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 in three, Chapman in two, and Gilliam in one. Idle did not participate in the Amnesty shows. Notwithstanding Idle's lack of participation, the other five members (together with "Associate Pythons" Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes) all appeared together in the first "Secret Policeman's Ball" benefit—the 1976 "A Poke in the Eye"—where they performed several Python sketches. In this first show, they were collectively billed as "Monty Python". (Peter Cook deputised for the errant Idle in a courtroom sketch.) In the next three shows, the participating Python members performed many Python sketches, but were billed under their individual names rather than