Comedian, actor and author John Cleese returns to Cornell University in his role as A.D. White Professor-at-Large to deliver a public lecture titled "What is Religion? Musings on the 'Life of Brian,'" Friday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m. in Barton Hall.

The talk is free and open to the public but tickets are required.

Starting Thursday, Oct. 7, a limited number of tickets for the general public will be available at the Clinton House ticket office, 116 N. Cayuga St., in downtown Ithaca. General public tickets, limited to two per person, also will be available on the Cornell campus at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office, the Carol Takton Center and the Robert Pu,rcell Community Center. Barton Hall will open at 7 p.m. on the night of the event, and access will be through the building's west entrance (the side facing Statler Hall).

The Oct. 22 lecture marks Cleese's first appearance at Cornell since his six-year professor-at-large appointment was extended in July for an additional two years. His talk coincides with Cornell's First-Year Family Weekend. The program will include excerpts from "Life of Brian," Monty Python's 1979 cinematic sendup of organized religion, governmental bureaucracy, political and religious fanaticism and Hollywood biblical blockbusters, leavened with a healthy dose of trademark – now classic – Python nonsense.

Cleese is best known in America for his television and movie appearances with the Monty Python troupe, his "Fawlty Towers" television series and the hit movie "A Fish Called Wanda." He has co-authored two books with British psychologist Robyn Skinner, titled Families and How to Survive Them (1983) and Life and How to Survive It (1993). His last book, co-authored with philosopher Jacob Needleman, is titled Time and the Soul: Where Has all the Meaningful Time Gone – and Can We Get it Back? (2003). Cleese has another book, due out in November, titled Superman: True Brit, co-authored with Kim Howard Johnson, writer and Python chronicler.