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When the target audience is American teenage kids, you can have problems. My generation prized really fine acting and writing. Sometimes you have to go back to the basic principles which underpin great visual comedy.

John Cleese

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John Cleese
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: October 27
Actor
Autobiographer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Writer
Weston-super-Mare
Somerset
John Marwood Cleese
Problem
Problems
Prized
Back
Fine
Teenage
Sometimes
Principles
Visuals
Great
Comedy
Visual
Writing
Audience
Target
Really
Acting
Basic
American
Generation
Kids
Generations
Underpin

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I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
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Bureaucrats shouldn't be in charge of comedy.
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By watching the great, old comedians I picked up a few tricks about how to do physical comedy. And whenever I could learn something, I sort of added that to my repertoire.
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Life is a terminal disease, and it is sexually transmitted.
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I think it takes a long time, as you get older, to realize just how crazy the world is, just how ridiculous it all is.
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What is absurd is not the teachings of the founders of religion, it's what followers subsequently make of it.
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When people quote sketches to me, half the time I don't know what they're talking about so I have to sort of go, aha, yes, oh yep, I remember that and lie my way out of it.
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I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret.
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Students who laugh more- learn more. Students who laugh more earn more.
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There are 3 basic differences between we British and you Americans. One, we speak English, and you don't. Two, when we have a World Championship, we invite teams from other nations. Three, when you meet the British head of State, you only have to get down on one knee.
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Laughter is the best creative medicine.
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God was treated like this powerful, erratic, rather punitive father who has to be pacified and praised. You know, flattered.
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Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.
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Don't let anyone tell you what you ought to like... Some wines that some experts think are absolutely exquisite don't appeal to me at all.
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I was always a sports nut but I've lost interest now in whether one bunch of mercenaries in north London is going to beat another bunch of mercenaries from west London.
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I think there are so many activities going on, like mountaineering. You know, you would pay good money not to have to do that, and yet there are people racing out who want to spend their spare time clambering up rocks.
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Sci-fi has never really been my bag. But I do believe in a lot of weird things these days, such as synchronicity. Quantum physics suggests it's possible, so why not?
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I think we're all born with a sense of humor. Creativity is another thing though.
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I think it's because in America you always get the sense that if you fail, you can just pack up your things and go somewhere else and try again. But in England, it's so geographically small that if somebody succeeds here, it reduces your chances of succeeding.
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