Izzard finds funny bone every time
Otago Daily News | 08.16.03 | thanks Spoot

Dunedin Town Hall
Jane Smith

Eddie Izzard did not have to coax the audience into the palm of his hand; they were waiting for him there.

He strode on stage to such rapturous applause, he could not speak for nearly a full minute.

When the crowd finally calmed down he warned: "I could be crap".

But he was not.

It didn't matter what he said, or did, he was just plain funny.

When he bobbed up and down between jokes or when thinking, when he did a bad impression of Sean Connery in French, when he made realistic dentist drill noises - he was funny.

Dressed in stiletto heels, flattering bootleg trousers and an off-white shirt opened to reveal his black bra, Izzard was the quintessential transvestite comedian.

He offered tips on looking slimmer - acquiring breasts - and the handy things they could be used for such as earmuffs in noisy aeroplanes, and that by fondling them bank managers could be persuaded to lend large amounts of money.

His humour ranged from advising on survival techniques (when attacked by a shark, put your fingers up its nose because it makes it go "all dreamy") to solving the English fox-hunting problem (give hunters flame-throwers and train the dogs to bark at flies, which are useless because they can't make chutney or play the banjo) to musing on superheroes, and why there was no Captain Transvestite (because he would always turn up 90 minutes late, having spent time having a bath, eating a crunchy salad and putting on his make-up).

It didn't matter what he said, or did, it was always funny. He did not put a well-heeled foot wrong.

The applause at the end of the show was equally rapturous as the applause at the start.


Saturday, 16-August 2003

 

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