Comedy

Comic Graham Chapman was the straight man in the Monty Python troupe who would come in and break up the skits. A physician by training, he was a writer and activist for gay rights. He died in 1989.

Actor, writer, and Monthy Python member John Cleese. Post-Python, Cleese is best known for Fawlty Towers, and a number of movies, including his 1988 comedy, A Fish Called Wanda. He's also written a book called Families and How to Survive Them with therapist Robyn Skinner, and he makes training films for corporations.

Bob Newhart's been a part of the American comedy landscape since 1961 when his debut comedy album "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" became a surprise hit. Since then he's starred in three TV shows, including the Peabody award winning original "The Bob Newhart Show." And appeared in numerous films. There's a new Rhino anthology of his classic routines, "Something Like This. . .The Bob Newhart Anthology." Recently Newhart was honored at the Aspen Comedy Festival. This Fall Newhart is scheduled to co-star in a pilot for a new TV show.

Record producer and songwriter Neil Innes (IN-ess). He is a founding member of the comedy-rock group "The Bonzo Dog Band." He's also a member of "The Rutles," the band which he and Eric Idle of Monty Python, created as a spoof of the Beatles. INNES is also considered the "seventh Python" player because he provided and performed comedy music for the Monty Python troupe. The Rutles first came to the attention of the public in 1978 when their spoof documentary "All You Need is Cash" aired.

Josephson tells us some of his favorite mohel jokes.

Satirist and host of the public radio program Le Show, Harry Shearer considers the upcoming Presidential inauguration of George W. Bush and has some parting remarks about President Clinton.

Comedian Richard Lewis. His new book is called “The Other Great Depression,” (Public Affairs, 2000) and chronicles his recovery from alcoholism. He’s an award winning stand up comic and has appeared in over twenty movies and TV shows. Currently, he co-stars in Larry David’s HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Director/producer Nick Park is the academy award- winning creator of the much-loved animated British characters Wallace & Gromit. Director/producer Peter Lord is Chairman and co-founder of the clay animation studios Aardman, where Park created his short films featuring Wallace & Gromit (“A Grand Day Out,” “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave.”) They collaborated on their first full-length feature film, “Chicken Run” an animated escape film with chickens as the escapers. It’s now out on video. (REBROADCAST FROM 6/19/2000)

The documentary film, "Let Me In, I Hear Laughter: a Salute to the Friars" provides an inside look at the club where show business entertainers meet and then roast each other. The 1999 film has just been released on video. Such comic luminaries as George Burns, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, as well as entertainers Will Rogers, George M. Cohan, and Irving Berlin were members of the Friars club. We listen back to an interview with two current members of the Friars-- Freddie Roman, the Dean of the New York Friars' Club, and comic Jeffrey Ross.