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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not So Lazy After All, Were You Graham?,
This review is from: Ojril: The Completely Incomplete Graham Chapman (Paperback)
If there is any doubt left that Graham Chapman could write effective comedy outside of his partnership with John Cleese, this delightful collection of unreleased scripts should do the trick. Sadly, unlike Cleese, Chapman could never get his solo projects truly off the starting blocks (we'll skip the sub-par flop that was YELLOWBEARD), and as a result he never had the solo success each of his fellow Pythons have enjoyed in various degrees. Nevertheless, this book is a vivid demonstration of the uncompromising comic spark Graham brought to Python and to Cleese's writing in particular. Without Chapman's brilliantly intuitive and raging insanity, Cleese's humor became safe, formulaic, smug and user-friendly (as in FIERCE CREATURES and -gulp! - WANDA). By the same token, Cleese's shrewd grasp of language and structure were sorely missing from Chapman's undisciplined, inaccessible and scattershot script for YELLOWBEARD. Still, if you're a fan of the blond, pipe-smoking doctor, this is a must-own. There are four separate pieces here, each compiled by Jim Yoakum, who collaborated with Graham on and off in the years before Chapman's death. Graham's longtime companion, David Sherlock, also offers commentary. "Our Show For Ringo Starr," a TV special written by Chapman with Douglas Adams kicks things off, and it is by far the longest piece. It's awkward in places, but the best of it has a manic narrative feel that would not be out of place in a series four Python episode. The story concerns Ringo's adventures with a robot that behaves like an early version of Marvin the Paranoid Android. In fact, Adams recycled the B-Ark sequence from this script for one of his Hitchhiker books, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Ringo is mistakenly given powers by this robot, who confuses him with a Rinog Trars. The script is punctuated by proto videos featuring songs from Ringo's (so-so) album GOODNIGHT VIENNA. Some of it is very funny, but after a while the story begins to chase its own tail. The pilot script for "Jake's Journey" is next, and it is my favorite piece in the book. The story centers around an American teen who is sucked into a surreal adventure with a crusty old knight called Sir George (who comes across as a wised-up, more assured version of Chapman's King Arthur from "Holy Grail"). It has a warmth and gentleness that's unique for Chapman, whose humor was usually more aggressive and disturbing. He'd clearly come a long way since the "The Undertaker Sketch". Graham wrote this with Sherlock, who no doubt played a hand in toning down his partner's excesses. It would have made an imaginative TV series, had CBS had the nuts to put it into their schedule (and Graham not had the gall to die from cancer). "The Concrete Inspector," the script for a surreal short film, was mainly penned by Yoakum, but Chapman's touches are nevertheless distinctive. The 'It's technical' joke came directly from Terry Southern's novella MAGIC CHRISTIAN (the film version of which Chapman contributed material to). According to Yoakum, Chapman conjured a scene involving the unfolding of an "actual size" map of the Earth on his own. "Concrete Inspector" tells the story of a man who records cracks in concrete sidewalks. An original idea, but the story's shaggy dog aspects (what's the deal with that pink cabinet anyway?) don't really come off. Frankly, this reads like more of a Yoakum solo project than a true collaboration with Chapman. Finally, there's "Tonight: VD", a short sketch in which a TV announcer tries to dispell myths regarding sexual diseases, only to be cut off by TV censors. Oddly, the collection omits the script from OUT OF THE TREES, Chapman's one-shot BBC comedy special from 1976. It's a shame, for sketches like "Peony" and "Ghengis Khan" (penned with Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna) would fit in perfectly here. All in all, a mixed bag, but as Chapman's output (barring LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY) is the most obscure of all the Python alumni, it's a godsend to all of us fans who wondered just what happened to him after YELLOWBEARD.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun!,
By Michele Marcombe (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ojril: The Completely Incomplete Graham Chapman (Paperback)
I never knew Graham Chapman (the mad man of Monty Python) had written so much stuff! This book is a treasure trove for any Python fan, or for anybody who just likes funny scripts. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Spotty but moments of brilliance,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ojril: The Completely Incomplete Graham Chapman (Paperback)
This book shows quite clearly exactly what Chapman's role in Python was: to show up late, do very little work, but contribute one or two outrageously out-there ideas to really stir things up. The Our Show For Ringo Starr script (too bad this was never produced!) reads much more like Douglas Adams than Python, but with occasional bizarre Chapmanisms to keep things interesting (and completely absurd.) The rest of the book echoes things that Chapman has worked on before, and even includes a few lines lifted directly from Python sketches. All that said, however, the book was a bracing, inspiring read -- a refreshing blast of insanity that makes for great (easy) (...) browsing.
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