ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

February 19, 2004

The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.

- John Cleese (1939 - )

Born John Marwood Cleese, October 27, 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, England, his family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father Reginald Francis Cheese, an insurance salesman, changed the name to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915.

If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth. - John Cleese  

John Cleese spent five years, from 1953 to 1958, at Clifton College, and then taught at his old prep school for two years while waiting to begin his studies in law at Cambridge Downing College. He was invited to join Footlight in his first year of law and his talent for expressing indignation and outrage emerged as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue, where he also met one of his future writing partners, Graham Chapman. 

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. - John Cleese

After a brief stint with BBC radio, he traveled to the United States and among other exploits wrote unsuccessfully for the "Newsweek" international politics section for two months. He returned to London and together with Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, he wrote for "The Frost report".  

He became famous as one of the members of the Monty Python team (the “Cheese Shop”, “Ministry of Silly Walks”, and “Dead Parrot” sketches), and although he became restless after the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, he did not leave the group until after the third series.  

He who laughs most, learns best. - John Cleese 

He married American Actor Connie Booth in 1968. In 1974, they wrote "Romance With a Double Bass", adapted from a Chekov short story, and in December 1974 they shot the pilot for Fawlty Towers. The first series was completed in 1975. His fame increase as the awful hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers.  Even though Cleese and Booth where divorced in 1978, they created another series of six Fawlty Towers in the following year.  

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. - Grenville Kleiser

Cleese wrote a number of books with Robin Skynner on dealing with relations: Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. The books are presented as an ongoing dialogue between Skynner and Cleese. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. 

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything - even poverty - you can survive it. - Bill Cosby

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough as inventor “R,” the replacement for the retired “M.” and he continues to do a great deal of work. He is sometimes credited as Kim Bread, John Otto Cleese, Nigel Farquhar-Bennett, and Spitting Image. 

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your step as you walk the tightrope of life. - William Arthur Ward

You can't have everything. Where would you put it? - Steven Wright

Wishing laughter and continued success!

Sincerely,