Monty Python's Graham Chapman - Looks Like A Brown Trouser Job

Monty Python's Graham Chapman - Looks Like A Brown Trouser Job


Starring:Graham Chapman
Director: Richard S. Miller
Studio: Rykodisc
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
In what is surely the most laconic comedy concert film ever made, Graham Chapman of the Monty Python troupe entertains worshipful audiences of college students during a 1988 tour of the United States. Chapman proves a warm and delightful raconteur as he recalls skiing down a Swiss mountainside in a wooden gondola, Keith Moon (drummer for rock band the Who) using explosives to chastize a hotel manager, and appeaing naked during the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Be warned: As the packaging is quick to note, the film and audio quality are not professional; this is virtually a home movie. Nonetheless, Chapman's relaxed poise and impeccable deadpan delivery give his stories a dry wit that any Python fan will enjoy. The extras, in addition to having further samples from the question-and-answer sessions with the audience, includes footage of Chapman being hurled into the air by industrial elastic and an Iron Maiden video in which he appears as a stern schoolmaster. --Bret Fetzer
Description
In the early 1980s, Monty Python's Graham Chapman embarked upon a second career as a public speaker. Throughout the decade he toured hundreds of North American colleges delivering "comedy lectures" which consisted of tales from his life, adventures with an ad hoc group of adrenaline junkies called the Dangerous Sports Club, equally dangerous friends like the Who's Keith Moon and, of course, his fellow Pythons. In the spring of 1988 he launched his final college tour before his death in 1989, the best of which is presented here, videotaped under Graham's supervision and taken from his personal archives. It's a historical - and hysterical - document, capturing Graham at the peak of his comedic powers, at ease and at home before a crowd of Chapmaniacs.
Monty Python's Graham Chapman - Looks Like A Brown Trouser Job
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Skiing In A Wretched Wooden Gondola And Other Dangerous Sports
  • Superb!
  • Hilarious! A Rare Find!
  • Where's the subtitles?
  • Best Comedy DVD 0f The Year!
 Monty Python's Graham Chapman - Looks Like A Brown Trouser Job
Starring: Graham Chapman
Director: Richard S. Miller
Manufacturer: Rykodisc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Chapman, GrahamChapman, Graham | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
DVDs Under $7.49DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( M )( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Do Not Adjust Your Set
  2. At Last the 1948 Show
  3. The Complete Ripping Yarns
  4. Beyond the Fringe
  5. John Cleese - The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It

ASIN: B0007YMUJ8
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Amazon.com

In what is surely the most laconic comedy concert film ever made, Graham Chapman of the Monty Python troupe entertains worshipful audiences of college students during a 1988 tour of the United States. Chapman proves a warm and delightful raconteur as he recalls skiing down a Swiss mountainside in a wooden gondola, Keith Moon (drummer for rock band the Who) using explosives to chastize a hotel manager, and appeaing naked during the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Be warned: As the packaging is quick to note, the film and audio quality are not professional; this is virtually a home movie. Nonetheless, Chapman's relaxed poise and impeccable deadpan delivery give his stories a dry wit that any Python fan will enjoy. The extras, in addition to having further samples from the question-and-answer sessions with the audience, includes footage of Chapman being hurled into the air by industrial elastic and an Iron Maiden video in which he appears as a stern schoolmaster. --Bret Fetzer

Description

In the early 1980s, Monty Python's Graham Chapman embarked upon a second career as a public speaker. Throughout the decade he toured hundreds of North American colleges delivering "comedy lectures" which consisted of tales from his life, adventures with an ad hoc group of adrenaline junkies called the Dangerous Sports Club, equally dangerous friends like the Who's Keith Moon and, of course, his fellow Pythons. In the spring of 1988 he launched his final college tour before his death in 1989, the best of which is presented here, videotaped under Graham's supervision and taken from his personal archives. It's a historical - and hysterical - document, capturing Graham at the peak of his comedic powers, at ease and at home before a crowd of Chapmaniacs.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Skiing In A Wretched Wooden Gondola And Other Dangerous Sports.......2005-12-28

Graham Chapman was, I believe, the most deranged and probably funniest of all the Pythons, and this DVD, though occasionally marred by technical shortcomings, showcases his amazing sense of humor perfectly. These presentations were taken from various live speaking events at US college campuses in 1988. The first two thirds of the DVD is material that is largely a series of recollections and reminiscences some of which involve Monty Python, and some of which do not.

