Sunday is the international day of strange walks. In Eindhoven there has even been a real gallery with the ‘Silly Walks’ for a number of years. You can practice John Cleese’s special walk step by step here. The world-famous British comedian came to Eindhoven in person in April 2016 to open the practice series in the Dommeltunneltje. Since then you can literally stumble over the enthusiasts.
In the tunnel between the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Effenaar there is a coming and going of walkers on Sunday morning. Every now and then someone stops to look at the images, including Kim van Loon. “I meet those men quite often when I go to town. It’s a nice image.”
“I did it a few times in the beginning,” says Kim enthusiastically. “But not so often anymore. A little further on there is also a very difficult one. Your leg has to go all the way up there.”
“It’s very nice to see.”
Not much later, three ladies from The Hague arrive at the tunnel. “I’ve never seen it,” says Eelkje Veltman. She is in Eindhoven for a day to walk the Dommel walk. “It’s very nice to see.”
In addition to looking at the paintings, the ladies are also sporty and imitate some ‘Silly Walks’. “That takes some effort, but it’s a lot of fun,” Aukje Wijten laughs as she squats down. “The fact that I am still so flexible at my age is because of sports. Then it is not without reason.”
Besides the fact that the paintings look nice, imitating them is also good training. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) investigated it. As it turns out, Cleese’s walk requires 2.5 times as much energy as normal walking.
“We’ll be warm again straight away.”
“We are immediately warm again,” laughs Iris van Lieshout, who is spending a day in Eindhoven with Arian Kuijk. “I didn’t know it at first, but it’s actually very nice. All crazy movements on the wall.”
The municipality of Eindhoven wanted to make public space a bit more fun and these paintings were one of them. A few years ago, the British comedian himself opened the cycling and walking tunnel in Eindhoven. Cleese enjoys great fame worldwide for his roles in Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, among others.
The paintings refer to the strange walk of John Cleese, who once played an official of the Ministry of Strange Walks. He made the craziest moves with an umbrella, bag and bowler hat in the famous Monty Python sketch from 1970.
