Eric Idle Puts His Own Spin on ‘Owl and the Pussycat’

Eric Idle is a tad uneasy. The Monty Python luminary is going to be performing live for an audience that, at least in part, won’t know the significance of dead parrots, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, Spam or twit races: little children.

“It’s a bit nerve-racking,” Idle said in anticipation of his mini-concert of silly songs and book signings at Storyopolis on Thursday. The event celebrates the publication of Idle’s first children’s book, “The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat,” from Dove Kids.

Idle says he will perform 25 to 30 minutes from the book, “a little reading leading to the song bits,” accompanied by guitarists John Du Prez and Danny Ferrington. Refreshments to be served are said to include “Spam, cakes, tea and Spam, Spam and cookies.”

The book (Idle also did an audio version) is a work of gentle speculative fiction about Edward Lear’s famous poem of cross-species romance, inspired by that and other Lear works and drawings. In Idle’s version, the Owl and the Pussycat embark on a quest to save the Bong Tree from the evil Fire Lord. Romance blossoms as they slide down a rainbow, sail over falls made out of jam, meet Pie-Rats, a talking guitar, Lear’s Piggy-wig, Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo and other characters.

Although Idle’s admiration for Lear is long-standing, it was using the poem to entertain his 3-year-old daughter (now 6) that sparked the idea for the book.

“She was really struck by it and I decided to sing it to the guitar. Then I thought, well, let me write the story. I wonder what happened. Why are they together? It’s like the poem starts in Act 2, really,” he said.

Idle has woven his own flights of fancy with Lear inventions, including such botanical witticisms as the “manypeeplia upsidownia” plant, which talks “a good deal of nonsense.” Lear’s eccentric drawings pepper the pages; Wesla Weller did additional illustrations.

In addition to the book and recent film roles, Idle has been busy with “interactive funny stuff.” He helped create 7th Level’s “Quest for the Holy Grail” CD-ROM, and the Monty Python Web site is his “big baby. We’ve had 13 million hits since we opened in July.”

Idle’s daughter, however, is more impressed with her dad’s role as Ratty in Disney’s upcoming “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.”

“She knows I do silly things,” he said. Idle doesn’t mind if his new fan base doesn’t know what made him famous. After all, “I don’t think we’ll ever escape the curse of Python. I feel it’s like that snake with the hat on,” he joked, referring to one of Lear’s drawings. “We’d really rather hide, but it’s rather a large snake.”

* Storyopolis, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Plaza A, Thursday, 7 p.m. Free. Reservations advised. (310) 358-2512.