Motivational Speaker - John Cleese - Total Access Speakers Bureau

British actor, director and author John Cleese is a founder of Video Arts, the world's largest provider of business training programs.

Perhaps best known for his appearances in the British TV comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, Cleese gained wider recognition for his 1988 hit film A Fish Called Wanda, which he wrote, acted in and produced.

In addition to his acting and writing talents, Cleese is respected worldwide for his corporate training programs produced by Video Arts, a company he founded in London in 1972 with four associates from the BBC. Despite his diverse interests, one of his steadfast commitments has always been to business training. He attributes his success at making hit training programs to his fascination with psychology and his love for acting, teaching and making people laugh. "Humor in training increases retention and decreases anxiety," Cleese said. "If the training point is surrounded with humor, it can be readily digested, remembered and applied."

Cleese's most recent Video Arts video appearances include St. Peter in the Pearly Gates in the 1997 remake of The Unorganized Manager series, and narrator/ educator in the 1997 release Telephone Behavior: The Rules Of Effective Communication.

John Cleese has hit the business computer desktop as well. In 1997, Video Arts introduced interactive multimedia learning, featuring video vignettes excerpted from best-selling programs, directly to the desktop. These interactive self-paced programs provide distance learning opportunities with a sense of humor.

John Cleese was born in 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, England. His multiple talents were first demonstrated at Cambridge University in 1963. While pursuing a law career, he got sidetracked and joined the Cambridge comedy club Footlights. In the late 1960's, he moved on to TV comedy shows including the series The Frost Report, At Last the 1948 Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus. The latter spawned international acclaim, plus stage shows, books, records and the films And Now For Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), Monty Python's Life of Brian (1978) and The Meaning of Life (1982).

In the mid-70's, Cleese played Basil Fawlty in the BBC-TV series Fawlty Towers. He played Petruchio in Jonathan Miller's TV production of The Taming of the Shrew (1980). His films include The Statue and Interlude (1968), Time Bandits (1980), Privates on Parade (1982), Silverado (1984) Frankenstein (1994) and Fierce Creatures (1997). In 1987, he won an American Emmy Award for outstanding guest performance for his role as a psychiatrist on NBC-TV's Cheers.

As an author, Cleese has co-written books on psychiatry titled Families and How to Survive Them and Life and How to Survive it.

Programs:

***Business Basics with John Cleese

***An Evening with John Cleese

John Cleese

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