The man with so many thoughts in his wacky head

In his just-released, coffee-table-sized memoir, 'Gilliamesque: A Pre-posthumous Memoir,” Terry Gilliam contends that there are 'so many thoughts in my head.”

His career thus far certainly supports that notion.

He was never the frontman in Monty Python's Flying Circus. He would be one of the idiotic villagers who'd dash out brandishing a pitch- fork and a maniacal leer - one the 'grotesques,” as he's called them.

But he made his mark on the British comedy troupe with his animation - the hopping creatures with unhinged jaws, the Godzilla-sized hedgehog that bellowed for someone named 'Dinsdale.”

Later, Gilliam expanded that same off-kilter vision to the large screen with movies that have ranged from brilliant ('Brazil,” 1985, and 'The Fisher King,” 1991) to intriguing ('Twelve Monkeys,” 1995) to, well, mystifying ('The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” 1988, and 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” 2009).

Along the way there have been more than a few financial train wrecks. (Cue reference to Orson Welles.) And there's his decades-long efforts to make 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.”

'Gilliamesque” is pretty much what you'd expect - wacky, random, confessional, gossipy and frequently insightful.

After all, this is the director-cartoonist-counter-culture icon who decided early on in his career that, when it comes to humor - and maybe a few other important topics, too - everything doesn't 'have to have a higher purpose.”

Note: A 'trailer” for the book can be seen at terrygilliamweb.com. But be prepared to have that snappy song 'Brazil” lodged in your head.

Gilliam speaks

What: Free lecture by Terry Gilliam, as part of the University of Iowa's 'Don Quixote in the Age of Electronic Reproduction”

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Iowa Memorial Union's main lounge

The 5 p.m. reception for Gilliam at Hotel Vetro is sold out.