In some respects, John Cleese has been teaching about business his entire career.

One would be hard pressed to find better portrayals of customer indignation and company face-saving than the Monty Python Cheese Shop and Dead Parrot sketches, a better parody of inside deals and misunderstanding client goals than the Architects Sketch, a better send-up of personality profiles than the Vocational Guidance Counselor Sketch, or a better representation of the anxieties of a job interview than the Silly Job Interview Sketch.

These days, the legendary comedian’s business insights are served relatively straight-up and focused on creativity at work, a topic about which he is simultaneously funny, insightful, and critical.

“The people who don’t have it, don’t recognize it,” he told an audience Friday night at the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. “Creativity doesn’t have to be taught; it has to be liberated.”

My Forbes column about Cleese’s insights on creativity can be found here.