By Valerie Howland

Idle isn’t bashful about his plans. As he puts it, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python is going to be a "big show, and it’s going to be a very good show. . . . I’ve got 12 people coming to do this huge review, and I’ve got lumberjacks and Spanish Inquisitions and Spam and nudge nudges and all the full Python nonsense."

Included in the lineup is something Idle calls Liverdance. The difference between it and Riverdance, the Irish knock-off? Liverdance requires audience participation.

"If you dress silly enough, we will find the loony of the day," says Idle. "We bring them onstage, and we ask them if we can have their liver."

What for, you ask?

"Live onstage liver removal," he explains. It’s supervised by "somebody with a basic medical knowledge. And he would have washed his hands."

His show ends with the classic The Lumberjack Song, which features a full stage of mounties. Oddly enough, the song is not just about lumberjacks.

"It’s actually about homophobia, and it was almost one of the first things written about homophobia," Idle said. "It makes fun of it, it makes light of it, and it makes it possible to talk about lumberjacks. It was butch men dressing up in women’s clothing. . . . It tossed opposites together, the tension of opposites."

In his recently published novel, The Road To Mars, Idle divides comedians into two categories: red nose and white face. The difference between the two is how the comedian views his relationship with the audience.

"The hallmark of the red nose is he wants to be loved," says Idle, pointing to Robin Williams as an example of a "total red nose."

"There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be loved, but you have to be loved by everybody for a red nose," he said.

A white face, on the other hand, doesn’t worry about being loved. Idle’s fellow Python John Cleese fits the description of white face to a tee.

"He’s totally white face," said Idle. "He doesn’t care whether he’s loved by anybody. In fact, he prefers to be hated I think. He would tell the audience to shut up when they’d laugh when he came onstage."

As for himself, "I think I’m a red nose masquerading as a white face."

Although Idle believes "it’s funny when you turn grumpiness into comedy," being just plain mean is not.

"I don’t think sarcasm is healthy. Sarcasm’s cruel. That’s when you say to somebody, ‘Oh, I suppose that’s your idea of a hairstyle.’"

Besides that, it’s doesn’t take much work.

"It’s kind of easy. You can make anybody feel bad . . . and it doesn’t necessarily have to be true. It’s just something you do."

His idea of good humor: "I think that bad taste is always healthy, because you’re always trying to push the limits. It’s an exploration of what we can say and what we can think."

One man who pushed the limits was Lenny Bruce, a much misunderstood performer whom Idle respects.

"I think Lenny Bruce is very wise about comedy," he said, "and also very perceptive and quite accurate about the reasons people become comedians."

Idle, who lives in the United States, has recently appeared on NBC’s Suddenly Susan, and he’s popped up in such movies as South Park and National Lampoon’s European Vacation.

The only founding Python member in the new revue, he’s also the only one who doesn’t still live in England. According to him, the original members have discussed doing a full Monty Python tour together over the years, but each time one or another of them would change his mind.

"Hopefully, they may come and join me at some point, or not, but this is the only way we’ll ever get a live Python show going. I think they’re scared. But they live in England. They don’t live in America."

It’s a distinction, he thinks, that makes a world of difference.

"Americans are great because almost anything doesn’t daunt them. They’ll say, ‘Yeah, come on, let’s do it.’ You only get that when you’re young in England. When you’re older, people just say, ‘Oh, you can’t do that, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t do that.’"

England isn’t without its good points, though. And for Monty Python, which started in 1969, England was the right place to be.

"There’s many good things about England . . . I mean, the fact that we were able to do that show is one, you know. . . . You certainly couldn’t have done it in America at that time."

Times have changed, in Idle’s opinion. Now, he says, over-the-top humor is the norm in the United States, and "everything is outrageous in comedy now."

And so, the troupe’s distinctly British humor is getting another go-around thanks to the American influence rubbing off on Idle.

"I’ve got that sort of American, ‘Come on, let’s have a go,’" he said. "Over the top, chaps, let’s go.’"