4 July London Journal (PM edition)

There really wasn't much to my day. I napped because I wanted to be alert for the Pythons. I got to the O2 at 5:30, had an early dinner at the Cafe' Rouge (Camembert and a flat iron steak) and fought a 20-30 mile per hour wind to get to the entrance. I got to my seat an hour before show time. I was in row W, exactly in the middle. The way I see it, 800 people had better seats than me, but 14,200 had worse seats. Monty Python Live (mostly)  was 90 minutes of inspired lunacy, and, frankly, I don't give a damn what the London papers (or for that matter, the Hollywood Reporter) had  to say. If I was, in the words of one critic, "laughing at the memory of laughter," it was a hearty laugh. The only other experience in my life like this was the 25th anniversary show of the Firesign Theater. My daughter M  went with me and noted two things: "I have never seen so much tie dye and so many pony tails on men," and "if you all already know the words, why do you come?" She was already pretty sharp at the age of 11.

Well, there was no tie dye and ponytails (there were a lot of people dressed as either gumbies or lumberjacks), but we did know all the words. And we loved hearing them one more time. There were a few new words to the "Willie song," which added a verse about lady parts and one about posteriors. There was a new lyric in "I Like Chinese," about China buying all  America's debt. There was a brief sketch that led into "Every Sperm is Precious." As in the movie, it was a big production number, but this time with Nuns and Bishops rather than children in the chorus. The two most popular skits, Dead Parrot and Cheese Shop were played as a medley. The likelihood is that these 10 shows will be the last for Python as a group; at the end of the show, they displayed two slides: Graham Chapman 1941-1989, and Monty Python 1967-2014. They didn't quite make it to the half-century mark, but I think the boys are telling us that, really, seriously, this is it.

I have been told that the final concert on July 20 will be broadcast live to movie theaters all over the world (it would be about 11:30 a.m.. in California)  and will also be made available as a DVD. If either of my daughters want to see it, I'll watch it with them, but for now, I am satisfied. This concert was the whole reason for my trip. Everything else I have done and will do is gravy. Wonderful, cool , exciting gravy, but gravy nonetheless.

If you want to retweet my appearance on The News Quiz, you will find my picture here, and Sandi's interesting fact here.

I can prove I've been to ancient Rome. Just look at this grape...

No wait, that's Firesign. This is a selfie of me from row W. The production cost $1.4 million, and it was all up there on the stage.

The Pythons' final word to their loyal fans. So long, boys, and thanks for all the fish (oh wait, that's Douglas Adams...)