John Cleese

Cleese: adman, madmanVIDEO ARTS

By TOM SOTER
from VIDEO, 1992

Fans of John Cleese's exasperated, know-nothing Basil Fawlty in the 12-episode TV Classic Fawlty Towers, take note: Basil lives! (Well, sort of). In the 1970s TV series (available on video from CBS/Fox), Cleese perfected the pompously inept hotel keeper who never got anything right. Salt in the sugar shakers, corpses in the kitchen, rudeness to the guests – you name it, Basil did it.

Cleese has learned from Fawlty's mistakes and profited handsomely in the process. In 1972, he and four partners founded Video Arts, a British-based company designed to produce humorous corporate training films. And in the last 20 years, it has done just that, creating more than 125 half-hour programs that have
been used by 110,000 organizations throughout the world. As of September 1991, worldwide sales (to AT&T, Hyatt Hotels, Federal Express, and General Electric, among others) were in excess of $26 million.

The videos (available for rental or sale from Video Arts, 8614 W. Catalpa Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60656; 1©-800-553-0091) take advantage of Cleese's reputation and comedic skills. He is often found in some very Fawltyesque situations: as a rude hotel staff member who learns about courtesy from the Patron Saint of Hospitality; as an inefficient board chairman who dreams he is hauled before a court for the negligent conduct of meetings; as a boss unable to deliver bad news; and as Charlie Jenkins, a master in the art of unselling products ("Who sold you this, then?" he remarks to a customer, undoing months of hard, patient selling). The videos, prepared with the help of management consultants, offer the dos and don'ts of the various topics (customer relations, running a company, seeking advice) and are accompanied by detailed training booklets.
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By his own admission, Cleese, a former member of Monty Python's Flying Circus and co-writer/star of A Fish Called Wanda, began the company to make a quick buck but later stuck with it because the topics interested him. Humor was always key. "The right way to use comedy is to make sure that all the humor arises out of the teaching points themselves," notes the comedian. "Every time the audience laughs, they're taking a point. And if they remember the joke, they've remembered the training point."

He must be doing something right: Video Arts has won more than 200 awards, including the National Educational Film & Video Festival's Gold Apple. To business folk, however, the real sign of VA's success would probably be its 1989 sale to an outside conglomerate. Basil Fawltys of the world, take note.