Professor at Large , livre ebook

Cornell University Press - Cleese John

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

246 pages

English

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

And now for something completely different. Professor at Large features beloved English comedian and actor John Cleese in the role of Ivy League professor at Cornell University. His almost twenty years as professor-at-large has led to many talks, essays, and lectures on campus. This collection of the very best moments from Cleese under his mortarboard provides a unique view of his endless pursuit of intellectual discovery across a range of topics. Since 1999, Cleese has provided Cornell students and local citizens with his ideas on everything from scriptwriting to psychology, religion to hotel management, and wine to medicine.His incredibly popular events and classes-including talks, workshops, and an analysis of A Fish Called Wanda and The Life of Brian-draw hundreds of people. He has given a sermon at Sage Chapel, narrated Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, conducted a class on script writing, and lectured on psychology and human development. Each time Cleese has visited the campus in Ithaca, NY, he held a public presentation, attended and or lectured in classes, and met privately with researchers. From the archives of these visits, Professor at Large includes an interview with screenwriter William Goldman, a lecture about creativity entitled, "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind," talks about Professor at Large and The Life of Brian, a discussion of facial recognition, and Cleese's musings on group dynamics with business students and faculty.Professor at Large provides a window into the workings of John Cleese's scholarly mind, showcasing the wit and intelligence that have driven his career as a comedian, while demonstrating his knack of pinpointing the essence of humans and human problems. His genius on the screen has long been lauded; now his academic chops get their moment in the spotlight, too.

Sujets

Higher education

Informations

Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 octobre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781501716607
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,7500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

PROFESSOR AT LARGE

In loving memory of Gerri Jones

PROFESSOR AT LARGE

The Cornell Years

JOHN CLEESE

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2018 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cleese, John, author. | Ceci, Stephen J., writer of introduction. Title: Professor at large : the Cornell years / John Cleese. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. Identiﬁers: LCCN 2018012833 (print) | LCCN 2018019175 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501716591 (e-book epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501716607 (e-book pdf) | ISBN 9781501716577 | ISBN 9781501716577 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Cleese, John. | Cornell University—Faculty. | Comedians—Great Britain—Interviews. | Motion picture actors and actresses—Great Britain—Interviews. Classiﬁcation: LCC PN2598.C47 (ebook) | LCC PN2598.C47 A5 2018 (print) | DDC 792.702/8092 [B] — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018012833

Cover photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images

CONTENTS

IntroductîonSTEPHEN J. CECI

vîî

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind JOHN CLEESE •APRIL 4, 1999

Screenwriting Seminar 19 JOHN CLEESE AND BILL GOLDMAN •OCTOBER 14, 2000

Sermon at Sage Chapel 79 JOHN CLEESE •APRIL 22, 2001

The Human Face 91 JOHN CLEESE AND STEPHEN J. CECI •APRIL 28, 2001

What Is Religion? Musings onLife of BrianJOHN CLEESE •OCTOBER 22, 2004

Creativity, Group Dynamics, and Celebrity JOHN CLEESE AND BETA MANNIX •APRIL 19, 2009

131

163

A Conversation with John Cleese 191 JOHN CLEESE AND DEAN JOHN SMITH •SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Index

223

INTRODUCTION

IT HAS BEEN ALMOST TWENTY YEARSsince I received a call froman old friend, Gerri Jones. She had worked as the administrator of the Andrew D. White ProfessoratLarge (PAL) Program at CornellUniversity for many years. Gerri shared with me Professor Porus Olpad wala’s dream to have John Cleese be nominated as a PAL. They areappointed for sixyear terms and asked to visit campus at least twice for twoweeks at a time during their appointments. However, because Porus waschair of the ProfessorsatLarge program, he was unable to nominate Cleese himself. Learning of this, Gerri asked me if I would be willing to spearhead the nomination. Faculty are asked annually to nominate eminent individuals to be PALs. The typical nominees for these pres tigious invitations are scholars, including Nobelists and recipients of other esteemed awards such as Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards. And this is how I came to nominate John Cleese (or JC, as we now affec tionately call him) to be an Andrew D. White ProfessoratLarge. To say that I immediately resonated with Gerri’s request is an under statement. I had never met JC, but like many of my colleagues, I was familiar with his oeuvre. Some of my familiarity resulted from having lived and studied in England for three years during the mid1970s.

