mrsbeethoven

Welcome to the 4th Michael Palin appreciation thread!


John Cleese: "Michael Palin is not just one of Britain's foremost comedy character actors, whose inventive genius and astonishing versatility were vividly demonstrated in his widely acclaimed 'Ripping Yarns' series, he also talks a lot. Yap yap yap he goes, all day long and through the night, twenty three to the dozen, the ground littered with the hind legs of donkeys, till you believe it is not possible, simply not possible for him to go on any longer, but he does. He must be the worst man in the world to take on a commando raid. You might as well take a large radiogram with the volume turned up. On and on, hour after hour, tiring the sun with talking and sending him down the sky. Michael chats, quips, fantasises, reminisces, commiserates, encourages, plans, discusses, and elaborates; then, some nights, when everyone else has gone to bed, he goes home and writes up a diary"



Some Tiny Facts:
Born 5 May 1943 in Sheffield, Yorkshire
Education: Birkadale Preparatory School and Oxford
Utterly useless fact: The youngest Python, he grew up on a staple diet of The Goons, Tony Hancock and Peter Cook.

You want to know more...??:
Michael Palin

Quotes From The Man Himself:

"And of course I learn a lot from my travels. Things I wouldn't learn at home, like how to survive on five hours' sleep a night, how to distinguish yoghurt from mayonnaise in hotel buffets, and how to say sorry in Pashtun"

"I have said goodbye to the breakfast chef at least twice and he is now thoroughly confused and a little suspicious of my intentions. Am I really on my way to the South Pole or just trying out Great Mueslis of the Word?" /From the book Pole to Pole

"I still wake up every day and feel glad to be alive"

"Once the camera goes on, I become a shameless old ham"

"I'm visiting countries I didn't know existed. The cultures are fascinating and I've met great characters." And, of course, for the man who has become the nation's best-loved intrepid traveller, he especially enjoys the journeys. "I made one amazing train journey to Dakkar. The train was 10 hours late, it took forever but it was incredible. I met up with a fantastic woman and discussed Muslim attitudes to sex."

"People are always looking for leaders, or they're looking for a hero somewhere or someone they could follow whether it's some sort of sportsmen or it's a polititian or it's a popgroup, or you know, some religious fundamentalist. They're always looking for someone like that. And...so alot of it is about gullibility, about the length people will go to sort of be led. Give up their own sort of powers of reason to somebody else's. That's what the film is about. It's "Think for yourself. Don't do something just because someone tells you to do it" /About Life of Brian

"Traveling, I feel, is the closest to changing your life utterly as you can get, while still remaining sane"

"People often say "You gave up Monty Python to do this? A drastic change in your life, complete turn around" I don't see it that way, you know. Comedy is a way of, sort of, breaking all the rules, but still going back home in the evening. And with travel, it does stimulate you, forces you to test all your reactions, all your sort of stereotypicical views of the world, all your convensional visdom, and you have to deal with different situations with people living in a different way and your own sort of comfortable circle no longer apply. But you can go home at the end of it and there's your own fridge and bed and your own desk with all it's mess and clutter. So I do believe you need the two sides, but it's great to have something where you can just break away from everyday life"

"I'm insatiably curious about anywhere, really. I don't have to travel far. Even in London on a good day I'll go round, see somewhere I've not seen before. I find it fascinating. I do have an appetite for different places, diversity, different people, the way they look, the way they eat. It's an observational thing and I like writing more than performing and always have done. And maybe it's just a writers eye, I love going to places where I'm not known. You know, I can sit and watch the world go by rather than the other way around. It's getting very diffcult to find places like that, 'cause I sit and watch the world go by and someone says "Oh, Spanish inquisition!" and there goes my anominity(Laughs)"

"People are very friendly. I mean, people shout at me across the street. You know, "Hello, Mike!" or whatever, and pass on. It's rather nice. I suppose that's the legacy of the programs I've done, and very nice too. It's great to be able to do the programs as myself, to not have to take on a role as I go around and also not have to pretend that I'm an expert on anything at all. So theres a certian, you know, payback for humility, which is that people feel "Oh, you're one of us", you know. Most people travel with the exact same kind of information that I have"

