Michael Palin of British comedy troupe Monty Python was held at gunpoint by armed Venezuelan guards until showing them a 1971 sketch from the show.
He said the stop, while filming a new travelogue TV series, was just two policemen at first, until “men with rifles, bulletproof vests, and helmets” showed up, he said in an interview with The Mirror.
Despite “things [getting] quite heavy,” Palin had an ace up his sleeve in the form of a Monty Python fish-slapping sketch from over half a century ago.
After seeing the sketch, in which Palin dances, slapping John Cleese with a pair of fish, the National Guard decided to release him.
“Nearly everyone in the world, from North Korea to Venezuela, cracks up when they see that,” he said. “Once we’d shown them the fish slapping dance, I felt we were OK, and by the end of the day they finally released us.”
Palin said the guards actually discovered his comedy fame first after finding him on the internet.
“The outcome was rather bizarre, because while we were waiting to hear our fate from the headquarters in Caracas, the guards had found my name on Google,” he said.
But Palin didn’t mince words when describing the seriousness of the situation.
“It wasn’t just the fact that they stopped us from filming; it was the force with which we were stopped,” Palin said. ”It was the kind of thing you’d expect to encounter if an embassy was being bombed, it was quite alarming
Despite the perilous altercation, the 82-year-old star said he has “got no plans to retire at all.”
During his time in the South American country, Palin ate worms and ants’ butts as a meal. He has previously filmed documentaries in North Korea and Iraq.
The star is also releasing a book, Michael Palin: In Venezuela, which will be available Sept. 25 in the U.K. on his website.
