Opinion: John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, wants to team up with Barack Obama
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Barack Obama’s skills as an orator already have left enraptured audiences in his wake from coast to coast. Now comes word that if he’s willing to expand his circle of collaborators, the act he takes on the road could forever redefine the boundaries of political speech.
We gush, of course. But it’s hard not to be agog when contemplating the final product that could result if Obama’s rhetorical talents get teamed up with those of John Cleese.
Cleese -- of Monty Python, ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ and ‘Fawlty Towers’ fame (the latter is our personal fave) -- let this drop in an interview with the Western Daily Press (a newspaper that circulates in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Bath and other parts of England):
‘I am due to come to Europe in November, but I may be tied up until then because if Barack Obama gets the nomination I’m going to offer my services to him as a speechwriter because I think he is a brilliant man.’
Cleese, who now lives most of the year in California, already is on record contributing $2,300 to Obama (the maximum for the primary campaign).
Word of Cleese’s interest in becoming a wordsmith for Obama surfaced on this side of the pond in a New York Daily News story. Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki is quoted ...
in that piece saying that if Cleese ‘can throw in a cameo in the next Monty Python movie, we have a deal.’ (Unclear if Psaki meant for herself or the candidate.)
The Western Daily Press piece, though, is worth checking out for those interested in hearing Cleese -- all joking aside -- expand on his continuing interest in local soccer and cricket.
Perhaps if Obama is successful on Nov. 4 Cleese can get a job in the Ministry of Silly Walks.
-- Don Frederick