I used to serve Cleese meatballs at a local market. He's as funny in person as he is in his work. I don't think he can help it. I'm glad more people are getting to experience it, no matter the reason.
Cleese comes across as more the artisan than certain of his old partners. He was the first to leave Monty Python, because the skits weren't at the level of wit he wanted, and because others were complaining about his need to endlessly revise lines till they gleamed. He then went on to make Fawlty Towers, which is easily one of the three best things to come out of Python grads.
There's nothing so spectacularly funny as a bunch of Americans paying you millions to play a couple of scenes in a half-baked slap-stick comedy that'll require hardly any comedic effort.
