Eddie Izzard: Return to the comedy stage on EPIX channel

Eddie Izzard return to the comedy stage to perform the brodcast premiere of his latest one man concert, EPIX the premium entertainment channel on video demand and online service, he has brings will live concert in EPIX at Madison Square Garden premiers on 15 January 2011.

Eddie's directed by Sarah Townsend, his Story, written, produced and directed by Sarah Townsend, on EPIX in 2010.

Eddie's Characteristic the really welcome comedians trademark absurdist humor as he takes on the histore of the World. Eddie said, "It's about everything that has ever happened ... with a few gaps".

President of EPIX and CEO Mark Greenberg said, "We are proud that Eddie Izzard is returning to EPIX. Eddie's unique take on the world demonstrates why he is such an outstanding voice in comedy today and so popular with our television and online audiences."

Izzard was among first comedians to commit to EPIX upon its launch in 2009 when Eddie live performed in from Wembley and BELIEVE, in the first Emmy nomination his legend currently launched service.

Eddie Izzard, Haysbert tackle Mamet’s ‘Race’

Eddie Izzard finds it bizarre that no one has ever gone to war over eye color. “It’s likely because you can’t really look the eyes until you’re about here,” he says while gesturing with his hand next to his face. “So that would make it impractical.” Izzard laughs, but is serious about what prompted the comment: the delicate topic of race. Now he gets to explore it eight times a week on Broadway in the suitably titled David Mamet play, “Race.” Dennis Haysbert, who played the President of the United States on “24,” makes his Broadway debut, replacing the Tony nominated David Alan Grier as Henry Brown. Izzard, no stranger to Mamet (he originated the role of Del in the 1994 London production of “The Cryptogram”), takes over the James Spader role of Jack Lawson. And Izzard admits to being a little intimidated following Spader. “Race” concerns black and white law firm partners and their associate (played by Afton C. Williams, who replaced Kerry Washington) debate the merits of representing a wealthy white client accused of raping a young black woman. The play tackles the subject from various perspectives, including each attorney’s view on ethnicity, public perception and the media’s influence. “I think David put his finger on the pulse of what race is in this country,” Haysbert said. As a result, the audience response changes nightly. And that comes as no surprise to Haysbert. Perspective in the matter depends on where you come from, and that extends to the other side of the Atlantic where Izzard hails. According to Haysbert, tension between blacks and whites in America comes mostly from slavery but takes on a different hue in England. “It’s about nationality,” he says. “They have a lot of Pakistani; they have Indian and people from different countries.” But Izzard doesn’t completely agree with the distinction. “That is more where the hot button issue of racism comes from. But I still think it ends up in the same place,” Izzard said. “We got rid of slavery only 50 years before America did.” Regardless of the cause and the sprawl of race related issues around the world, Izzard thinks the problem may be narrowing. He cites the election of Barack Obama as America’s first African American president as a step in the right direction. But that’s not enough, says Izzard, who dreams of a world reminiscent to how the astronauts viewed Earth from space. “They saw no frontiers or borders,” he says. “If people come from another planet, they’ll say, ‘You’re all humans.’ And are we going to say, ‘Oh no. He’s a black man. He’s a white man. This man’s an Asian.’ “No,” he says. “It’s just all human.”

Eddie Izzard: Blasts Broadway critics

In the Broadway show Race Eddie Izzard has blasted critics of his performance. The actor took over the lead role last month but was panned by critics for forgetting lines and stumbling through the show. He told New York Magazine: "What do they expect? I came in very fast. Do they think that no one ever gets a line wrong on Broadway, ever? There should come and try and do it for a weekend. He said,"However, the 48 year old admitted he uses reviews as motivation to improve."I'm a determined little bugger".

Eddie Izzard on RACE stage tube

Eddie Izzard, Dennis Haysbert, Afton C. Williamson, and Richard Thomas began their run in RACE, by David Mametwriter and directed, on Monday June 21st for a nine week limited engagement through Saturday, August 21st. In this clip, Izzard chats RACE and why he connects so much with Mamet.
Beginning on June 21st, the show will play on Monday nights and not on Sunday matinees. The schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesday at 8 pm, Thursdays at 8 pm, Fridays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm.
RACE made its world premiere at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (located at 243 West 47th St.). On Monday the show began performances, November 16, 2009 and formally opened on Sunday, December 6, 2009.

