He’s one of the world’s foremost travel presenters. But before he was the man who spent most of his year jaunting around the world, Michael Palin was an actor, writer and – oh yes – Monty Python member. He sets down his backpack long enough to share some war stories.
Robert DeNiro, my hero, and there I am being shot by him!” exclaims Michael Palin. “What a great moment in my professional career!”
As Palin has just revealed, the next instalment of his award-winning travel programme will take him to Brazil, and now the conversation has turned to Terry Gilliam’s celluloid masterpiece of the same name.
“He turned out to be a total pro but I didn’t have a lot of scenes with him,” continues Palin. “One day we had lunch but he doesn’t chat a lot. I wanted to ask him everything, ‘How do you do that look?’, ‘How do you do that move?’ But I think we ended up talking about the weather. It’s like meeting Nelson Mandela and talking about shopping!”
Hot Press is chatting to Palin in advance of his visit to Dublin as part of the Dublin Writer’s Festival when he will give a career-spanning talk in the National Concert Hall.
And what a career it has been, from his early days with comic surrealists Monty Python to his award-winning travel documentaries via sundry film roles (A Fish Called Wanda, A Private Function, the Python trilogy to name but a few), extensive television work and numerous writing endeavours.
Over the years his publications have run the gamut of literary genres; fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting, memoirs and even children’s books.
“Each type of writing is a challenge,” says Palin. “For example, if you’re writing comedy material you have to be very precise. In your mind you have to hear the rhythm of the joke and that is very demanding. When we were doing Monty Python all those years ago it just kind of spilt out. It seemed very easy!”
Michael has retained his comedian’s instinct to entertain, and this urge has continued to shape his output.
“Everything I write, even a piece travelling across Tibet or something, I am always looking for the comic potential,” he admits. “I’m always trying to think of my audience and how to make my work more enjoyable.
Palin admits his travel writing has given him a new respect for the skills of reportage.
“I have great admiration for reporters and foreign correspondents and the concision and presision they have to have,” he concedes. “I am learning to distinguish what is important and what isn’t important and also be entertaining.”
The actual logistics of writing his travel books are quite demanding, as whilst on location he is at the whim of the production crew.
“I take notebooks away with me and take notes whenever I can during the day,” he says. “That can be difficult as when you’re presenting you can be called up a mountain or taken out whitewater rafting at any moment! I write the books when I get home.”
These rigours however pale in comparison to the challenge of fiction.
“I have recently being doing a novel which is the most difficult type of writing because you have to believe in yourself for a long period of time,” he reveals.
Palin’s first fictional title Hemingway’s Chair was published in 1995, the story of a British postmaster that develops an unhealthy obsession with the titular author.
“I love novels,” Michael says. “I love the work of imagination and I have got to make sure that I use my imagination again in some way rather than just observing what is going on.”
And when can we expect the tome to hit the shelves?
“I’ve completed it,” he states cautiously. “It’s with the publishers at the moment. I don’t want to get into too much detail because it may never happen and I don’t want to tempt fate! It’s a contemporary novel and it has comedic but it also has serious points.”
As mentioned his next project will be another installment of his popular travel show, on this occasion visiting Brazil.
“I went over for the first time about a month ago and spent about 11 days there to get a feel for the place,” explains Michael. “I had to make sure my initial instinct that it would be a good country to work in was right. Just because I haven’t been there doesn’t mean there will be a lot of stories! But it actually was fantastic and I was greatly reasssured.”
“It is a real breath of fresh air, so very, very different to the UK, physically different and emotionally different,” he adds. “The people are much more upfront and outward, extrovert in away. I felt we can get some good stories there and the people are the sort of people who want to tell you their stories, which always helps.”
Palin most recently starred on the small screen in a BBC documentary about Beatles producer George Martin.
“What interested me about that programme is how much The Pythons shared with The Beatles,” he explains. “There was Paul saying how much the Peter Sellers album The Swinging Sellers had been played again and again by him and his friends in Liverpool and that was what I was listening to when I was at school. And Spike Milligan and The Goons, we shared very similar comic roots actually.”
“When George Harrison helped make The Life Of Brian The Pythons and The Beatles got together and found we had very much more in common than we thought. That was great because they were distant god-like figures to us and then we found out they liked what we were doing too.”
Palin highlights the second of the Python trilogy as his favourite film outing.
“I really enjoyed the various roles I did in The Life Of Brian, that was really good fun,” he muses. “The great thing was you could be a different character everyday. I think I played about 11 different characters but that was my favourite film, it was a great expereince.”
Michael still keeps in touch with his former troupe.
“I see Terry Jones quite regularly, he lives just up the road. Gilliam is always busy on things but I do see him. John – yes when he is in London but less than I see the two Terrys. Eric not so often.”
As our time is drawing to a close, I quiz the author on his current reading material.
“I’m reading a book called Brazil by John Updike and Keith Richards’ Life – which I’m thoroughly enjoying.”
Two titles which compliment each other well we venture, one for light relief and one for more serious moments.
“I’m not sure which is which sometimes!” he laughs.
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An evening with Michael Palin will be held in the National Concert Hall on May 25 as part of the Dublin Writers Festival. www.dublinwritersfestival.com
