Itagi

Hello! I’ve been off having a cold, then going to London - it’s been either busy or feverish. I went to London to see the faaahmly (pronounced with a thoroughly inappropriate Mitchell brothers accent), but also because me and David had tickets to see Eddie Izzard, who was trying out a bunch of new material on a three day run at the Arts Theatre, which is just off Leicester Square. The trip happened because I happened to be on the phone to David when the email announcing the dates arrived in my inbox. He immediately got two tickets, and after umming and ahing for a bit, I decided to take the second one. There’s something very exciting about being in an audience of 500 or so people, at 11.30pm watching your, and everyone else there’s, favourite stand up comedian.

I first discovered Eddie Izzard, like so many good things in my cultural life, through my friend Bob. She is a person of excellent taste, and way before he was a massive comedy icon, she had his “live at the ambassadors” video (video! Ol’ skool!). I was on board from the first viewing. Steve the Dalek and Kev the Dalek and their plungers and inability to walk up stairs…ah memories. However, the sudden realisation that he was a world class and mindblowingly good stand up came later, the day I first saw Definite Article. I was at university at the time, and watched it with two friends (at least one of whom has been known to visit itagi, hello!), and could not believe how good it was. I also remember being amazed by how long it was…I still drank at the time, and remember being quite drunk, and laughing hysterically.

I’ve since seen Definite Article approximately 800,000,000 times. There are lines and moments of mime in it which have become part of the shorthand language of shared cultural heritage that have bonded and cemented the friendships that are most important to me. I’ve laughed at the same jokes countless times, and occasionally whilst thinking about something else, they’ve come back to me and made me laugh, or just shake my head in general comedic awe. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every video and dvd he’s ever put out, although none of them blew me away as much as Definite Article, mostly because I’ve had very high expectations each time since.

But neither time I’d seen him live had lived up to that. The first time was on a tour called “Circle” which sadly was almost all material from the “Dress to Kill” video, which was something of a disappointment, because of the differently named tour. The second time was on the “Sexie” tour - the material was great, but stand up comedy really doesn’t lend itself to 15,000 seater arenas. We were sitting not only right at the back of the NIA, but also right at the back on the side, so we could barely see him, and there’s something odd about the rhythm of comedy in an environment like that.

Last Wednesday night though more than made up for those evenings. The material was almost all brand new, except for a couple of old lines thrown in in a greatest hits kind of a way. It may have been a work in progress, but lots of it seemed polished, and look out for the giraffes playing charades, and the latin backwards, massive, hairless squirrel elephant if you get a chance to see this show or the show it becomes…

He gave short shrift to hecklers, one of whom was just making odd noises at him. “Is this your first time heckling? You will need to say actual words.” was quite a good line I thought. One of the most interesting things to me about the evening was not directly related to the comedy though. When he came out on stage, it was as if the texture of the air in the room had changed - there was just an outpouring of love and appreciation from the crowd. It must be incredibly addictive to be hit by that whenever you walk out on stage. I’ve heard many stand ups discussing their art form, and love and attention seems to be a pretty common thread for peoples’ reasons for wanting to stand up making strangers laugh.

I’ve just spoken to David, who said that he thought that Izzard was a bit loose and flappy compared to the tightness of his earlier work, and I’m not sure I agree. I mean, there were definitely moments where the act wasn’t polished yet, and he played with the microphone stand for a solid 2 minutes, but I really liked that stuff. I like the idea of seeing, as the show was called, a “work in progress” from one of the world’s great creative minds. As well as the fantastic material, there’s an insight into the way it comes about which I found really valuable. I also got to feel all clever when I got a joke about 30 seconds before the rest of the audience. He also said “Jam” without any irony a few times, which was nice. The show comes highly recommended by me, and if you like stand up comedy and for some reason aren’t familiar with Eddie Izzard, you should rush out and get Definite Article to correct that…