MONTY PYTHON was founded in 1969 by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Blending satire, surreal outlandish-ness, broad slapstick, edgy black comedy and social commentary, the group became an international cult phenomenon, making the groundbreaking television series Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC and many popular record albums and books. Their highly successful films include And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, which the group's official bio (written in classic Python-ese) describes as being "the only film entitled Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl." Among the group's many recordings are Another Monty Python Record, Monty Python's Previous Record, The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album. More than 2.5 million albums and 3.5 million books have been sold worldwide. Monty Python has won Silver and Golden Roses at the Montreux Festival, the Special Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival (for Meaning of Life) and a British Academy Award. To celebrate its 27th anniversary, Monty Python and the Holy Grail will be re-released in American theatres in June of this year featuring a new stereo soundtrack designed to, according to the official Python biography, "now make both ears laugh."

ERIC IDLE was the nicest of the six members of Monty Python. He was born in the North of England… well when I say the nicest he wasn’t absolutely the nicest. Michael Palin is generally recognized as being the nicest. Actually Terry Jones is pretty nice too and certainly he’s very nice at parties. Come to think of it Terry Gilliam can be fairly nice as well. That Graham Chapman was a nice man and even John Cleese is a lot nicer than he used to be. So, Eric Idle is probably the sixth nicest member of the old Monty Python group. He was born in the North of England what’s so great about being nice anyway? Many fine people have lived richly fulfilling lives without having to worry about being nice. Nobody said Mozart was “nice. I forget my point. Oh yes, my point is - so what if I wasn’t the nicest? It doesn’t mean I didn’t have any friends. Actually I didn’t have many friends. But the friends I did have thought I was nice. Well not “nice” nice. But nice enough to have as a friend. I expect. Look, let’s just agree to leave the nice thing to one side. Eric Idle, while not being necessarily the nicest of the Monty Python group, was born in the North of England during World War Two. During the sixties and early seventies he was occasionally mistaken for Peter Cook. He now lives in California and is occasionally mistaken for Gene Wilder. He is still not particularly nice.