"Comedy is a way of, sort of, breaking all the rules, but still going back home in the evening. And with travel, it does stimulate you, forces you to test all your reactions, all your sort of stereotypicical views of the world, all your convensional visdom, and you have to deal with different situations with people living in a different way and your own sort of comfortable circle no longer apply. But you can go home at the end of it and t lifehere's your own fridge and bed and your own desk with all it's mess and clutter. So I do believe you need the two sides, but it's great to have something where you can just break away from everyday"



"I suppose I'd have to be corny and say home is where my heart is, the old thing, but it is, really. I think that's just to do with familiarity. There are wonderful places in the world, and I've seen just the most beautiful scenery and been amongst people who are as friendly and welcoming and hospitable and generally good to be with as any I could wish for, but in the end you come back for all its imperfections to home, to London, to busy cities, because that's where I've been brought up not in London, but in a city in the north of England. I'm an English city boy and I can't really get away from that"

"I just enjoy learning from other people. I have no real qualifications other than a history degree at Oxford. I am not particularly good at anything. I am not particularly practical. I am not particularly good at languages. What I am quite good at is getting people to trust me fairly quickly. I don't say, "You've got to fit in with the way I am." I just try and say, "Look, tell me what's going on here."

"For me, humor always creeps in. I mean, I don't think there's a great difference between something that's essentially comic or serious or people is trying to make that division "Today I'm gonna be serious, today I'm gonna be comic" I've never been able to do that. Everything I try to do serious, the comedy creeps in. Comedy is something that I've always found the best way in dealing with life's problems and it has made me a living"


What Other People Say About Him:

"Mike is everybody's best friend. There's something about Mike that becomes the cement that always kept us together. He's the one that, no matter how much we hate the others at any given point, everybody likes." /Terry Gilliam

“Touch wood,” he says, seamlessly moving into character, “they haven’t found out about my triple murders. And my troupe of Lapp transvestites who come round to my home, when no one’s looking, for orgies.” In faux dismay, his hand covers his mouth, which has formed a perfect “O”, as he notes the running dictaphone. The mock naivety, the charm, the jokes. Michael Palin is not the son of God, he’s just a very funny boy"

"With his genuine interest in the people he met, and his joy in exploring, Michael Palin became the benchmark by which all other TV travellers have since been judged. With typical self-depreciation, he claims he was simply "bungling his way around the world."

"Michael Palin is a really, really, really, really, really nice man. Everybody says so. Even his wife says so. "Michael," she is reputed to have once said, "if you get any nicer I shall have to leave you." He is, it is also often said, "the nicest living Englishman"

"Oh, Michael Palin is so nice. It’s almost disappointing. He’s so famously nice that before the interview I’m half hoping to discover that he’s actually a wife-beater with a secret cocaine habit. Or a bad tipper. Or unkind to kittens, say. Something like that. Anything, really"

"He’s always topping polls of the kind that ask who you’d most like to have as a travel companion, and even when he’s not being publicly nice, he’s being privately nice. I went to an awards ceremony once, where he was the host, and the organiser told me of all the presenters they’d ever used he was the only one who’d insisted his fee went to charity (the British Stammering Association)"

"We brought two chairs onto the lawn. I moved my chair so Palin wouldn't be looking into the sun. He moved his chair so he'd be closer to the mike. I moved my chair so I could look at his face more directly. He moved his chair so his legs wouldn't hit my legs. Suddenly we looked at each other: "This is a Python skit!" he laughed"

"He was cheerful and relaxed, reflective at times and impish at others, easy to laugh and so entirely un-obsessed with himself and curious about the world that sometimes it seemed as if he were interviewing me -- qualities that obviously serve him well in his journeys"

"When asked wich luxuary he would take with him on a deserted island, John Cleese said: "Michael Palin, please" When told the object had to be inanimate, Palin therefor had to be stuffed, John Cleese said: "That'll do" /Michael Parkinson

