Monty Python star Eric Idle tells fans: I still have to work aged 80

Eric Idle performs at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics in London. Photo / AP

Comedian Eric Idle has revealed he still has to “work for a living” at 80, claiming income from the Monty Python back catalogue has tailed off “disastrously”.

Idle, one of the Monty Pythons, said he has had to sell his house and it was “not easy” at his age to continue working.

“I don’t know why people always assume we’re loaded,” Idle wrote on social media, in a stream of responses to members of the public.

“Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age.”

Another asked how much his house was worth. Idle revealed he had “sold it last year”.

His salmon-pink Spanish-style home in the Hollywood Hills was listed for US$6.5 million ($10.6m) in 2023.

“We own everything we ever made in Python and I never dreamed that at this age the income streams would tail off so disastrously,” he said.

The financial problems of members of Monty Python are well documented.

Idle was among the six-strong original line-up alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

In 2013, as they announced a 10-night live O2 reunion show, they were candid about the financial imperative with Michael Palin saying “Python wasn’t earning much”.

The group had incurred US$200,000 in damages plus court fees during a court dispute with a producer over royalties for spin-off theatre show Spamalot.

They regularly made jokes out of their various financial situations, including acknowledging that Cleese had divorce settlements to pay and Jones “a mortgage to pay off”.

The reunion, Monty Python Live (mostly) – One Down Five to Go, sold out and was followed by a documentary, Monty Python – The Meaning of Live.

Terry Jones, left, Graham Chapman and Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Photo / Supplied

‘Too late’ for financial security

In 2018, rights to much of the Monty Python television and film back catalogue were sold to Netflix.

Idle began sharing details of his income after he had asked, on social media, how he could keep “Trump-related stuff” out of his sight, and a member of the public replied to ask whether he was willing to spend “some of your Spamalot money to buy Twitter”.

Idle wrote the 2005 musical Spamalot, which has been performed in the West End, Broadway and in Las Vegas for many years.

He suggested that part of the problem was that “copyright ain’t worth jack s*** any more”.

When a fan said he and all the Pythons deserved to be financially secure for life, he replied: “Too late, alas.”

On the suggestion they could do a Netflix documentary, he added: “F*** Netflix and f*** documentaries.”

“A fool and his money are easily parted.”

He went on to clarify he did not want fans to feel sorry for him and was merely explaining why he was not as rich as they may assume.

“I don’t mind not being wealthy. I prefer being funny,” he said. “I don’t like being assumed to be wealthy. It’s different.”

He added: “I’m engaged and writing. It’s the thing I do and like the most.

“A fool and his money are easily parted. Imagine how quickly a group can do it…”

In 2016 Idle told The Telegraph that The BBC paid each of the original cast £2,000 ($4100) a series for writing and performing.

Palin told The Telegraph in 2013: “The real thing was Python itself wasn’t earning much”.

“Python product around the world wasn’t really being pushed very well. The cupboard was a bit bare.”

According to Companies House records, Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd made £158,544 in 2013, which dropped to £89,642 in 2014, rising again to £184,869 in 2017. In 2019 it dropped to £81,442 before recovering to £120,710 in 2022.

The members of the Monty Python team have had very different careers and fortunes since they transformed comedy first on television and then in their films Life Of Brian and The Meaning Of Life. According to Eric Idle, they were paid just £2,000 each for a season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus which aired from 1969 until 1974.

Spamalot royalties were shared out

After the break-up of the troupe Cleese was the first to achieve enormous success in his own show Fawlty Towers, and then in Hollywood starring in A Fish Called Wanda, but he has had to pay out millions of pounds over three divorces.

Idle notably drew upon his Python past to create Spamalot, the hugely successful stage musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which took in far more than £100 million in its initial run on Broadway alone, with royalties shared with other Python members.

While still making forays into comedy Palin branched out on a new career as a travel presenter starting with his 1989 BBC series Around The World In 80 Days. Also a bestselling author, Palin’s fortune was estimated at £14 million a decade ago.

The other surviving member, Terry Gilliam, became a leading Hollywood director whose films have enjoyed critical acclaim and occasional box office success – 12 Monkeys with Bruce Willis took £135 million – but also sometimes proved to be monumental flops, with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen pulling in just $8 million against a budget estimated at $46 million.

Python partners

Behind the scenes, the Python troupe was composed of mini-cliques.

John Cleese and Graham Chapman met while they were at Cambridge, both joining Footlights and writing sketches together in a long-lasting partnership that was ended by Chapman’s death at the age of 48 in 1989.

Having met at Oxford, Palin and Jones also became a self-contained writing partnership within the Python team.

They remained close friends until Jones’ death in 2020.

Although also a Cambridge student and Footlights member, Idle was the odd man out among the Pythons, often writing sketches on his own.

As an American, Gilliam also stood apart from the rest, with his distinctive animations complementing the others’ work.