concert review

Nearly 10 years ago, Eddie Izzard made his stateside debut at New York City’s PS 122. The month-long run saw him performing in a theater that held approximately 80-people. As he pointed out on stage at Radio City Music Hall on June 27th, he’s come a long way. Not only was he performing at Radio City, but demand for tickets was so high that they added two more dates and all three sold out within days.
For those familiar with his quick wit and off-the-cuff remarks, Izzard is the king of comedy. He is a thinking man’s (and woman’s) comedian who tackles history, religion and more. If you’re not familiar with Izzard, you are definitely missing out! His rapid-fire conversational brand of comedy elicits nonstop laughter and is filled with quotable gems that live on long past their original use.

Sexie, Izzard’s last tour, saw the “Action Transvestite” comedian go for full-on drag: skirt, fishnets, and fake breasts supposedly borrowed from Uma Thurman’s stunt double on The Avengers set. Judging by the name when the Stripped! tour was announced, I was a little concerned as to what our evening’s host was going to be wearing. Fortunately, flesh was not revealed. Instead, he was decked out in jeans, a tee shirt and a dapper black jacket.

During some of his workshop runs of the new show, he pointed out that he was still a transvestite and will forever be one, but for now though, he is just off-duty. It is possible that this was a calculated move? Izzard, who is also a stage, screen and television (FX’s The Riches) actor, has the chops to be a leading man in the movies, roles that so far have eluded him and are often reserved for the non-skirt-wearing.

Never one afraid to tackle the big issues, religion was a major focus of the night, starting out in true Izzard form with, “So, I’ve decided there is no God.”

From pointing out inconstancies in creationism and scientific proof, to pondering why if God created the earth, dinosaurs didn’t go to church every Sunday (cue image of dinosaurs singing along to the hymn “All Creatures Bright and Beautiful”), he infuses such heady topics with a strange cutting-edge whimsy. I imagine it would be hard for believers to be up in arms over his thoughts. Then again, I agree with him.

After bringing the highly religion-based show through the Bible Belt, I can’t help but imagine playing a venue in New York City must be a bit of a relief. Izzard, of course, made light of the situation.

“The Bible Belt didn’t kill me, I think they didn’t know I was coming.”

He followed it up by noting that it seems socially progressive folk tend to live on the coasts (New York) and by the water (Chicago), quipping that maybe they know that in a disaster that water offers another escape route (cue Izzard escaping by rowboat).

As the evening progressed, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was in Izzard’s brain flitting gleefully from one train of thought to another. Musings about the Egyptians led to the Pope and Darth Vader as a transvestite, to Legos, Wikipedia and Macs, all in the matter of a moment or two. Sooner or later, we worked our way back to the Egyptians, before we were off on another fanatical aside.

While I don’t want to give too much away, some crucial learnings gleaned from the evening: badgers can’t be choosers when it comes to food; Scrabble was the most popular board game before there was language… everyone was a high scorer; whoever came up with the word dyslexia should be shot. It would have been much easier for dyslexics if the disorder was named “cat.”

It seemed fitting that during his performance, in what felt like a rather serious aside, Izzard noted that Monty Python was one of his biggest influences. Pythoner John Cleese has said he considers Izzard to be the “Lost Python.” Truly an honor that was not bestowed lightly.

If you have never had the pleasure of seeing Eddie Izzard’s stand up shows, go out and rent Dress to Kill tonight or, if you can catch him on the Stripped! tour, do it. I promise either way you won’t regret it!