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A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick)
''A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)'' is the title of the first show in what later became the '' Secret Policeman's Ball'' series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International, although it pre-dated by three years the first show to bear that name. The film of the show was titled ''Pleasure at Her Majesty's'' which is sometimes mistakenly thought to be the title of the actual benefit show. Background The landmark 1976 show starring the Monty Python, '' Beyond the Fringe'', and The Goodies teams and other top British comedic performers of the 1960s and 1970s, led directly to the 1979 show ''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' - which in turn triggered the involvement of major rock stars such as Sting, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Geldof in working for the human rights cause. It set a precedent that would inspire many subsequent Amnesty galas, as well as Comic Relief. The concept was also the inspiration of similar events in aid of Amnesty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century, Tree produced spectacular productions of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by major playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War, the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and the theatre has accordingly specialised in hosting musical theatre, musicals. The theatre has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs, notably the First World War sensation ''Chu Chin Chow''Larkin, Colin (ed). ''Guinness Who's Who of Stage Musicals'' (Guinness Publishing, 1994) and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Cleveland
Carol Cleveland (born 13 January 1942) is a British-American actress and comedian, particularly known for her work with Monty Python. Early life Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United States with her mother and U.S. Air Force stepfather at an early age. She was brought up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lubbock, Texas; and later Pasadena, California, where she attended John Marshall Junior High School and Pasadena High School. She is a former Miss California Navy and appeared as Miss Teen Queen in ''MAD Magazine'' at age 15. Carol was Miss Teen in the August 1958 issue of ''Dig'' magazine. Cleveland returned with her family to London in 1960, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Career A stage actress and model who had appeared as an extra in ''The Persuaders!'', a secretary in ''The Saint'', and other TV shows and films, she started to appear as an extra in BBC comedy productions, including ''The Two Ronnies'', ''Morecambe and Wise'', and various veh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''Brazil'' (1985), ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988), ''The Fisher King'' (1991), '' 12 Monkeys'' (1995), ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (1998), ''The Brothers Grimm'' (2005), '' Tideland'' (2005), and ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' (2009). Being the only Monty Python member not born in Britain, he became a naturalised British subject in 1968 and formally renounced his American citizenship in 2006. Gilliam was born in Minnesota, but spent his high school and college years in Los Angeles. He started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. He joined Monty Python as the animator of their works, but eventually became a full member and was given acting roles. He became a feature film director in the 1970s. Most of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' and ''The Frost Report'', before creating '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with the Python film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Holy Grail'', which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Life of Brian'' and ''Monty Python's The Meanin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin wrote most of his comedic material with fellow Python member Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows including the ''Ken Dodd Show'', ''The Frost Report'', and ''Do Not Adjust Your Set''. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot sketch", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition", " Bicycle Repair Man" and "The Fish-Slapping Dance". He also regularly played a Gumby. Palin continued to work with Jones away from Python, co-writing ''Ripping Yarns''. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as '' A Fish Called Wanda'' (1988), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, ''Holy Grail'' (1975) and ''Life of Brian'' (1979). Chapman was born in Leicester and was raised in Melton Mowbray. He enjoyed science, acting and comedy and, after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, he turned down a career as a doctor to be a comedian instead. Chapman eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. He subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted to be a success on American television, speaking on the college circuit and producing the pirate film ''Yellowbeard'' (1983), before returning to Britain in the early 1980s. In his personal life, Chapman was open ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on ''The Frost Report''. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include '' Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975), ''Life of Brian'' (1979) and ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth co-wrote the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'', in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. In 2000 the show topped the British Film Inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Film
An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", containing "unconventional or highly symbolic content". Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films". These qualities can include (among other elements): a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholar David Bordwell describes art cinema as "a film genre, with its own distinct conventions". Art film producers usually present their films at special theaters ( repertory cinemas or, in the U.S., art- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. History The National Film Theatre was initially opened in a temporary building (the Telecinema) at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and moved to its present location in 1957, replacing the Thameside restaurant on the site. It opened for the first BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 1957. Later, the Southbank Centre expanded its buildings to meet the National Film Theatre from the south, while the National Theatre occupies the area to the northeast. A second screen was added on 21 September 1970. In 1988 a new building was constructed for the Museum of the Moving Image between the National Film Theatre and Belvedere Road. Designed by Avery Associates Architects it was built under the Waterloo Bridge approach and expanded during construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shorts from approximately 50 countries. History At a dinner party in 1953 at the home of film critic Dilys Powell of ''The Sunday Times'' and at which film administrator James Quinn attended, the notion of a film festival for London was raised. Quinn went on to start the first London Film Festival which took place at the new National Film Theatre (now renamed BFI Southbank) from 16–26 October 1957. The first festival screened 15–20 films from a selection of directors to show films successful at other festivals, including Akira Kurosawa's ''Throne of Blood'' (which opened the festival), Satyajit Ray's ''Aparajito'', Andrzej Wajda's ''Kanał'', Luchino Visconti's ''White Nights'', Ingmar Bergman's ''The Seventh Seal'', Federico Fellini's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Graef
Roger Arthur Graef OBE (18 April 1936 – 2 March 2022) was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings. Early life Graef was born in New York City, and started directing plays at Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ..., staging the New England premiere of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's opera ''The Mother of Us All'' in 1956, and the premiere of Robert Penn Warren's ''Brother to Dragons'' in 1957. He directed 24 plays in theatres along the East Coast, and was chosen by CBS for its new TV drama directors' program. He dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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