From Publishers Weekly
During his eponymous tour, playwright, novelist and "third tallest member of Monty Python" Idle posted a daily Internet diary--"a lap dance across America via laptop"--whose entries he's polished and updated for this book. Taking readers from Vermont to Vegas as he attempts standup for the first time, and writing with wit and honesty, Idle mixes memoir and tales from his tour bus, which is, he says, "like traveling in your own suitcase." With the 80-day expedition through 49 cities neatly niched into 80 chapters, Idle offers a Pythonesque pastiche of goofy observations as he analyzes audiences, dissects his nightly performances and recalls showbiz friendships. He also muses on the passing landscape ("In the chasm of the glacial valley we travel through the deep blue of the morning, staring up at awesome pillars of mountain piled high into mighty citadels"). The travelogue is punctuated with puns and Cockney rhyming slang, but it's not all fun and games. Idle offers a moving account of his mother's death and a harrowing description of a bleeding George Harrison struggling in 1999 against a knife-wielding intruder. 16-page color photo insert not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
By all rights, this book should have been just awful. It began as a series of blog entries Monty Python alum Idle banged out while touring North America in the Greedy Bastard Tour, an evening of Python standards, padded with new material, designed to bring Idle and his backers the most money for the least investment. The entries, edited down to manageable size for a book, transcend their origins because Idle is warm and witty, and uses his blog time well, reminiscing about the Pythons' glory days, meditating on the aesthetics of comedy (his philosophy of comedy is fascinating and elaborate), and recounting many odd happenings on the road. At times the book feels like one more moneymaking tour souvenir, along with the T-shirts, CDs, and glossy, full-color programs. But much more of the time, Idle's ruminations dazzle, amuse, and even move us: his recollections of his father's untimely death and his own unhappy childhood in English boarding schools are particularly poignant. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The man who brought you the anthems "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" and "Sit on My Face and Tell Me That You Love Me" shows his naughty bits -- and so much more A stunningly witty exploration of the American landscape -- not to mention a brilliant comic's mind -- this diary is chock-full of everything you ever wanted to know about Eric Idle, Monty Python, America, and sleeping on a bus. In these pages the sixth-nicest Python is cheeky, touching and funny when recounting the riotous tales of his beginnings, his school days in a Dickensian academy for boys, and his affectionate reminiscences of fellow Pythons, traveling the world, as well as his longtime friend, George Harrison. Astonishing, moving, at times even amusing, this chronicle of Idle's road trip during his Greedy Bastard Tour will improve your sex life dramatically. After only a few pages you will begin to feel intelligent, charming, and clever, then aroused, then funny. And after a few chapters whatever personal or health problems you are experiencing will immediately vanish. So come experience 80 days, 15,750 miles, and 49 cities as you never have before!

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A witty exploration of the American landscape - not to mention a brilliant comic's mind - this diary is chock-full of everything you ever wanted to know about Eric Idle, Monty Python, America, and sleeping on a bus. In these pages the sixth nicest Python is cheeky, touching, and funny when recounting the riotous tales of his beginnings, his schooldays in a Dickensian academy for boys, and his affectionate reminiscences of fellow Pythons, traveling the world, and his longtime friend George Harrison.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jonathan Yardley - The Washington Post

Idle writes in the present tense because he kept an online diary of the tour, posted regularly on the Monty Python Web site and now issued, somewhat revised, in book form as The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America. If Idle really was worried about whether he'd lost the comic touch, he was wasting his time. He is a very funny man, and this is a very funny book.

Publishers Weekly