more or
less regular basis. Terry Jones has been my friend since long before Monty
Python We still see each other and play the occasional game of squash. I see
Eric when I'm in Los Angeles, where he lives now, and John and Terry
Gilliam, about every month or so.
Gr8Pillock asks: What drove you to write about the postal society?
Michael Palin: The Post office in England: I wanted to really create a
character who was the exact opposite of his hero, Ernest Hemingway. Rather
than make him a man of action: A bullfighter or fisherman, or war reporter, I
made him a man of inaction. Someone who sits behind a desk in a post office
and takes people's money and issues stamps. I wanted him to be doing very
much an everyday job. He had to be an ordinary man who during the course of
the story becomes extraordinary. That's why I chose a relatively humble, but
very vital occupation for him. The book is really written in defense of post offices and workers
rather than machines. If anything, it should become a standard issue novel
for all postal employees.
Bocephusjr_a asks: Are you the originator/creator of D.P. Gumby or was
it a collaboration of all the Pythons?
Michael Palin: The actual first manifestation of D.P. Gumby, or a man
with a knotted handkerchief on his head shrieking insanely was, I think,
John Cleese, when we were filming for the first Monty Python series in 1969.
This man, who delivered completely manic, crazed views on aspects of life
was dressed by our costume lady at the time in a knotted handkerchief,
gumboots, trousers rolled up like an English holiday-maker. I think Terry
Jones and myself wrote what he said. And later, we were so pleased with the
way John had created this lunatic, that we game him a name -- and the
initials D.P. From then on, he was largely played by me, for some reason. His motto was "My brain hurts" which was a line I
was always pleased with. We all have times when our brains hurt. Mine's
hurting just now.
Wapcaplet_21 asks: The book is absolutely wonderful, I wonder how
much research went into writing it and whether it relates in any way to you
personally. Also, I have a great crush on you and I'm sure you're just
dying to know that.
Michael Palin: I do want to know that, because it always helps keep an
old novelist very happy to know there's someone out there with a crush on
him. Seriously folks, the novel was written in a very concentrated
four-month period. in which I had to assimilate a lot of information But I
was helped with good advice from a post office that I can't name and a lot
of Hemingway scholarship, which has been published and is continually
updated, because this guy, really, 35 years after his death, still attracts
an enormous amount of attention and interest. My brain still hurts.
BrazenVixon asks: What is your favorite work by Hemingway?
Michael Palin: There are two books of his, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and
"The Old Man and the Sea." But they're closely followed by a particular
favorite of mine, which is an odd book, very unlike his other books -- much
more soft and tender, and almost erotic, which is called "The Garden of
Eden," and was published after his death. Almost as if he was trying to keep
its existence a secret during his lifetime, for fear that it might not be
considered macho. But it's a great book. And his short stories, especially
the early Michigan stories, are excellent.
MeatballheadTheOriginal asks: What authors have influenced you?
Michael Palin: A number of authors, like Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh
in Britain. In America, I was a great fan of John Updike's "Rabbit" series
of books. I'm also an admirer of the work of Richard Ford and Raymond
Carver. Also Garcia Marquez, the Colombian writer. A lot of Mailer's work,
especially his works of journalism, I've always admired. And of course,
Hemingway.
Timehost: As I read the book, I was reminded very much of Ealing
comedies, and of some of the early characters played by Alec Guinness. Did
you think about those in writing the book?
Michael Palin: No, I didn't think about them specifically, but a lot of
the characters in the town are sort of representative of English society,
which in many parts of the country hasn't changed all that much from the
Ealing comedy days. The same prejudices, small-mindedness, deviousness, the
same pomposity. It's all good comedy material, and I wanted to make sure
there were no dull characters in the book. They each had to have something
quirky that made them special, made them stand out. Which, I'm sure, was the intention of the Ealing comedies,
and indeed of many of writers like Kingsley Amis, who have written about the
British social scene -- a very good English writer now dead, and you should
get ahold of some of his stuff. In fact, the New York Times review of my book said
it owed more the Kingsley Amis than to John Cleese.
Timehost: We've been getting lots of versions of this next question...
Laura_tr asks: What about this Monty Python reunion we heard about
after the Aspen festival?
Michael Palin: As a result of the enjoyable experience of getting
together again at Aspen, it was decided we should investigate the
possibility of producing a new stage show to coincide with the 30th
anniversary of Monty Python in October of '99. The possibilities are
currently being investigated. But we have no definite plans as of this
moment. As soon as we do, we will obviously let people know. Because we want
to sell a lot of tickets and become exceedingly rich. Well, quite rich.
Well, a bit rich.
Spinal1 asks: Of all of the places you have visited, which would you
most like to revisit?
Michael Palin: Mexico would be high on my list and I would quite like to
go back to Tanzania, and especially the Serengeti National Park, where there
was the most amazing and prolific collection of wildlife.
Monty_Python_99 asks: What was your favorite Python sketch or movie
scene?
Michael Palin: In the movies, I enjoyed the little scene in "Life of
Brian" where I play a centurion who's sending people off to be crucified.
There's a little group action between Eric Idle and myself, and Terry
Gilliam is the mad jailer. It's one of my favorite Python Moments. On
the television series, I'm a great fan of the "cheese shop" -- which I was
never able to complete without laughing at some point. We didn't do it that often. It was never done on stage.
Probably it would have been performed once, plus rehearsals. But I think we
might have done it on one of our Python albums, as well. And actually I did
do it once at a charity show. It's the sheer persistence of the negativity
in it which I admire.
Fish_Slapping_Dance asks: I thought the whole "spilling Graham
Chapman's ashes" thing on the HBO special was hilarious. Did anybody have
any complaints about it?
Michael Palin: As far as I know, most people felt the same.
Pompador_groove asks: Do you have plans to make this novel into a
movie?
Michael Palin: There is somebody who is writing a screenplay of it, but
he's been doing it for a year and a half, so I can only think he's
forgotten about it or lost it. I think, though, there is an element in it
which would transfer well onto the screen. But I was happy to write it
merely as a novel. It would be a bonus if someone wanted to do it, but I
don't particularly want to get involved myself. I have been known to change
my mind shamelessly.
Timehost: We're going to have to wrap up now...
Michael Palin: I can go and have my dinner!
Timehost: But before we go, even though your novel is just coming out
here in the US, people already want to know what your next projects are,
where and how can they expect to see you.
Michael Palin: Funnily enough, my immediate project over the next year,
is to make a series of three documentaries for the BBC on Hemingway's travels. He was a great traveler and wrote
very well about travel. So it would be like a homage from one traveler to
another, and an attempt to drink as many strange alcoholic beverages in one
series as possible And maybe catch the odd 900-pound marlin.
Timehost: Can we expect another novel? (Then we'll really let you go
to dinner!)
Michael Palin: I would certainly like to write another novel. I'm very
much influenced by the reaction to the first one. And the better it is, the
sooner I'll write another novel. So far, the feedback from the views here in
the States have been very good. So, I'm hopeful that I can continue in this
new career, sometime in the next millennium.
Timehost: Hear that, folks! Buy the book!
Michael Palin: Thanks for having me.
Timehost: Thank you, Michael Palin, for joining us. Good luck with
the book, and I know that everyone online is hoping you and the other
Pythons get together for a reunion...and more movies also!
