Har har.
I {heart} Eddie Izzard. My boyfriend stayed up til 3 am to tape his special on HBO. Freakin’ hilarious.
Not only is he hilarious, he’s got style. I so dig a man who has the sense to pair sassy heels with a mandarin top and smoky eyeshadow. No, really.
I think I have to have re-watch that tonight. Yes, I think I will.
How dare you not find him funny. I declare a Jihad on you. 
I don’t need to touch you. I saw him live, too. In LA, a few months back.
I too, am covered in bees.
Anyone who wants to can touch me. I had 3rd row seats. 
The thing with Eddie is this: yes, he’s funny, but there are comedians who are technically funnier. It is all about his style and his delivery. The guy ** is ** charisma. He ** is ** charm. You cannot help but fall in love with him and giggle helplessly the minute he opens his mouth. (Unless you are ** MGibson **, in which case you need to check for a pulse) And I don’t think a more delectable transvestite exists. He is completely appealing in a totally heterosexual way when he’s in drag. In fact, I’d say he’s even MORE tasty all dressed up, just like girls can be.
Eddie rules my world.
I went to university with Eddie. I was the first person to write comedy sketches with him, and I can tell you the first joke he ever wrote! I performed with him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for three years in a row, in comedy sketch shows we wrote together. This was from 1980-82. I also stayed at his flat in Sheffield during vacation, and we’d amuse ourselves into the early hours smoking, making up stupid songs (he plays piano, I play guitar) and hatching ideas for sketches.
I have plenty of memorabilia and photos from those days, including early sketches written in his own handwriting! Perhaps these will be valuable one day.
I also knew him for many years once he had moved to London but before the Fame God struck. There were so many years when he had no money and couldn’t get arrested, and all the time he was trying out one style of comedy after another, searching and searching for the style we now associate with him. It was a long haul, and it’s wonderful to see all the success he has achieved. Just a shame I’m not in touch with him anymore, but hey, that’s life.
Interesting side note: all of the time I knew him in Sheffield and in London… not a single trace of cross-dressing, nor any reference ever made to it. And I thought I was good at keeping secrets.
ianzin: You are now officially on the Top Ten Coolest SDMB Posters. I consider it a privilege to be breathing the same virtual air, so to speak.
You are too kind, Cervaise! I also know Penn & Teller, if that makes me any cooler.
Actually, I don’t think I’m anyone’s idea of ‘cool’. But it’s a nice thought.
Tell Penn for me that even though he’s not genetically gifted like, say, Brad Pitt, he is just as sexy. Actually sexier. All that intelligence and wit…not to mention the voice and his sheer size. All good. All very good.
But, if it was a choice between him and Eddie… Hmmm. I’d actually probably pick Penn. I think he’s probably cozier.
As for Eddie…dont’ burst my bubble by telling me that Eddie is entirely * manufactured *. That he is not naturally charming and charismatic…because I just won’t believe you!
I’ve been lurking in this thread for a couple days now…and I guess it’s time to come clean and confess. Every night I search the digital cable to see if Eddie’s going to be on HBO. My daughter waits impatiently for the next showing so I can tape it and she can watch it.
I just happened upon Eddie one late night and had to bite my knuckles to keep from laughing too loudly and waking the rest of the house. So I agree with the charismatic, charming, appealing sentiments being spread all around.
ianzin, I would have thought you cool aside from your interesting connections–but that is neat-o, keen to have good memories of someone that’s made a fame-name for themselves. All my famous connections are one degree away–and usually through my brother. I think he may know everyone.
I’m waiting for ‘Shadow of the Vampire’ to come to Middle O’ Nowhere so I can enjoy it.
Cervaise and Stoid, I will gladly stand in awe and tentitively extend a quivering hand to touch the hems of your garments. You’re too cool.
Eddie Izzard is the funniest man alive.
Just watched Dress to Kill (the extended version, thankyouverymuch) last night for about the fifteenth time–gotta keep introducing people to it!
And ianzin, I second Cervaise–that is too cool.
bows to ianzin and kisses feet
Now that’s truly impressive… I am trying my best not to act like a crazy fanactical izzard stalker, so I will stop writing now.
You got it right. I was in the audience, and the one who gave Python the cheap pop. If you’re going to Leno, I highly recommend getting standby tickets. You don’t feel guilty about not standing in line, so you get to drink margaritas at the restaurant across the street until they start lining you up.
