hi, i am new to python ... recently i had watched some tutorial about python. and i try it, it work in IDLE but when i apply in MAYA it doesn't work... am i doing wrong?

the sample given in tutorial :
s = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
a, *b, c = s
>>a
1
..b
2, 3, 4
>>c
5


and here what i tried in maya2018:
import maya.cmds as cmds
selObj = cmds.ls(sl=1) #(i did select few item in maya)
a,*b = selObj
print (a)

and i get # Error: invalid syntax #

thanks in advance for spending time