We were beside ourselves with excitement. So much of Eddie Izzard’s stuff is “had to be there” humor. Like his whole discourse on the Church of England and how that somehow inevitably leads to “cake or death”. You really just have to see the whole thing. He’s not a punchline-type guy. How can one describe why the phrase, “What is it, Sebastien, I’m arranging matches …” is HILARIOUS? You just have to see the whole thing!
So to describe to you why, at one point last night, I was laughing so hard tears were streaming off of my face … will be rather difficult. First of all, there was his acting-out of the “Thou must not covet thy neighbor’s ox” commandment.If you’re familiar with him, you know he starts with something concrete – and then basically plays it out to its logical (and insane) conclusions. Like his re-enactment of the building of Stone Henge. “Oh, we’re building a Henge, are we? Lovely! It’s not far, is it?” Or also his whole re-enactment of dinosaurs (imagining what it would be like if dinosaurs had morality, and he suddenly became a T. Rex letting someone else go ahead of him in line) and God basically just doodling whatever the fuck he wanted on a sketch pad – “He will weigh 10 tons, he will have three horns on his head, and he will be a vegetarian …” He also did a re-enactment of Hannibal and the Alps and the elephants – and he did it IN LATIN. The guy is fucking crazy. He discoursed upon the Stone Age, and he did a whole thing about hunter-gatherers – and suddenly he became the best berry-gatherer in the world – (see, it’s all “had to be there”) – and other people in the tribe had to stand around holding baskets ready to catch the berries because they were coming so quickly. He did a whole thing on giraffes doing charades. hahahahahaha And I was very pleased with his bit on spiders. And how scary they are. “And so straight men and lesbians are left to deal with it … We may hate spiders, but gay men and straight women hate them more.” He’s obsessed with Wikipedia. He looked up the word “spoon” for us, onstage. That became a running gag. I never realized how hilarious Wikipedia is … just the concept of it.
The guy is brilliant. We were in the FIRST ROW. He was right there!
No more transvestite garb. He looked kind of like a scrubby old English professor. Blazer, black T shirt, jeans.
I’m basically in love with him. It was so so so fun. I’m SO glad to have seen him in person.
I have to admit to being very jealous.
I hadn’t thought much about him not being a punchline-type guy, but you’re so right. Reading your list of his sketches would not necessarily make anyone rush out and buy a ticket to his show, but in context those things are incredibly funny.
And you just know that when he starts a sentence with something like “But there must have been a Death Star canteen…” you’re in for a surreal but hilarious ride.
How fun that must have been! I love his humour and wish I had a chance to see him live. His mind is so hilariously unique.
I feel like I made a romantic match, or something. You laughed so hard that you cried. That’s wonderful.
Yes, the man is hilarious. Dangerously hilarious.
oh, and I found some clips of his jokes that someone reenacted with legos, and linked them to my page. If you haven’t seen the Cantina scene, that’s the first one I linked. You must look.
wutz: I TOTALLY have you to thank for introducing me to him!
Was this new material? I’m still thinking I might try to see if there are tickets left for any shows. Argh!
Marti – It was all new material to me, and I’ve seen a couple of his live shows. Try to go see it!
The only show that isn’t sold out is one they just added on the 25th. It starts at 10:30, but I have to be at work in CT at 8:30am. And I live in CT, so I’m a little nervous about the timing of it. But is it completely worth being a zombie the following day?
Wait! Nevermind! We’re totally going. They opened up another 2 weeks of shows.
Just remember: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. And so do Monkeys… when they have guns.
Marti – Yay!!!
Je suis le Presidente de Burundi.
The whole “Sebastian” thing has become a sort of short-hand with me and my girl. She’ll say something like, “I don’t think I want see Atonement. It looks like it’ll just be Sebastian arranging matches.”
And on the other end of the spectrum, whenever a movie suddenly pulls something out of left field, we’ll yell “Space monkeys!”
“Somebody heeelp! I’m covered in beees!!!”
AHHHHHH I’m so jealous!! I wonder if he goes to other cities…did you ever see his show on FX, The Riches? It was pretty good in the beginning.
Saw him the first night-he is so wonderful-crazy and unique-walked 25 blocks to Penn Station and got drowned but well worth it.
Wutzizname: wonder if he’s coming down to your neck of the woods?
You HAVE to see him!
There are a ton of pictures online of the show – fans snapping photos (another pet peeve. Turn your damn flash off) – but that way you can see him in action!
The giraffe thing is truly amazing – for some reason I really think you will like that bit.
Oh, and his whole thing about Intelligent Design (which was basically the theme of the whole show I saw – not sure about the other ones) was hilarious.
I’m still partial to the hunter-gatherers and him saying, about the gatherers, “That was a shit job, wasn’t it?” In comparison to the hunters who got to wear war paint and gallop about holding crossbows or whatever.
But then he acted out what it would be to be the FASTEST berry gatherer EVER … and that would be the only way you could ever get any glory.
You’d have to have SEEN him act that out, of course – it was such a visual joke – but I am laughing out loud right now just typing this!
“And I will create toilets in French camping sites …”
Eddie Izzard on God creating the world. (I adore how God continues to be James Mason.)…