The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America (Hardcover)

by Eric Idle (Author) "AS I LEAVE HOME, THE TEARS IN MY DAUGHTER'S EYES REMIND ME THAT THIS ADVENTURE COMES WITH SOME REAL COSTS, AND THAT I STAYED HOME..." (more)
Key Phrases: bastard tour, bastard agent, indoor shoes, Monty Python, New York, Larry Mah (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
During his eponymous tour, playwright, novelist and "third tallest member of Monty Python" Idle posted a daily Internet diary--"a lap dance across America via laptop"--whose entries he's polished and updated for this book. Taking readers from Vermont to Vegas as he attempts standup for the first time, and writing with wit and honesty, Idle mixes memoir and tales from his tour bus, which is, he says, "like traveling in your own suitcase." With the 80-day expedition through 49 cities neatly niched into 80 chapters, Idle offers a Pythonesque pastiche of goofy observations as he analyzes audiences, dissects his nightly performances and recalls showbiz friendships. He also muses on the passing landscape ("In the chasm of the glacial valley we travel through the deep blue of the morning, staring up at awesome pillars of mountain piled high into mighty citadels"). The travelogue is punctuated with puns and Cockney rhyming slang, but it's not all fun and games. Idle offers a moving account of his mother's death and a harrowing description of a bleeding George Harrison struggling in 1999 against a knife-wielding intruder. 16-page color photo insert not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
By all rights, this book should have been just awful. It began as a series of blog entries Monty Python alum Idle banged out while touring North America in the Greedy Bastard Tour, an evening of Python standards, padded with new material, designed to bring Idle and his backers the most money for the least investment. The entries, edited down to manageable size for a book, transcend their origins because Idle is warm and witty, and uses his blog time well, reminiscing about the Pythons' glory days, meditating on the aesthetics of comedy (his philosophy of comedy is fascinating and elaborate), and recounting many odd happenings on the road. At times the book feels like one more moneymaking tour souvenir, along with the T-shirts, CDs, and glossy, full-color programs. But much more of the time, Idle's ruminations dazzle, amuse, and even move us: his recollections of his father's untimely death and his own unhappy childhood in English boarding schools are particularly poignant. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060758643
• ISBN-13: 978-0060758646
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #172,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better Than An All Access Pass, February 27, 2005

By	D. Sean Brickell (gorgeous Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This "diary" is far from a new literary concept, albeit one that sure is amongt the most fun to read. City-by-city, day-by-day we get the oft off-center musing of one of today's genuine comic geniui (is this plural of genius?).

We see the towns and venues and audiences from the performer's perspective, which provides some keen insight into the way his unique point of view evolves. After reading this, I think of Eric as a friend rather than a sleb. He's honest and witty. But what is more, he's also not impressed with his star stature in the entertainment industry.

Hanging with Mr. Idle is quite imossible for most of us. But this book is better than an All Access backstage pass for the entire tour.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still Python after all these years, July 13, 2005

By	datadame (TN United States) - See all my reviews

I stumbled across this book at my local library and had bought my own copy before I was halfway through the library's. I don't think I've ever done that before.

Those looking for a deep introspective/retrospective look at life post-Python will probably be disappointed. Unquestionably this book is about part of Idle's life that is well post-Python, but he's a Python nevertheless - they all will be - and that seems to be just fine with him, as he tells stories about and on the others. He's not writing for the Pulitzer committee, though - he's just sharing the things that crossed his mind while he was on tour.

Those looking for a complete book of unrelenting yokking it up will likewise be disappointed. Idle speaks movingly of his childhood, the deaths of his parents, his friendship with George Harrison, his ongoing love affair with his wife, and more. On one page he may mock himself and his environmental concerns, and a few pages later he'll describe the scenery at this place or that, suggest great places to eat in certain cities where they stopped on tour. (If I had a complaint about the book, it might be that there's a bit too much on about the scenery, but then again this is a tour blog so it shouldn't be that surprising.)

Those who will be best pleased by this book are those who accept that Eric Idle was/is a Python and more, having spent the intervening years doing other things including movies, books, a stand-up tour, and of course most recently Broadway. Those who will most enjoy this book are those who want a book liberally laced with hysterical tales and retellings about the Pythons, who would like to get to "know" Idle a little better, and who may have wondered what it would be like to be in his cross-country tour.

Those who've known and loved Python(s) from way back will without a doubt get more out of this book than those unfamiliar with them or just becoming fans, especially regarding the many reminiscences about them as an act and as individuals, but anyone who's enjoyed their work at all will probably enjoy "The Greedy Bastard Diary".

Speaking just for myself, I laughed out loud on the very first page, and more than once found myself laughing so hard I couldn't read. (The addition of the marginata was a stroke of genius, by the way.) Reading it in public, however, is something you do at your own risk: I took it to work to read at lunch but only once, because my out-loud laughter drew odd looks from others in the cafeteria. Don't say you weren't warned.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly personal, March 13, 2005

By	MichaelH (East Coast US) - See all my reviews

Of the six Monty Python members, Eric Idle has been the most enigmatic. His work is well known, but Idle the human being has been less public. What is surprising, and gratifying, about this book is that Idle opens up and lets us inside his mind a bit. The picture that emerges is of a thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive man . The book is gently funny, but the humor arises out of his natural wit, and not the antic contrivances of a Monty Python skit. Idle also writes about the death of his mother and his close friendship with George Harrison, with an unexpected emotional openness. Recommended highly.