Brian Brinegar grew up practicing his silly walks, honing his British accent and reciting pithy phrases like “my brain hurts.”
“Monty Python is my geek-out. Other people have ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Star Trek,’ but I have Python,” said Brinegar, 38, a stand-up comedian from Gorham. “It’s probably why I didn’t date until I was 20. Most girls don’t want to hear the dead parrot sketch on their first date.”
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But other stand-up comics — and millions of regular folks — are fairly fluent in the language of Python. Thus the annual Monty Python Night at Slainte Wine Bar & Lounge in Portland, hosted by Brinegar.
Comedians want to do Python, and Python geeks can’t get enough.
The next one is tonight, and it’s officially billed as “The Fourth Annual Fifth Monty Python Night.” It’s got an appropriately silly name, which also happens to make sense.
“The first time we did one, everybody wanted to be a part of it. People even showed up in costume. So the next one we did was not a year later,” said Brinegar. “This is the fifth one, but only the fourth annual.”
Tonight’s Monty Python Night will feature comedians who perform at Slainte’s open-mic comedy nights throughout the year.
The comics do skits from the British comedy troupe’s legendary TV show, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” as well as from movies such as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and “Life of Brian.”
So you might see an interpretation of the cheese shop or the ministry of silly walks, hear someone break out in “The Lumberjack Song,” or overhear iconic lines like “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”
Or there might be a character muttering something like “Why don’t you have the Spam, bacon, Spam, Spam, eggs and Spam, that doesn’t have much Spam in it.”
Audience members in the past have shown up wearing armor like characters from “Holy Grail.” Last year, Brinegar gave out free cans of Spam.
So what exactly does Brinegar think is the appeal of Monty Python?
“They did silly in a very smart way,” he said. “There are times when I know something, and I realize the only reason I know it is from Python.”
Like the fact that the Romans developed public sanitation and a system of roads, for example.
Although Monty Python’s heyday on TV and in film was the 1970s and ’80s, thanks to re-runs and cable, their unique humor is still gaining new fans — like Brinegar’s 10-year-old son, Westley, who may perform one of the Gumby sketches tonight with his dad.
The Gumbys were characters in a recurring Python skit who wore handkerchiefs on their heads and rolled-up pants, and shouted things like “my brain hurts.”
“I can’t really explain some of the appeal,” said Brinegar, “you just have to see it.”
And tonight would be a good time to do that.
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com
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