Eddie Izzard and Dennis Haysbert Forgot Their Lines on Stage

Eddie Izzard and Dennis Haysbert disappointed theatre-goers with a shaky start to their stint on Broadway - reportedly forgetting their lines and stumbling through their first performance of "Race".

The British comic has joined forces with the former "24" star to tackle the lead roles in David Mamet's play, with Izzard stepping into the role previously played by James Spader.

But the New York Post reports the actors failed to impress the audience when they took to the New York stage for their first performance on Monday, June 21 night.

A source tells the publication, "(They) seemed unsteady and most forgetful of their lines. Doing any Mamet play is no easy task and the dialog is unwieldy.

It was their first performance, hopefully things will improve as they get into the roles."

Eddie Izzard's Keynsham pub gig

He’s used to having comedy audiences eating out of his hand - but Eddie Izzard had a slightly trickier crowd to deal with when he visited Keynsham.
The comedian, actor and long-distance runner is the second celebrity campaigner to join the effort to help Labour’s Dan Norris hold on to his marginal seat.
For 90 minutes at the Trout Tavern in Temple Street, he regaled a packed pub garden with the reasons why they should vote for North East Somerset candidate Mr Norris – and announced his own political aspirations.
The 48-year-old star will be wowing Canadians on stage in Toronto on Friday, but yesterday he was on his 22nd stop out of 25 across the country to muster votes for Labour in the General Election.

“I was in Gloucester this morning...” said the indefatigable performer, before reeling off every town and city he has graced wearing a rosette before then.
“The sun is shining in Keynsham and that’s because of the Labour Party.
“As a street performer I’m used to talking to people a lot and I want to point out that Britain is not broken, like the Tories will tell you. It’s brilliant. And that’s the Britain I believe in.”
Izzard’s appearance was the second from a household name to back Mr Norris, a junior minister in the last government.
Queen guitarist Brian May joined Mr Norris at the weekend to back his stance against fox hunting.
Izzard, who has made his own election broadcast called Brilliant Britain, spent an hour fielding questions on issues from child tax credits to pensions alongside Mr Norris, who has represented the Wansdyke constituency – now redrawn and renamed North East Somerset – for the last 13 years.
Karen Perry, 51, from Winterbourne, was impressed with his impromptu performance.
She said: “It is great for a comedy actor to have a serious side. He put things across in layman’s terms and probably helped Dan Norris reach a few more people today.”
Izzard said he was happy to help the party: “I’m not wheeled out here. I’m self-propelled. I volunteered for this. “Judge the celebrities on what they’ve done with their lives and if you like it, listen. If you don’t like it, don’t listen.
“The public are intelligent enough that if they don’t agree with what I say then they won’t listen.”
Izzard is a valuable commodity after capturing the nation’s imagination running 43 marathons in 51 days around the UK, raising money for Sport Relief.
And his boundless enthusiasm is bound for politics – but not for a decade.
He said: “My own aspirations are for 10 years’ time. I’ve worked my backside off to get my career going so I’m not going to drop it. It would need to go into deep hibernation if I stand (as an MP).”
Pub landlord Jim McCarthy joked: “I’m just waiting for Bruce Springsteen to come here now.”

Eddie Izzard on Marathon.

Last summer Eddie Izzard decided to run around England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales though not necessarily, as Eric Morecambe said, in the right order. The touching and thought provoking programme, Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man, was buried alive quite late at night on BBC3.

To say he did it for Sports Relief is true up to a point. The real reason is harder to fathom. He had to run 1,000 miles – 43 consecutive marathons – followed by a motorised rickshaw (with the camera crew) and an ice-cream van (with Flake 99s). To see him stumbling along in blinding rain, no cheers, no crowds, no pavements, carrying the sodden flag of the appropriate country, made you want to shout: "Excelsior!"

Towards the end of the 10th marathon, he collapsed. When they told him there were three switchback miles to go, he said: "I do that then." His therapist begged him to walk, but he did it running and, to celebrate, freewheeled downhill into Builth Wells (pop. approx 2,000) and a rousing civic reception.

