John Cleese's Towering Legacy

I'm not sure, but I want to point out that you just used the phrase "black sheep cheeses."
Very good. Also incidentally it's rather strange, given the dairy nature of my name: my closest friend in school was a fellow called Barney Butter. We lived literally 10 miles from Cheddar.

And you don't think this was some kind of divine signal?
Well, I think it was. I think God was preparing me for the fact that about 15 years ago, he made me unable to digest dairy of any kind.

Let me ask you about the Monty Python 40th reunion activities. How has all that been going?
It's been very, very pleasant. Very nice to see them all again. I think because we've all gone off in different directions, there is less sibling rivalry when there used to be. And after all, when you've known people over 40 years, there's a marvelous kind of acceptance of each other. It was a very pleasant business getting together.

I saw an article about the reunion that referred to you as "funny and prickly." Is that true? Are you comfortable being equated with a humorous cactus?
No, I think you will find that coming from the British press, who have always thought that I was prickly. People that know me don't, but the British press, of course, have their own reality.

I wonder what you've just managed to say about America. That was actually the Boston Globe.
Oh really? Well, people often think that because the characters that I play are angry or rude like Basil Fawlty, that I must be like that. But I think one of the problems with journalists, particularly in England, is that they really don't quite understand the creative process. And they always think that if you play a character, you must basically pretty much be like that.

So what would it mean to you if someone said, "That's so Cleese?"
It would depend entirely what they knew me from. People for example who know the therapy books or the psychology books that I co-wrote with Robin Skynner have a completely, completely different view of me than, for example, people that know me from Python or that know me from Fawlty Towers. So sometimes when people come up and talk to me, I can tell almost immediately what they know me from, by the assumptions that they make about me. But these are all, as it were, different dimensions of my own personality and not the totality of them.

Have you ever thought of getting into politics because a lot of what you've come up with over the years has been funnier than what we seem to hear these days about the war and the recession and the death panels in America...
I agree; I always point out that Michael Palin is very miffed that he is no longer the funniest Palin.

Any relation that you know of?
Well, we'd love to pin that on him. [Laughs] He's very insistent that it's not the case. I used to be vaguely interested in politics, but I realize now how absolutely hopeless and frustrating the process is. And so I simply bless Obama, who seems to me to be operating from a higher level of mental health than any other politician I've ever seen. I bless him and I trust him and I wish him well.

You make it sound as though mental health is something you've rarely encountered among politicians.
I don't think you encounter it commonly among anyone [laughs]. The second book that Robin Skynner and I wrote, which is nearly 20 years ago now, was basically about that subject. It has always interested me. I don't think many people make a conscious effort to operate from a higher level in mental health, except people that have some sort of spiritual practice. I applaud those kind of people. That's one of the reasons I spent time in California because there are a lot of people I know who are doing some sort of practice with that aim in mind. Not too many in England, I have to say.