Search - Monty Python's Flying Circus :: Monty Python Live at Drury Lane

Drury Lane

voodoochild | long island,us | 10/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, Python made everything funny. Best show ever? Absolutley. But when it comes down to the Drury Lane album, the performances and recording in general can be much improved. For instance:

1. The Introduction is hardly funny. It sounds ad-libbed.

2. Gumby Flower Arranging and Coctail Bar really need to be visual. (The Coctail Bar was filmed for a third season episode of Python, but cencored with half of the rest of the episode.)

3. Why they have the German Episode sketch 'Wrestling' on the album, makes no sense. With this time they could have had more of the edited 'Election Night Special' in it's entirety. That exits on a flexidisc called 'Monty Python's Tiny Black Round Thing' also with a complete Lumberjack Song.

4. Not only are there Pepperpots on the back cover, who do not appear on the album, but the Argument Clinic sketch is called 'Argument Song'.

5. The Argument SKETCH starts even later in than the Travel Agent and has been clearly edited by the appluase.

6. Lastly, it's a shame that the classic 'Fairy Tale' sketch was performed at Drury Lane but not included on the album.

7. The performences here are kinda below par, and are much more well-performed on City Centre and the studio albums (not to mention the TV show.)

8. There are several topical jokes, most of which people won't get now, unless you are a huge Python fan (like myself.)



Some good points about the album are that the 'Dead Parrot' sketch has a new ending, a different one than the other 15 or so versions. The albums clocks over an hour!, and it's Python so why not have a listen?

"

Ah, the brilliance of British humour!

wonderrat | Mountain View, CA USA | 08/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Monty Python's Flying Circus introduced American audiences to the delights of British humour. Let's face it, we don't much expect the staid British to be witty, but this group of Cambridge students made their mark with their sometimes sublime, often outrageous humo(u)r (rather interesting that British comedians have such a high level of education-Rowan Atkinson went to Oxford). This CD delivers many of Monty Python's greatest skits and songs, including the parrot skitch (funny as heck without being off color), a satirical takeoff of British election returns (with Enoch Powell losing his parlimentary seat to an immigrant. You have to know something about British politics to understand that one), a song mocking Australians as drunkards named Bruce (with many a reference to famous philosophers) and that all time classic, 'The Lumberjack Song', about transvestite Canadian lumberjacks. Those lyrics are so outrageously funny and I spent many nights trying to memorize them instead of studying for school. I guess Parker and Stone got their inspiration for insulting Canada from Monty Python.The only thing missing from this collection are the twits and the cannibals, but this is an audio CD and those sketches are more visual in nature. All we need for this CD is the audience in Drury Lane to riot, only to stand to attention to the melodious strains of 'God Save the Queen', but we can't have everything!"