Dream 8: Gigging with Monty Python
I was with the Monty Python team working on a script I'd written. There were various suggestions, disagreements and laughter while we worked. I went with Michael Palin to the hairdressers. We didn't like what they suggested and in the end he left the front of his hair the same and just cut the back part of his hair so it came half way down the back of his head with the rest close shaved. We had some rehearsals and there was a sketch which involved one of my bras (a real life bra - odd little detail). I can't remember the whole sketch now, but everyone thought it would go down very well.
Then we were performing the show to a live audience. I was looking on from the side waiting to go on, with a view of the stage set, the flats, uprights and sand bags holding it all together. Eric Idle was on stage doing something and was going down very well. I went on to do the bra sketch, but it didn't go according to the rehearsals as the Pythons were trying to ad lib to make each other laugh. I came out with a few new lines myself. It was all going well, but then the bra was left on stage when it shouldn't have been. The bra was now larger than in real life. I ad libbed something so I could retrieve the bra, and Eric Idle anticipated what I was going to do and joined in to make the joke even better, saying I know, I know, I know. I was telling someone how great it was to work with such professionals who were comic geniuses... they were not impressed saying that it was arrogant just to go around saying I know I know, but they seemed to have missed the point.
Suddenly I'm back on stage having picked up the bra, I go to leave. But I exit through the wrong door and instead of ending up backstage, I end up in a cupboard with some props and bits of set. I turned round to see Michael Palin in there. He was pulling a silly face - wide eyed surprised but dumb. Then he showed me the bits of his shaved head where he had spots and blemishes. We were both stuck in the cupboard until our next sketch or the end of the show.
The cupboard door opened and the actor who played Fraser in Dad's Army was there. He was a guest in one of the sketches and had to get a board out of the cupboard. He was so surprised to see us and he was very frail that he almost fell and we were worried he'd have some sort of attack or fit. Eric Idle rushed over to cover the gaff, helping Fraser to get the board and get back to the sketch. Then I woke up.