The breadth of the material is staggering, but my favorite recollections involve his participation in a group called the "Dangerous Sports Club" which sponsored insane activities like hang gliding above active volcanoes, catapult-related events, and downhill skiing whilst attached to inappropriate objects, in Graham's case a "wretched" wooden Italian gondola appropriated from a local restaurant and containing Graham, a dubious member of the aristocracy, and an inappropriate club mascot in boxer shorts. This event gave rise to the DVD title, as it apparently was a real "brown trouser job."

The last third of the DVD is devoted to questions and answers, and Graham really delivers with outstanding spontaneity and wit. The audience asked interesting questions, and the answers were both funny and insightful.

Any fan of Graham Chapman, Monty Python, or humor in general will love this DVD. I give it five stars for some of the funniest comedy material ever released on DVD.

5 out of 5 stars Superb!.......2005-10-06

As a historial document this DVD is all we have of Chapman's legendary 'US college tours' in the 1980s and for that reason alone this is worth every penny. As a piece of entertainment, this DVD also delivers. If you only know him from the Python TV series or their movies then it will be a revelation to you. He's warm and funny and a superb storyteller who will have you laughing from the opening salvo of "give me 30 seconds of abuse' to the final goodnight. Chock-a-block with some rare bonus features and a cooler-than-it-had-to-be package and you have a wonderful evening's entertainment as well as a historical record. Obviously, a must for the fan but also a good one for folks who just enjoy some great storytelling. Money, and time, well-spent.

5 out of 5 stars Hilarious! A Rare Find!.......2005-07-29

Man, what a rare find this is! I came to Python late, after they had broken up and so never got to see Graham Chapman live. This amazing DVD makes me feel as if he's still alive and spinning stories! Okay okay, so the video quality is so-so, but it didn't matter really after the first minute, I went with the stories and laughed my bum off! This DVD is so special I can't suggest any stronger that you buy it. LONG LIVE GRAHAM! Hey--ya got anything else in the vaults???

5 out of 5 stars Where's the subtitles?.......2005-07-13

Great stuff! Yeah, it's basically "home video" quality, but so what? There's probably no other extant footage of this that's any better, unless someone in the audience shot it with a better camera!

After reading the joke sticker on the package saying (amongst other humorous things) that the disc had Latin, Sanskrit, & Aramaic subtitles, I was just a little disappointed to find out that the disc has no actual subtitles. I know it was just a joke, but it would've been a great joke if there were actual Latin, Sanskrit, & Aramaic subtitles supplied -- not necessarily actual translations (which wouldn't be worth the effort for the joke, in my opinion!), but just any ol' text, like how, on _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, they supplied subtitles "for people who don't like the movie" taken from Shakespeare's _Henry IV_!

5 out of 5 stars Best Comedy DVD 0f The Year!.......2005-05-09

You'll hear some minor grumblings from techonerds about the picture quality of this DVD, but who cares? The content matters, and this DVD delivers in spades! This is super cool, super rare footage of the one and only Graham Chapman of Python in his prime in the late 80s. This DVD is so funny with so many hilarious bits that it gets my vote as BEST COMEDY DVD OF 2005. If you're a Python fan--buy it without even thinking twice, and if you just love some well-told stories by a really really funny man, buy it too. Great bonus stuff too! This tour released on DVD has been long-anticipated (for almost 20 years) and now here it is--it's a masterpiece!

DVD:

  1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Full Screen Edition)
  2. The Paper
  3. Bossa Nova
  4. The Abbott and Costello Show Featuring "Who's on First?" "Don Juan Costello" & "Two Tens for a Five"
  5. Lightning Jack
  6. The Wackiest Ship in the Army
  7. Look Who's Talking
  8. Pleasantville (New Line Platinum Series)
  9. The Fighting Temptations (Widescreen Edition)
  10. The Inspector General

DVD List

DVD

DVD

Not So Long Ago

Robot Wars - Chaos 2 : DVD

Doc: Season 1 [3 Discs] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Hakutsuru- Secret of the White Crane

Blutiger Freitag