Comedy Review:

At his single performance of “A Final Wave at the World,” or “The Alimony Tour, Year One,” at the Alex Theatre last weekend, veteran laugh meister of Monty Python fame John Cleese strolled onstage to a thunderous standing ovation and a bouncy English music hall march.

Hard to believe that the tall comedian who has brought us such jewels as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Fawlty Towers” and “A Fish Called Wanda” is actually 70 years old. But, as he ruefully pointed out, he knows what it is to be old — everything starts dropping off.

Cleese then filled the next two hours with nonstop hilarious observations on the state of marriage, his inability to find a suitable companion, mistrust, parental longevity and the joys of writing comedy sketches with certifiable maniacs — all delivered in his signature dry British delivery.

He began by asking if we knew what this “living legend” was doing somewhere between Burbank and Pasadena and, no, it’s not because he was looking for a burial space near Michael Jackson. Frankly, he needs the money.

“I’ve just been through a costly divorce,” Cleese said. “So I’m stuck giving gracious interviews at obscure Italian film festivals. It’s called feeding the beast.”

Cleese’s ex was married long enough to him (1992-2008), apparently, to be worth $20 million. Illustrating his story with funny photos purportedly of his ex withdrawing wads of cash from an ATM, Cleese wryly observed that his attorney had assured him that the final figure was better than if “she had actually contributed something to the marriage.”

“According to Dick Cheney, $20 million could have bought me an election,” Cleese said. “I also could have gotten 20 million ‘things’ from the Dollar Store.”

He then went off on a riotous tally of how his wife had earned $3,650 for each day she was married and how, for that amount, he could have married Pamela Anderson 8 1/2 times, Brigitte Nielsen 3 1/2 times and “a matron from Palmdale 2,220 times.”

Bitterness aside, Cleese then walked us through a tour of his life, to show us just what shaped this man who found slapping British officers in the face with a herring very funny.