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This is a collection of lectures given by John Cleese as a guest professor at Cornell over roughly a dozen years. Topics covered include: creativity, writing, comedy, religion, and lemurs. The interview with novelist/playwright/script doctor William Goldman was pretty interesting. The other lectures are repetitive and fall flat.
I enjoyed this book - the book complies some of the speeches that Cleese has give at Cornell while he has served as the professor-at-large. I particularly enjoyed the following two topics:1- Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind- Cleese talks about the importance of taking our times to make decisions and gives further resources about the idea of being decisive.2- The Human Face- This one really hit close to home for me. Despite being written in 2001, with a discourse about facial recognition cameras, our sc...
While not all of the chapters are spectacular, some are, and all well worth reading. Excellent book!
As part of my former career, I created and ran a corporate university for a property and casualty insurance company. So, I was not only acquainted with the work of John Cleese from his “Monty Python” and “Fawlty Towers” days, but also with most of the training videos released through his company, Video Arts. Because of this, I had a good idea of the type of material that would be contained in this book, and I was not disappointed. PROFESSOR AT LARGE contains transcripts of seven sessions of the
Suffice it to say that I’ve been a fan of Cleese and his work for years – from Monty Python to Harry Potter’s Nearly Headless Nick. But this isn’t simply a collection of funny stories presented with the sharp-wit, layered comedy for which he’s known. No these essays are insightful and probing, intelligent and requiring the reader (or listener) to approach each moment with an attitude that allows you to travel along the pathways and branches to the ultimate point, or a new way of viewing that poi...
The wonderful humor of John Cleese and his troop Monty Python enabled me to have some laughs while in grad school. This book certainly has the feel and tone of those days while also raising important issues in our culture. As a visiting professor at Cornell University, he put together a series of campus presentations that get us thinking about a diverse set of issues in not only higher education but across our culture. There’s plenty of funny stuff. But there is so much more.
An excellent sample of the serious Cleese, who is still and always humorous but also very insightful, provocative, intelligent, sensitive, and intellectually rigorous. Definitely worth reading and engaging.
Book Review: Professor at Large: The Cornell Years by John Cleese"And now for something completely different!" I anticipated an exceptionally hilarious reading experience for printed material associated with the name "John Cleese" of the Monty Python fame, fondly remembered as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers and as James Bond's lanky R or Q, a genuinely funny and likable man.Instead the book enlightens the reader on lectures, interviews and insights into a highly accompl...
Synopsis: This is a non fiction book of dictated discussions John Cleese engaged in at Cornell University. My rating: 4/5This book covered a wide variety of topics including facial recognition technology, creative thought processes, the reality of Hollywood, and collaboration.I had expected the book to be more of a stand up comedy routine but it wasn't. It was very funny but it was much more serious than I had anticipated. It was like a professor giving a lecture and adding in an occasional humo...
I found this book astonishing and absolutely fascinating. Professor at Large, The Cornell Years by John Cleese is a window into the mind of the well known English actor, writer and comedian of Monty Python fame. He was invited to be a Fellow guest Professor at Ivy League Cornell University in 1999. He was asked to spend two week periods during which he lectured, lead master classes and an amazing array of other activities. What many don’t realize is that John Cleese is a man of high intellect an...
Tony Hancock’s comic persona, like the man himself, was bent on self-education. Having left school at the age of fifteen, Hancock spent the rest of his too short life trying to cultivate his mind by grappling with the likes of Kant and Bertrand Russell.John Cleese, by contrast, is an erudite and highly articulate Cambridge-educated writer-performer whose inquiring mind ranges widely and intelligently. These characteristics are showcased in ‘Professor at Large’ - a collection of writings reflecti...
I will be upfront: I've been waiting for decades for an interlude between Cleese's marriages to snap him up for myself. And am an unreconstructed Monty Python fan. And once upon a time I was hired to work at a university where our new employee orientation included several of Cleese's customer service videos. So of COURSE I was going to read this. This is NOT Monty Python. Or even Cleese's memoir "So, Anyway." Instead, it is a compilation of lectures, discussions, interviews, and even a sermon (!...
