Thursday 29 October 2009

Comparison to kray twins, Eddie Izzard is not to acute


EDDIE Izzard has become an unlikely victim of the Tweeting, Facebooking generation.
It seems a number of people are acute to claim mate status with Eddie even though he doesn’t have a clue who they are.
The surreal stand up master, who comes to Liverpool for two arena dates this weekend, tells Insider: “I have found people from many change years saying they went to school with me.
“I think, I don’t even know who you are, then it turns out they were three years before or five years after me.
“I suppose it’s a bit like being John Lennon or The Kray Twins.
“I’m happy with the John Lennon comparison, less so with the Kray Twins.”

Monday 26 October 2009

Eddie Izzard: At the Nottingham Arena, review


The best part of the autumn having devoted to undertaking a 1,100 mile jog around the UK – some 43 runs in 51 days – Eddie Izzard would be forgiven for putting his feet up and congratulating himself on his fund raising good deeds for Sport Relief. But, no, marathon man is already up and about, rambling for Britain in a touring version of Stripped, the stand up gig he premiered last winter in the West End. You might expect to see a few pained hobbles. Yet here he is, bouncing about in a discreetly outlandish combination of jeans, stripey shirt and ringmaster’s black tail-jacket – the puppyish picture of zing and zest.
Erring on the side of modesty, Izzard only briefly alludes to his ordeal. “I did this run currently which was just to lose weight. It was a bit insane,” he concedes, in that drawly, muttery, posh urchin way of his, before suggesting that we could all do it because our ancestors were forever running back and forth, hunting and gathering, and being chased by bears.
I’m paraphrasing here, of course. Once Izzard, 47, is in full flow, you can only dash after his quicksilver train of imagination, making incomplete notes. The overarching conceit of the evening, underpinned by much mock-erudition, is that there’s no plan in the universe.
We’re given a wilfully idiosyncratic beginner’s guide to creation, evolution, the emergence of civilisation and so on, all of it pointing to one conclusion, which is that we’re on our own, and we just have to make the best of it.
If you can quarrel with Izzard’s underlying faith in human nature to succeed where religion fails (“Don’t believe in God, believe in us”), there’s little disputing that his surrealistic, scattershot musings betray the divinity of comic genius.
Among myriad highlights, there’s his notion (apropos the dullness of farming) of wedging a trumpet on a chicken’s face – to create a “jazz chicken”, the enactment of a Roman soldier deliberately and pretend delightedly impaling himself on the spear of an advancing Greek phalanx, and his evocation of a giraffe, signalling, by means of charades, the approach of a tiger.
Yes, seeing him in a stadium, his every move video-relayed, can be like watching a giant TV, but the warmth, lust for life and sheer swaggering pizzazz of this eternally boyish jester transcend the sterility of the occasion.
After 25 years of perfecting his burbling personality, Eddie has become entertainment incarnate.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

marathons and women’s clothing, Eddie Izzard talks


Currently paid to Eddie Izzard a visit to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Izzard proved himself to be a redoubtable, guest with a colorful interview that managed to be funny throughout while covering a wide range of topics. We have two clips embedded below. Enjoy those 30 second ads!
In this first clip, Izzard talks about his current run around the UK, covering 43 marathons in 51 days.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

EPIX for Launch Weekend


NEW YORK: The new premium channel EPIX is set to launch October 30 with an exclusive Madonna concert, Marvel's Iron Man and an Eddie Izzard particular, among other titles.
A joint venture of Viacom, its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Lionsgate, EPIX has thus far only secured carriage on Verizon's FiOS TV platform. In its opening weekend, the lineup includes Madonna's Sticky & Sweet: Live from Buenos Aires, from the River Plate Stadium. “Performances from artists like Madonna represent the kind of marquee talent who will perform on EPIX as part of our slate of monthly music and comedy events,” said Mark Greenberg, the president of EPIX.
The premiere weekend movie lineup kicks off with Iron Man, followed by more than 15 world television premieres representing a combined worldwide box office value of more than $2.5 billion. The slate includes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Madea Goes to Jail, Pink Panther 2, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cloverfield and The Duchess.
Also on offer is Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley from his sold-out European tour. “There is no one like Eddie Izzard," Greenberg said. "He breaks the mold. He is smart, engaging and hilarious."

Monday 5 October 2009

LAUNCH COMEDY CAREER TO STRUGGLE EDDIE IZZARD


Funnyman EDDIE IZZARD struggled to make audiences laugh during his early days on the stand up circuit, according to comedienne JO BRAND.The comic turned actor, who starred aboard Tom Cruise in World War II drama Valkyrie, first found fame with his comedy routines in the U.K. But British stand up Brand insists Izzard was so bad when he first started, his fellow comedians pitied him until he eventually proved them wrong. Autobiography in her new, Look Back In Hunger, she writes: "Eddie Izzard was perfectly dreadful when he started, just not funny. It became a standing joke: 'Eddie's died again'. "One night at the Red Rose Labour Club we were steeling ourselves for Eddie to have another nightmare, feeling sorry for him because we all liked him, and out of the blue he stormed. The crowd went mental, gave him an encore, and he never looked back."