DISCOVERS THE MEANING OF LIFE
An unexpected brush with cancer had the comedy icon looking at the bright side of life
He’s one of the world’s last surviving legends from comedy’s golden age. A founding member of the Monty Python group – whose TV series spawned a phenomenon of stage shows, films, books and a smash-hit West End musical – for more than 50 years, Eric Idle has been making us laugh out loud.
Yet, despite being a stage veteran, ahead of a return visit to Australia to perform a special live show, the icon is nervous.
“I haven’t been on stage for a while,” the 79-year-old admits to Woman’s Day.
“So I’m just doing one show and I’ll see how that goes. I want to see if I have the stamina for a full tour.
“However, it’s fun to get up there and scare yourself to see if you still enjoy doing it – and if you’re still good at it. In that respect, it’s a bit like sex!” he says, cackling.
The reason for the star’s hiatus is due to an unexpected pancreatic cancer diagnosis three years ago – a diagnosis that was a case of life imitating art.
“I had been writing this show, Death: The Musical, about a writer who is writing this musical and, ironically, discovers he’s dying. While writing it, I asked my real-life doctor for an idea for a “quick death” for the main character and he suggested pancreatic cancer, as it’s very quick.
“Ten years later, the same bloody doctor is looking at a screen after an MRI and tells me that I’ve got pancreatic cancer – I could only laugh. It was the only possible reaction at the complete irony of the situation!
“Catching it early is vital. My doctor found an elevated blood marker, which made him give me an MRI. I was in surgery within 10 days and they whipped it out. That’s the moral here –
early testing. Because you have a chance if they get it early. My doctor recently said to me that, if we’d waited another two weeks, I wouldn’t have made it to surgery.”
Living “six months to six months” in-between check-ups since his diagnosis gave Eric a wake-up call to his own mortality.
“Death is something that Python might have dealt with – we could have done The Meaning Of Death quite easily,” he says, referencing the cult classic Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life.
“It’s interesting because everyone has to do it – you don’t get a pass from dying. So I do think it’s important to make people more comfortable with the idea of it.”
While a brush with cancer brought his own mortality to light, the performer has long been associated with death thanks to his hit Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life – which has officially become the most requested funeral song in the UK.
“I do have to point out,” he interjects, chuckling, “that I don’t get royalties for that!”
It’s anecdotes such as this that audiences can expect when Eric performs his Say No More! show at Sydney’s State Theatre as part of the Just For Laughs Sydney Comedy Festival on December 1.
“We’re gonna do some sketches, some rude songs, some stories from my life,” he says. “It’ll be an experience. I really just want people to be entertained... to have fun.” Eric will perform his show
Say No More! In Conversation With Eric Idle exclusively for the Just For Laughs Sydney Comedy Festival. For tickets and more details visit justforlaughs.sydney