Video Links:
YouTube - The Frank Skinner Show with Michael Palin (part 1)
YouTube - The Frank Skinner Show with Michael Palin (part 2)
YouTube - Michael Palin promoting Pole to Pole book (part 1)
YouTube - Michael Palin promoting Pole to Pole book (part 2)
YouTube - Parkinson 28 September 2002 (Part 1) Michael Palin interview
YouTube - Parkinson 28 September 2002 (Part 2) Michael Palin interview
YouTube - Clive Anderson All Talk Michael Palin interview (part 1)
YouTube - Clive Anderson All Talk Michael Palin interview (part 2)
YouTube - Blue Peter with Michael Palin
YouTube - Parkinson interview with Michael Palin (part 1)
YouTube - Parkinson interview with Michael Palin (part 2)
YouTube - Palin discusses Ripping Yarns on Parkinson 1982

Fans:
1. sanna_o75
2. Amy_UK
3. Lady April
4. Ya_Big_Jonesy
5. mrsbeethoven
6. georgina31
7. kisch
8. retrogrl fan



Future Titles:

Think Different, Think Michael Palin
Don't Play With Fire, Play With Michael Palin
Michael Palin Is What The World Was Waiting For
Michael Palin Empowers You
Food Or Michael Palin? I'll Have Michael Palin
Michael Palin Is A Never Ending Story
The One And Only Michael Palin
Michael Palin - One Name, One Legend
Michael Palin? Yes, Please
Michael Palin - What More Could You Want?
He Is Just As Funny And Pleasant In Real Life As You Would Expect
Because He Makes People Laugh

Previous Threads:

1. http://www.fanforum.com/f26/michael-...orld-62823559/
2. http://www.fanforum.com/f26/michael-...2/index20.html
3. http://www.fanforum.com/f26/michael-.../#post23217157

mrsbeethoven

Just to start this thread off with, here are two nice pictures.

A nice one I've never seen before.

And everyone knows this is from "Around the World in Eighty Days." It's quite nice! Hmmmmm

sanna_o75

Well done Thanks for opening.

And thanks for the pics. I haven't seen the first one either. I love that scene from the second cap. And when they are finished, he burps

mrsbeethoven

No Problem.

I didn't remember the burp. It's been a while since I've seen it.

sanna_o75

It's quite a loud one too

I want some Michael news now!

retrogrl_fan

how come i am not on the list on fans?

sanna_o75

Oh, sorry! I forgot to add you

mrsbeethoven will add you when she gets here I hope

You have some more pics that we might not have seen??

mrsbeethoven

Retrogrl, I apologize! Of all the things I went over on that thread I missed that. You are on there now, and I believe I have everyone, but if I'm missing someone, you all please let me know.

I know that I or someone else has posted this here before, but it was on my mind and I had to go to youtube and watch it again. Eric talks about being mistaken for Michael. Very short, very funny. YouTube - Eric Idle - Being Confused for Micheal Palin

By the way, I'm thinking of opening an Eric Idle thread. We have everyone else except him. Would anyone else be interested in that?

sanna_o75

I love that clip

Yes, I AM Michael Palin, now **** of, you ugly old bastard



I'm all for a Eric thread, I love the guy. My second favorite Python So go ahead and open it

mrsbeethoven

I also love it when he says "Why can't he just leave places alone?"

sanna_o75

Yeah, that makes me laugh too

I don't understand why people mix them up They look nothing alike

mrsbeethoven

I don't either. I love in that clip from 'Full Circle', the extra with Michael and Eric, how Eric has the camera come in close and is like pointing to himself "I'm Michael Palin" points to Michael "This is Eric Idle." He deemed himself the "Michael Palin of the west coast.

Sanna, what is your aviator from?

sanna_o75

YouTube - Michael Palin, Eric Idle in a deleted scene from Full Circle

Eric: "Do we look at all alike? Can people get this right, this is Eric and I'm Mike, OK?"
Michael: "No, no, no. That's Mike and I'm Eric"
Eric: "Oh, am I Jonn?"



My icon is from Six Feet Under

Lady April

And it has been done! Congrats mrs.bh on this as I tried to do #3 and I blew it! sanna had to re doo it
I like it, I love it, I want some more of it! Ermm...... Him anyway.
Anyway, YAY!!!!!

mrsbeethoven

Thanks! I'm glad you all like it! Here are two more pictures.

From Confessions of a Train Spotter.

This one has been posted before, but it's one of my favorites.