And Izzard rocks. “Oh yeah, that’s right, I’m a f-ing squirrel.”
-nick
Many thanks for your kind words, struuter, Gadarene, and Miss Misery. But it’s not like I can take any credit or anything… I just happened to go to the right university at the right time. Then one day a guy puts up a poster saying he wants to get a group together to do comedy sketches and stuff, and both Eddie and I showed up. Well, nothing became of that project, but Eddie meanwhile was forging ahead with his plans to get a group together and do a show up in Edinburgh, and when he wanted some help writing stuff he asked if I’d have a go. So I did, and we got on fine, and later on he talked me into also performing on stage (I originally just wanted to do the writing).
Struuter, I may have to kidnap your kind compliment for a new sig., but why anyone would consider me ‘cool’ is beyond me. Anyways, I know, just shut up and take the compliment nicely… OK.
Since there seem to be some strong Izzardophiles here, and you’ve all been so nice, here’s an Izzard anecdote for you. And it’s true. As told to me by the man himself, going home late at night on a London bus.
Back to Eddie’s early days in London, circa 1989. He hasn’t quite hit his style yet. He’s poor, he’s struggling, he’s doing loads of gigs anywhere and everywhere, and can’t get arrested. He doesn’t have a proper agent as such, but someone gets in touch and offers him a cheap gig. In some provincial town or other, there’s a new shopping arcade (mall) opening, and the organisers of the ‘launch’ have decided to lay on all sorts of ‘showbiz’ stuff - you know, clowns for the kiddies and one or two minor celebs and that kind of thing. Anything to get buzz and attention.
It seems they’re also willing to hire a comedian to do stand-up right there in the arcade. Eddie (not considered a celeb at this stage) gets the gig. Probably only got 100 quid for it, if that. When he arrives, it’s as badly organised as these things usually are, and Eddie discovers where he is supposed to do hs stuff: they have put a microphone stand in a small connecting corridor that is far from the centre of the action, and that’s it.
So, anyways, he stands there and does his full 15 minute set. Hardly anyone is passing by, and those that do pay him no attention whatsoever. And that’s at the busiest time. So, essentially, he’s gone all that way to do his set to an empty corridor. And he kept doing it, the same 15 minutes of material, over and over again.
So Eddie’s telling me all this on the bus, and I’m listening with a certain degree of sympathy. And I ask the obvious question, “If there’s nobody listening, why keep doing the same stuff over and over again?”. “Oh,” quoth the man, “but you see I figure I’m listening, right? And every single time I deliver those 15 minutes of material I’m learning it better, breaking it in, getting to know how it sounds and works. So I know it will be ten times better when there IS an audience”.
End of story.
Oh ianzin, how neat is that? I’m touched that you’d think me worthy of a sig. sigh What is it Kate Bush says? “These moments of pleasure…”
Thanks.
And I thought I’d share this with you…who knows? Maybe someday we’ll be sitting around laughing about it…
The other night, watching the Golden Globes, my daughter (9) says very seriously (the same tone she uses when talking about where she’d have a tatoo and what she’d choose), “If I ever got up there to win an award, I would NOT act like an ass. Do those people know how silly they look? Jeez, how obvious is it that they had a clue they might win if they have a speech written? And then to act all surprised…really, how silly. And they’re supposed to be ACTORS.”
I first “discovered” Eddie Izzard in a hotel in Alabama. Mrs. Rastahomie and her mother and I were on our way back from Florida, and we found his HBO special. Halfway through his Englebert Humperdink routine I had to step outside to get some air; I was literally laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe!
“Zinglebert Bembledack!
Cringlybuns Fishtleboz!
Steviebuns Buttrutrunder!”
hee hee hee
But rastahomie, Engelbert Humperdinck’s dead now; didn’t you hear? Yeah, it was on the radio as I was coming to work. Weird stuff.
No, it’s not true! It’s not true.
[sub]No, it is true.[/sub]
Versus what other version? Is there some Eddie video I do not have? Some Eddie ** Dress To Kill ** video that I do not have? TELL ME!
By the way, I have ALL Eddie’s videos, one audio tape (dress to kill, different version, I haven’t listened to it yet) and a CD of Eddie Live at Club Class.
And I do have to say, that while I am his sworn minion, ready to fall on my sword for him, there is no question for me that ** Dress to Kill ** is his best. There were screaming moments in all the rest, but DTK is Eddie at the pinnacle of his Eddieness.
