The full Monty

THERE'S nothing like a bitter - and costly - divorce to drive a man back to work. It was a nasty fate that befell British comedian John Cleese when he split from his third wife a few years ago. In 2011, he embarked on a one-man show - aptly dubbed The Alimony Tour - to help pay the bills and three years on, he's still making the rounds in order to replenish his retirement fund and provide a nest-egg for his children.

On the plus side, however, the divorce - along with a lifetime of comic memories - provided ample material which the writer, actor and tall person (as described on his website) put to good use in front of a packed house during An Evening with John Cleese at the NUS Cultural Centre last Sunday night.

The show, the first of a two-night run in Singapore and presented in the form of a monologue on his life and career, went down favourably with the audience, many of them die-hard Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fans. With deadpan humour and in typical self-deprecating fashion Cleese, 74, strolled down memory lane, reminiscing about his life and 50-plus years at the forefront of British comedy, aided by faded photographs and decades-old movie and television clips. Family, friends, fellow Pythons and at least one former wife (Connie Booth) featured prominently during the evening.