'I bag America to believe I'm a transvestite' to Eddie Izzard

Eddie Izzard is giving Hollywood stardom a rest while he returns to touring his stand up. He talks to Gavin Allen about strategic transvestitism and the potential of arena comedy.
EDDIE Izzard has been in ‘boy mode’ so long that America can hardly believe he’s a transvestite.
While cultivating his film and TV career in Los Angeles he made the decision to tone down his wardrobe, and the strategy has served him well.
He landed the lead role in HBO series The Riches, as well as film roles alongside the likes of Tom Cruise in Valkyrie.
“I believed that if I had turned up for the auditions for The Riches or Valkyrie in make up and a dress, I would not get the roles,” he says.
But as a result, the flip side of this approach is that the Eddie Izzard America knows is perhaps a less colourful character than the one we cherish here, although he certainly isn’t hiding himself.
“I tell everyone I’m a transvestite over and over again,” he says, baffled by the flipped logic of the situation.
“I insist and I beg people to believe it on TV (interviews) and I never thought that I would be on TV begging people to believe I’m a transvestite.
“But I am being strategic about this. I’ve been in boy mode for the last few years, but I know I can be in girl mode if I want to.
“If I wanted to, I could throw on a dress right now and if I went out in the street and people insulted me, then I would insult them back.
“ I would know what to do. It’s all still there. It’s in my toolbox. I am a card-carrying transvestite. Always have been, always will be.
“The thing is, if you are a straight transvestite like me, you have all this boy stuff going on – mainly boy stuff in fact – as well as the girly stuff.
I like football.
“I was going to join the Army when I was younger.
“And I just ran 43 marathons, which is not a terribly girlie thing to do.”
Oh yes, the marathons.
His marathon of marathons in fact. Izzard recently completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief on a route which took him back to parts of Wales where he grew up; Neath, Porthcawl and Swansea.
How long did it take him to recover from the feat?
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be,” he says. I didn’t really run for about eight days. But that was it. I was fine.”
Tonight he finds himself back in Wales for the first of three dates at Cardiff International Arena with his Stripped tour.
We now have a steady production line of arena comedy shows, but it was Izzard who started the trend, and while some rail that comedy gets lost in such cavernous rooms, he argues performers simply aren’t doing it right yet.
“Six years ago, I did the first arena tour of the UK and that was a little scary because I didn’t know what I would be dealing with,” he says.
“People will say it’s not intimate, but I’m doing smaller shows too on this tour and if people don’t want to watch it there, then don’t watch it there.
“But I definitely think it’s a good thing. It makes it more of an event. And why should rock and roll get all the arena shows?
“The only way to get good at arena gigs is to do loads of them.
“If you think of the first ever arena gig, when The Beatles did Shea Stadium in 1965, it was a crap gig. Great band, great event but a crap gig because you couldn’t hear anything.
But look at what U2 are doing in stadiums now.
“People have had to learn how to play stadium gigs in music.
“And comedy has to go through the same thing, we just have to work out how to play arenas.
“No-one bats an eyelid when bands play arenas and if it’s a good thing for bands it’s a good thing for comedy.”
Eddie Izzard is at the CIA tonight and on November 19 and 20.

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."

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."

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Eddie Izzard Bunny In Today's Daily TwitPic

Ah, Eddie Izzard. Where would we be without your hilarious comic stylings? I don't know what you're expecting from today's Daily TwitPic from that tough to decode headline, but the truth is really not quite as strange as it might seem. Izzard who is (or was, when the pic was taken) running his 39th marathon, noted that the path took him through the town of... Bunny. Since that's a funny name for a town, he posed in front of the sign.
What's outstanding about this pic is that Izzard is holding a flag. Anyone who's seen his classic stand up performance in "Dressed to Kill" knows what flags mean: they are (his idea, not mine) what the British used during the age of imperialism to claim a land. It's funnier in the telling. Anyway, Izzard's holding a flag. I think the unspoken assertion here is that Bunny now belongs to him.

Runs into Trouble Eddie Izzard

One time cross dresser and legend in his own make up bag Eddie Izzard today finished his 31st marathon in as many, if not more (or maybe fewer), days.But regrettably this has caused Izzard, in his forties according to some, to run into a big pile of problem. Leading doctors have confirmed that if a man as small as Mr Izzard, who was born a nanus and has lived his life surrounded by magnifying glasses, were to devour such vast amounts of chocolate then not only might his weight balloon but the confectionery may well have passed it sell by date as Marathons have not been made for over a decade.Mr Eddie said it was a risk worth taking as the marathon Marathon session was all in aid of charity therefore he was volition to digest a few spots. A spokesman for the Ancient Games of Athens said he could not speak or hear English.

continues charity run to Comic Eddie Izzard

Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard is visiting Edinburgh as part of an try to run more than 1,000 miles beyond the UK for charity.
Izzard, who has completed more than 600 miles as part of his Sport Relief challenge Eddie IZ Running, will run to the top of Arthur's Seat overlooking Scotland's capital.
Last month Izzard set off from Trafalgar Square, London, in an try to complete a mega-marathon around the UK in support of Sport Relief 2010. Izzard has carried the flag of each country he is running in event the journey. He aims to carry on his challenge and return to London.

