Post-Script

Where are they Now?

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It's been roughly ten years since I was actively involved with the Penn State Monty Python Society. In that time, I've earned a Master's of Fine Arts in English, worked as a pizza delivery driver; as a reporter and assistant editor for a small town newspaper; as a public relations and marketing employee for a museum in Philadelphia; and currently as a freelance writer and editor.

I've started my own literary magazine, Wild Violet, and earned a few (too few) publishing credits. I've met, interviewed and/or photographed such people as Patch Adams, the Beach Boys, Julian Bond, Danny Glover and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But to date, my proudest accomplishment in that department is having secured an interview with Monty Python's Terry Jones, who incidentally ranks with Danny Glover as one of the nicest people you could ever interview.

More recently, I met Eric Idle at a signing after one of his stops along the "Greedy Bastard" tour. He very politely sidestepped the idea of an interview, but he graciously took a videotape containing the MPS feature segment, Free the Hole and The Coke-In. Full details of the experience appear elsewhere on my site.

Over the years, I've kept in touch with many of the MPS members. They're spread out all over the country now, but a good cluster of them is centered in the Northeastern U.S., namely Philadelphia.

We have amongst us a computer game writer (Mark Sachs), a part-time standup comedian (Steve "Attila the Pun" Gradess), an independent computer consultant (Jon "Kzin" Kilgannon) and various other career paths in the general areas of computers, finance and entertainment. This makes sense, when you consider that most of us were either computer or communications majors.

Matt Pyson has his own fan club and is surrounded by hordes of screaming fans and admirers. Well, "hordes" being roughly equivalent to 15. And they don't so much scream as whimper politely. My dog also likes him quite a bit.

Some of the guys got together and, for seven years, produced a project called Mystery Anime Theater 3000, where they spoofed bad Japanese animation movies for the annual Otakon convention. Jon Kilgannon spearheaded the effort, and over the years enlisted the writing and performing talents of many former MPS members, including Mark Sachs, Bernhard Warg, Matt Pyson and Joe Foering, as well as many who had never been MPS members but would certainly have fit in. I even contributed several lines to the most recent script.

Although they've decided to end on a high note and discontinue the project, rumor has it that they may just put their minds together and come up with more comedy endeavors in the future. This time, I hope to be involved more fully.

From left: Mark Sachs, Bernhard Warg, Matt Pyson.