Monty Python, the Beatles of comedy, epitomized the innate ability to take good ideas and compress them into diamonds.
Think about Monty Python and a myriad of conflicting sketches crash into your mind: The Dead Parrot, Nudge Nudge, Argument Clinic, Hell’s Grannies, The Lumberjack Song, The Killer Joke. Then come the quotes: ‘Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!’, ‘What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, ‘It’s just a scratch, I’ve had worse’, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’, ‘He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy’ and so on.
Add Ripping Yarns, A Fish Called Wanda and travel; Around the World in 80 Days, Himalaya, Pole to Pole and Brazil.
Michael Palin will re-live his legendary comedic repertoire before delving into his latest project, a change of pace and focus; documenting the maritime adventures of HMS Erebus.
Erebus was part of a successful 19th-century British expedition to the Antarctic which set out from Hobart, but later met her doom in search of a Northwest Passage across what is now Canada's Arctic. Franklin's disastrous 1845 expedition saw the sinking of both the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror after they became trapped by ice. The entire expedition, comprising 129 men including Franklin, was lost.
Michael Palin will describe what life was like for the officers and crew who froze and starved to death in the Arctic wastes, driven to cannibalism and poisoned by the food that they hoped would sustain them.
“The story of the life and death of HMS Erebus appeals to me on many levels. It combines my love of the sea and ships, my fascination with those who went where no-one had been before, and my conviction that history is made by accident rather than intention,” said Palin.
Register for pre-sale tickets at www.lateralevents.com
TOUR SCHEDULE
Tuesday 4 December Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
Wednesday 5 December Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Thursday 6 December Southbank Piazza, Brisbane
Tickets from $95.00
Bookings for all shows from 29 June at ticketek.com.au
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