Eddie Izzard new flag for Northern Ireland

Comedian Eddie Izzard admits he’s beginning to feel the pace — and who can blame him after completing an incredible 24 marathons in 28 days.
But the cross dressing comic hardly had time to catch his breath when he apeared in Northern Ireland yesterday on the latest leg of his Sports Relief odyssey.
It was straight down to the business of clocking up another pavement-pounding marathon for the man who is already on his 14th couple of coach.
And in spite of the apparent exhaustion of his long distance charity run around the UK, he anchoraged only one question about the country where he was raised.
So far on his epic journey through parts of England, Scotland and Wales, Eddie has carried the flag of the nation he’s running through.
And he was aware that flags and allegory can cause a little local difficulty here.
“I know all about it and it has absorbed my mind,” he says.
“But I think I found a solution and I’m hopeful no one will be offended."
Multi-talented Eddie, 47, also planned to visit his old street at Ashford Drive in Bangor.
He and his family spent three-and-a-half years in the Co Down resort when he was a nipper. “Those days were absolutely the gladest of my childhood,” he recalled.
The self-styled “transvestite with a career” underwent just five weeks training before setting out on his mega-marathon that will see him cover 1,100 miles in seven weeks.
“I’m a determined and I’ll grind it out,” he says. “I have to keep on stumbleing forward. Running, walking, crawling, whatever it takes.”

Running winner Eddie Izzard completes 21st marathon

Running man Eddie Izzard has completed his 21st marathon so far, as part of his 1,100 miles around Britain for Comic Relief.
The cross dressing comedian interchanged his glittering heels and miniskirt for more sombre waterproof wear on the 28th July, and hasn’t arrested running since.
Eddie set off from London after only four weeks' worth of training and has at present approved injuries, including to his hamstring and shins.
His journey will connect the equivalent of running a marathon every day as he afforts to do the journey in seven weeks, running 30 miles a day for six days a week.
The loyar funnyman has been carrying the flag of each country as he pounds their asphalt.
Eddie announce the flag-holding to be symbolic of his beliefs: “We are changed, we are the same, we are the United Kingdom, we are Africa, we are mankind.”
An ice cream van attach Izzard and gives out ice creams in the hope that people will make allowance in return.
Izzard’s entourage is more Countryfile than high profile, consisting of two tents, a camper van and a sports therapist to help comfort his aches and pains.
The 47 year old has been Tweeting about his epic journey, which he has been softly planning for 10 years: he has also been livening up his messages with local photographs.
With 13 marathons still to go Izzard, who has just got to Stranraer, Scotland, said: “I feel knackeredly knackered. Eating a lot of pap in the morning and pasta at night, trying to put fuel back in. I must keep going.”

Lancaster to Eddie Izzard

COMEDIAN Eddie Izzard come backed to Lancaster on Friday in very another circumstances to his last visit.
The comic, who accomplished at the Grand Theatre earlier this year, passed through the city during an amazing national charity run for Sport Relief.

His journey will be the similar of running a marathon every day as he attempts to do the 1,100 mile journey in seven weeks, running 30 miles a day for six days a week.

Impromptu gig in Keswick to Eddie Izzard

The funny man is currently running through the county as part of a fundraising bid for Sport Relief and used his day off to stage a stand up turn at the Theatre by the Lake, advertise online on Twitter, where Eddie has been posting details of his charity run.On Saturday, he ran from Kendal to Ullswater behind the ice cream van sticker “Eddie’s Ices” that advertise his accession by playing Greensleeves and Chariots of Fire.Cumbrians have been keeping their eyes peeled for a sighting of Eddie as he runs through the county.Fan Fiona Exon, of Wonderful Salkeld, arrest up with him on Saturday as he ran down from the steep Kirkstone Pass in the Lake District.She said: “He was looking damn excellant for someone who is putting themselves through such an ordeal.“That day he ran from Kendal, over Kirkstone Pass and to Ullswater, so I had to go and see him in the flesh as he was so stop by.”Today Eddie is due to set off from Ullswater and run to Penrith. His challenge is to run 1,100 miles over seven weeks, completing around 30 miles a day, six days per week.