John Cleese is one of my favorite people. I’ve always found him hilarious, ever since I was watching reruns of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers on PBS as a kid. When I recently learned that Cleese had authored Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide, I thought it would be worth a read. Creativity is more like a long essay than an actual book, so you’ll probably breeze through it.
Maybe the best thing about Creativity is that as I was reading the book, I heard John Cleese’s distinctive voice in my head, and that brought a smile to my face. My only quibble with Creativity is that I wish Cleese shared more stories about his life as a writer. He tells us that he went through thirteen drafts of the screenplay for A Fish Called Wanda, but I would have liked more details about this. What did he change from draft to draft? What got stronger as he kept revising? Maybe that’s for a longer, more detailed book.
Cleese is a strong proponent of the idea that the unconscious mind sometimes has our best ideas. I’m quite inclined to agree with him. Cleese writes “When you’re being creative there is no such thing as a mistake.” (p.48) Cleese also warns us “It is, however, very important that when you first have a new idea, you don’t get critical too soon.” (p.62) Don’t listen to your brain’s version of “The Colonel,” the character Graham Chapman played on Monty Python who would stop sketches because they were “too silly.” Allow your brain to play and roam. That’s how you might come up with such brilliance as “the Dead Parrot sketch.”
If you’re an artist of any kind, or if you just want to stretch your creative muscles, Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide, is a fun companion on the journey.
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