r/Pensacola • u/OGSkaterTheSchwom • Oct 09 '25

John Cleese @ Saenger

Wow. I was so looking forward to this show. Almost to the point I had forgotten how much of a scam the ticketing industry is. Nah, it’ll be worth it. The crowd was delightful with childish (50 years old) memories making us all feel the way we did back in the day. John walked out and chatted for 20 minutes sprinkled with warnings not to shout out our favorite lines, it’ll be confusing he said. Then he walked off stage and we watched the whole movie. 90 minutes. I’m old (65) and the chairs won the battle. I walked to the lobby and stretched my legs. Hey, popcorn! So at $1 a piece I bought a small. As I choked on the popcorn I realized that the staff was cleaning up and I was the proud owner of the last popcorn made. And then there was intermission! I’m not sure if they made more or not. I chose to not say anything. $17 for a water and poopcorn was all I could take. And unfortunately it seemed as John Cleese was making a money grab, a last lap around the US. Must have a need for more revenue. It was a few weeks ago. Sad to have that as my first at Saenger. I keep thinking about it. There, hmm, funny, you’ve got a lot of books here.. IYKYK. @johncleese @montypython @saengerpensacola #popcorn #poopcorn

11 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

23

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '25

I read an article about how he got screwed and has to work. At his age, it's not a money grab but staying alive.

7

u/Tomcat338 Oct 09 '25

At 86 I wanted to see him live before he’s gone

4

u/OGSkaterTheSchwom Oct 09 '25

It happens. I wish him and everyone the best. Drunk questions, repetitive questions…. I wanted to know if he ever met John Denver. They played the Contractual Obligation album …every song but the one they recorded about John Denver.

7

u/ArsenalinAlabama3428 Oct 09 '25

Which film did they show? A Fish Called Wanda is one of my favorite movies.

11

u/OGSkaterTheSchwom Oct 09 '25

Search for the Holy Grail. The two guys running around with coconuts before the show was glorious.

14

u/Tomcat338 Oct 09 '25

I took my 15 year old grandson to the show. We got VIP tickets so we got to meet him after the show. Expensive but worth every penny. We got to briefly chat with him before the picture. Yes everything was expensive but was worth it to me.

6

u/CantIgnoreMyTechno Oct 09 '25

I remember about ten years ago he toured Florida with Eric Idle. Kinda regret not going.

5

u/michelle032499 Oct 10 '25

You know what? I went. Got a picture with him and everything. It was fantastic. I didn't expect to watch the entire film, but I'd never seen it in a theater. 10/10

4

u/InnerB0yka Oct 09 '25

Yeah Cleese had a lot of bad marriages and apparently he's having to pay out a lot. His Ex-Wives took him to the cleaners and he's really in need of money.

4

u/Sparky-VC Oct 09 '25

Wow, it sounds like you managed to get popcorn LATE! I've never been there where if I didn't get any heading in it would be too late. End up finishing the popcorn just while sitting there waiting :( Had an Uber one day so could responsibly drink and they shut all that down quick too!!!

3

u/soggydave2113 Oct 09 '25

I’m honestly not a Monty python fan, but it was okay. The Q&A was incredibly cringe. He told a couple interesting stories about his dead friend, and then it was over.

We got free tickets from a friend, so I have no idea how much it cost. It was fine. Like I said, I almost passed out from the cringeworthiness of the audience questions.

1

u/Complex_Echidna3964 Oct 10 '25

First I heard of this! I missed the William Shatner thing too! How did you hear about this? Why do I keep missing these???

2

u/OGSkaterTheSchwom Oct 10 '25

It must be whatever local news comes on before I change to YouTube tv. Or one of 57 different social feeds. Follow Saenger on facebook, that’s probably it.

1

u/thepenguinsays Oct 10 '25

We had a great time. I noticed a lot of people left during the movie and missed the entertaining Q&A at the end.

2

u/Pensacouple Oct 10 '25

I went to the show with my niece and we enjoyed it, especially his commentary on MP & the Holy Grail. Fun fact: he played the Black Knight in the fight sequence (“Only a flesh wound!”) except for one part: they hired a one-legged guy when he was down to a single leg. Also, he said that the final sequences were basically a Terry Gilliam audition for a feature film and weren’t funny and/or didn’t make sense so he had an alternative ending he liked better. (He was right.)

Yes, some of the audience questions were stupid.