Stoid: (See, now I can’t feel like I’m shortening your name in a gesture of familiarity when I do that!) If your Dress to Kill has the bit with Alcatraz in the beginning and the bit about The Great Escape near the middle, then you’ve got the extended version. I’m just contrasting the video available on his website with the version that played on HBO. Though it was the same set, the HBO version’s about a half-hour shorter.
And I will say this: Though I agree that Dress to Kill is the funniest show, the CD version of Definite Article comes very, very close. It’s the one that was recorded on the last day of the show (at the Shaftesbury Theatre); the Definite Article video was recorded earlier in the gig, and is, in my opinion, much less funny. I just wish I had the Definite Article CD on video.
Nonetheless, Definite Article in both its incarnations is my second favorite of the shows of his I’ve seen, better than Glorious and Unrepeatable. I wasn’t able to get up to Seattle to see Circle.
Oh, and the audio tape of Dress to Kill (done in New York) is pretty good, too–about half the stuff is completely different from the SF show. It’s earlier in the tour, though, so again it’s not quite as funny–the more Eddie works on a show, the better his timing becomes and the more accomplished his improvisation.
ianzin: I’m sure I speak for most of us when I say that we’d love to hear any other Eddie anecdotes that you can recollect and would be willing to share.
Happy to oblige, Gadarene. And besides, since struuter flirts so nicely, how can I refuse?
This isn’t a great anecdote, and it’s hard to make it pithy, but see if you like it.
Eddie was never really a great writer of material, as such. I mean in the sense of someone who actually likes sitting down at a typewriter (as it was then, word processors were just on the horizon) and playing around with ideas, characters and words in a structured way to make up a sketch with a start - middle - end. He is slightly dyslexic, as you may know, and this just wasn’t his thing. (Which is, incidentally, one of the reasons we first hooked up, since I loved writing and still do).
Of course, these days everyone knows Eddie’s free-wheeling improvisatinal style, and he ‘writes’ most of his stuff just by going for long walks in the park and letting his mind roam wild. But back then, he was still years away from finding this style. At that time, he was heavily influenced by British sketch shows of the day, especially a satirical weekly sketch show called “Not The Nine O’Clock News” and the early work of Rowan Atkinson and his solo character sketches. The point is that his reluctance to ‘write’ material in a formal way was something of a drawback to his ambitions at the time. He kept trying, and often succeeded, but it was uphill for him and he always felt there had to be a better way.
And then, one day, he found it.
Let me pause to ask if you know who Rolf Harris is? He’s an Australian who has worked extensively over here in the UK, in Canada and most everywhere else. Dark hair, glasses, beard, moustache. He’s sort of a Mr. Light Entertainment - he sings, plays weird music, tells gags. But he’s chiefly famous for doing rapid large canvas paintings, in real time right there on the stage, and he describes the painting as he paints it. So bear that in mind - a talented artist describing what he’s doing as he does it.
Back to the story. Eddie and I and the rest of his team had agreed to do some stuff for a student show, but we were short of suitable sketches (various reasons; not important). So Eddie just decided he would ‘do’ something based on this Rolf Harris chap.
He got hold of a tin of black paint and a paintbrush. He painted a beard, moustache and glasses on his own face. He set up a pad of paper on an easel, and started doing his intentinally appalling impression of Rolf Harris doing a painting.
Here’s the good part. (1) Eddie cannot do an Australian accent to save his life (2) He can’t draw or paint (3) At the time he went out on stage he had NO IDEA what he was actually going to say. Not one scripted word. All he did was improvise this weird, surreal, disconnected ‘stream of consciousness’. It was in the style of Rolf Harris describing what he was painting, but it was absolute nonsense - Eddie-flavoured nonsense. Here’s the gist, from memory, which you can imagine in an Izzard voice:
For about 12 minutes. All the while covering his paper, and everything else, in black paint.
Perhaps it belongs in the ‘you had to be there’ category, but it was extremely funny. We knew it. The audience knew it. And, more importantly, Eddie knew it. And it didn’t involve a single prepared scripted word.
And in my opinion, that’s where he first found the style for which he is now so famous.
(Apologies for the length of this post.)
It was so full of pith that its eyes were turning yellow.
Don’t ever apologize for fabulous posts like that…I don’t care how long they are. It made my day.
And I might say, ianzin, that these reminisces are only so damn entertaining because you’re an exceptional writer. Hell of a memory, too.
Thanks for the story.
Bumped.
Call her Suzy now: