Eddie Izzard

I’ve been a fan of comedian/actor Eddie Izzard for about 5 or 6 years. While I don’t remember exactly how I found out about him, I do remember seeing his HBO comedy special “Dress to Kill” and feeling that a lot of his funny-but-true observations resonated with me. I was transfixed by his ability to successfully fuse together topics like history, politics, religion, and pop culture and still make them unbelievably funny. Audiences are treated to a wild and interesting ride through his imagination and it’s incredibly entertaining.

I attended both of his Toronto shows at the end of May (hey, you only live once, right?) I’m happy to report that he seems to be back in girly-mode. That’s the version of Eddie Izzard I became a fan of and I think I’m more used to it than his boy-mode. Here are a few of my favorite Izzbits from the show:

• Izzard says he believes Noah (from the Bible) existed, built a boat, but he didn’t really put two of each and every animal on the ark. “How do I know that? YOU try it.”

• Giraffes can only show two emotions: fear and surprise. They have no other method of signaling other than to cough to other giraffes, an ancient British method, according to Izzard. Initially, the other giraffes have no idea what the main giraffe is trying to communicate to them. The bit then transforms into a semi-elaborate game of charades between the two parties (which is the point in the bit where I begin giggling uncontrollably.)

• The Darwin-Dickens connection - Charles Darwin, of course, who wrote “Great Expectations” the classic tale about an amoeba named Pip. Darwin lived one vowel over from Dickens. He later wrote his famous book on evolution, the original title of which was “Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, you.”

• Izzard treats his audience to a musical medley (at some points, the show began to resemble a mini-cabaret act.) He takes us through the Spartan battle of Thermopylae fought by child-star Shirley Temple who is killing her opponents while singing “On the Good Ship Lollipop” (Izzard erroneously refers to “On the Good Ship Lollipop” as a Temple film: it was actually a song from her 1934 film “Bright Eyes”) When discussing fish, “if you look in their eyes, fish have no ambition.” He begins singing “ambitiooooooooooon” to the tune of “Tradition” from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” Later when the fish somehow land up in a bird’s nest, he mimes a dance between the fish and the birds a la the Jets and the Sharks from West Side Story.

• Throughout the show, Izzard weaves his somewhat new-found belief in atheism. If God exists, he argues, the one place he should have showed up was the moon landing. Cut to Izzard miming Neil Armstrong et al showing up on the moon. God shows up “Heeeeeeeeeey, you made it!! Neil, hi, I’m God. Buzz! Are you Buzz Lightyear? I’ve been living here on the dark side of the moon with Pink Floyd and Darth Vader.” Izzard breathes into the microphone in a Darth Vader-esque fashion, but of course, on an Izzardian twist, that turns out to be Pink Floyd. Darth Vader, without his mask, sounds more like a woman with a weird voice.

• Though I can’t remember how he got onto the topic, Izzard discusses silent sheep. They prey upon sleeping wolves, who think that it’s their birthday because there are all these sheep and they’re hungry. The sheep shear themselves in front of the wolves, just to show no fear.

As I mentioned at the outset, I’ve been a fan of Eddie Izzard for several years. Yet the Toronto shows were the first time I’d seen him live. Needless to say, he does not disappoint and the two shows are now a highlight of my 2010 so far.