Monty Python Live! shows (minus the animation and Neil Innes songs), alongside a selection of lesser performed sketches plus some new comedy pieces written specially for the book. Monty Python Live! Monty Python Live! is a book detailing the various live performances of the Monty Python team between 1971 and 1980. Edited by Eric Idle, the book was released in 2009 as part of the team’s 40th anniversary celebrations and features recollections from surviving members John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, alongside archive interviews with Graham Chapman. Also contributing are Python regulars Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes, promoter
Monty Python settled on "Python". On other occasions, Idle has claimed that the name "Monty" was that of a popular and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub; people would often walk in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to become stuck in his mind. The name Monty Python was later described by the BBC as being "envisaged by the team as the perfect name for a sleazy entertainment agent". "Flying Circus" popularised innovative formal techniques, such as the cold open, in which an episode began without the traditional opening titles or announcements. An example