"We'd like to thank Hormel a lot..."

"...for their generous support of Spam...alot."

That was the introduction, and it just got funnier from there.

Spamalot. A hit Broadway musical based on a cult classic movie. A movie with no real ending, just sort of the end of the reel. And yet, let Eric Idle and Friends take another crack at it, mix in a few other Monty Python jokes and songs at random, and you've got yourself a hi-laaarious evening of entertainment. It was fun to see the scenes I've had memorized since high school enacted on stage, but I think the new or slightly altered bits were my favorite. Like how Dennis the Constitutional Peasant is actually Dennis Galahad, who joins the quest after being talked into it by the Lady of the Lake and her part ethereal water nymph, part cheerleader "Laker girls." Alas, I didn't see the Curry/Pierce/Azaria cast (I'm salivating at the very thought), but the touring guys did a fine job. I think I may have to acquire the original cast recording so that I can add the show to my "you big nerd, how much Monty Python do you really need to memorize?" repertoire.

And isn't this where the show really belongs, here in Minnesota, the cradle of Spam itself?

My other favorite thing: the stage bill. Analogous to the Holy Grail opening credits in quasi-Swedish, there is a title page in quasi-Finnish:

And that fits in Minnesota, too! I needed look no further than the person sitting next to me to find a Finnish last name with an abundance of oddly-arranged vowels. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I want to be...