viii

Introduction

During my time there,Monty Python’s Flying Circuswas erupting throughout the UK, shortly followed byMonty Python and the Holy GrailandLife of Brian. (It would be a couple of years before the show reached a comparable fever pitch in the U.S. and Canada.) So when Gerri called, I was both cognitively and emotionally prepared to be the faculty nominator of John Cleese. The rules for nominating PALs call for broad endorsement across the Cornell campus. So I began making calls to colleagues in various disciplines, from mathematics to the social sciences and humanities. I asked them to write supporting letters to accompany my nomina tion of JC. No one declined and, in fact, everyone was thrilled to be part of the plan. Once I drafted the nomination, it was cosigned by a diverse group of scholars. I submitted it to the committee and the rest is history! A month later the committee notiﬁed me that the nomination was successful, and I was asked to call JC to ﬁnd out if he would accept the invitation. This was exciting, but also intimidating. I did not know him personally, and I feared he might regard a coldcall invitation, at best, as an imposition on his time. I remember thinking the chance that I would actually reach him by phone was low. Gerri gave me a London telephone number that she said was afﬁliated with Cleese. I assumed it was an ofﬁce that he seldom frequented, so I planned to leave a mes sage that might get relayed to him. The person who answered turned out to be JC’s personal assistant. I explained to him the details of the invitation, how Cornell would pay for all costs associated with each visit, our expectations for the kind of events he might do, and more. The assistant took notes and said he would make sure Cleese got my message. He wasn’t kidding. Within a half hour my ofﬁce phone rang and it was none other than John Cleese, complete with his famously hilarious voice. We talked for ﬁfteen to twenty minutes and I remem ber being struck by how absolutely downtoearth and humble he was. There was nothing pretentious or haughty about him. He told me how honored he was to be nominated and how much it meant to him to be recognized by faculty members of an Ivy League university as a visiting

Introduction

professor. I was bowled over because I had assumed I would have to sell him on the idea. After all, it carried no remuneration aside from his travel costs and, in fact, would mean that he had to forgo work on lucrative ﬁlms and oneman shows while he was visiting each year. Yet he seemed genuinely thrilled and wanted to know when he could start. He was so keen that he actually started coming to Cornell before his appointment began so he could discuss with us our expectations. Perhaps I can be forgiven for my low hopes of getting JC to accept the PAL appointment. Cleese was, and remains, a huge talent. Within a few years of our phone conversation, he would go on to be voted by two hundred professional comedians as the secondbest comedian of all time, besting Groucho Marx, Laurel and Hardy, Peter Sellers, Steve Martin, and Woody Allen. So this man did not need Cornell to sealhis fame. Yet he came to Cornell and put on incredible events, including talks, workshops, and an analysis ofA Fish Called Wanda. And JC also did something that I had not foreseen: he asked not only to visit classes but to teach them, from script writing to psychology, religion, hotel management, and even medicine. Cleese was also fascinated by much of the research my colleagues were doing, and he often requested to sit in on their classes. They, of course, welcomed him with open arms. Thus, each visit was one in which JC delivered a public presentation, attended and lectured in classes, and met privately with researchers. On one occasion, he dropped in on my lab, which had around ﬁfteen students, mostly doctoral candidates. One of them was British. JC entered the seminar room a few minutes after we began and sat alone. I never introduced him, but my British graduate student recognized him, and the whispering spread like a contagion. When I asked her to describe to JC her research, this extremely articulate person became tonguetied. It was very amusing to see the reaction that JC had on most students (and not a few faculty members). After a few years, we added a new feature to his visits, assembling small groups of scholars for informal chat sessions. These proved pop ular, not only with JC but with the rest of us too. Speaking for myself and Gerri, we attended every one of these sessions and they quickly