It sounds empowering, doesn't it? So president of Footlights , kind of quite a prominent role. And then you discovered-- with Mike Myers, you discovered this whole area of improv that wasn't widely known.
And there was a guy selling tickets for us. He'd heard of Footlights because of Monty Python. He was selling tickets.
Then he said, come and join the Footlights . And the Footlights was founded in 1883. And it was a revue society.
You talk some about the creative process, both here and in the book, and you mentioned getting your start at Cambridge in terms of performing with the Footlights , and that's also around the time you started developing a creative process with Graham Chapman, right? Can you talk a little bit about what your process was like and how it changed over the years?
Fantastic. And I know-- because by an incident of time travel, I followed you at university, although I'm much older-- that you were president of Footlights at Cambridge. So just how did you get into the arena of comedy?
Anyway, I got on the committee. I got to be president of Footlights . And that's when my dad said, is this what you want to do?
So can you tell us a little bit about that moment? That moment was-- the Cambridge Footlights toured Australia because people had heard of the Footlights . Then we came back.
The year after us were now the Cambridge Footlights . So we had to be ex-Cambridge Footlights . We put that on a poster at a tiny theater in Notting Hill here in West London.
And this was very addictive, this fix of getting laughs. And so then I heard about the Cambridge Footlights , which was famous because of Monty Python and many other comedians. And since then, people might have heard of Olivia Colman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mitchell and Webb, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson.
Then we came back. The year after us were now the Cambridge Footlights . So we had to be ex-Cambridge Footlights .
to jump in and do that. Much less because I realized when I was with the Cambridge Footlights , they were brilliant people who were very good at writing sketches. And I wasn't. Right.
Why was it so different? Well, of the Footlights Club, it was in Cambridge.
tradition still being played out in the Senus and flesh of those people who devote themselves to it on either side of the Footlights both listeners and performers we recognize things about who we've been in the music and who we hope to to be but in a way the the kind of
And it was great to meet him. Then he said, come and join the Footlights . And the Footlights was founded in 1883.
And it became something-- it has a very big role in British comedy. So can you tell us more, a little bit about this Footlights Club and how come it became so important? Well, it was-- this is the other Cambridge, by the way.
And it was a revue society. And I'm very proud of the thing, because I eventually became president of Footlights . And women were not allowed.
Why was it so different? And how did it affect your later writing and starring on the-- Well, the Footlights was always about writing and performing.
You were-- We used to have something at my middle school, Grady Middle School in Houston, Texas, and it was, like, the Gators Elite. And so by looking at structures and really like honing-in on what that entertainment business is about from the other side, not from the footlights ,
So it was very entertaining. So now, because we are in Cambridge, and you moved to Cambridge, enjoyed Cambridge University Footlights Club. And it became something-- it has a very big role in British comedy.
And women were not allowed. So the first thing I, as a little oik, did was to change the rules and admit women to the Footlights , which was-- I'm proud of that.