Eric Idle has never lived up to his surname. He has always been busy and at 82 he says he can't afford to retire. Although to be more accurate he probably can't afford to maintain his multiple-homed lifestyle on a pension.
His tour, inevitably entitled after his trademark tune Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! reached London this weekend. It is a one-man mix of music and anecdotes with the impressively youthful Monty Python star supported onscreen by a virtual band and a plethora of vintage clips from his stage, movies and TV CV.
The highlights are when the veteran slips into chat show mode, recalling boarding school in Wolverhampton ("not the end of the world, but you could see it from there") before embarking on sketch comedy at Cambridge and becoming a "mock 'n' roll" icon in Monty Python. These Beatles of comedy even had their own mercurial member called John.
Once we hit the showbiz years the stage is littered with names being dropped, from the future King Charles to Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. The Rolling Stones would pop over to party, David Bowie carried a cake at Eric's wedding. Elvis Presley did Python sketches in bed.
But the name that gets dropped the most, more than Idle's wife Tania, is former Beatle George Harrison. It was bromance at first sight in the 1970s. Harrison famously funded religious satire The Life of Brian, when the original backers backed off. Harrison's simple reason for mortgaging his house was "I wanted to see the movie."
This is one of a number of well-worn yarns, but in the flesh, complete with accents and impressions, they have an added allure. Idle is an engaging presence with a decent amount of self-awareness. "When you join the circus you meet the other clowns," is his explanation for hobnobbing with the glitterati.
There are plenty of appreciative nods to the Flying Circus achievements and the occasional playful poke at John Cleese, who, on tour just before he quit the band, sorry, team, ate at a separate dinner table, says Idle. A clip of the group spilling the late Graham Chapman's ashes is a timeless classic.
The dial shifts to the maudlin, however, as he reflects on friends he has lost, such as Robin Williams and, most notably, Harrison. His account of Harrison's death from cancer not long after surviving a near fatal stabbing, is as touching as it is darkly comic.
Idle, on the other hand, keeps going, having appeared on The Masked Singer after asking Paul McCartney for permission to cover Love Me Do. McCartney gave him the OK on condition he was told when it would be broadcast - so that he could avoid it. Idle chuckles at the memory, still finding life's bright side.
