Eric Idle is a comedian, actor, author, and singer-songwriter who found immediate fame on television with the sketch-comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Following its success, the group began making films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Eric wrote, directed, and created The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, the world’s first-ever mockumentary, as well as writing the book and lyrics with John Du Prez (music) for the Tony Award–winning musical Spamalot. His memoir, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, was a New York Times bestseller. The Spamalot Diaries was published today.

An original Saturday Night Live writer, Alan Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards for his work in television, which includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. His theatrical contributions include his collaboration with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award–winning play 700 Sundays, Martin Short’s Broadway hit Fame Becomes Me, and six off-Broadway plays including Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy, which he adapted from his bestselling book. Additional titles include the 2006 Thurber Prize–winning novel The Other Shulman, the popular children’s book Our Tree Named Steve, a cultural memoir, Laugh Lines – My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier, and a parody of the Passover Haggadah that he co-wrote with Dave Barry and Adam Mansbach titled For This We Left Egypt? He co-wrote screenplays for Dragnet, North, The Story of Us, and Here Today with Billy Crystal, which was directed by Crystal. Zweibel received an honorary PhD. from the State University of New York and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America, East. A regular guest on all talk shows, he has also appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Law & Order and can be seen in the documentaries The Last Laugh; Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling; Remembering Gene Wilder; and Love, Gilda, which he executive produced with his wife Robin.