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[from sfgate.com]

The next best thing to seeing Eddie Izzard live is catching one of his shows on DVD. The next best thing after that may well be watching this bio-doc tracing his long struggle toward worldwide success and giving us glimpses of the man behind the fishnets but, in the end, not quite as much as we might want. Director Sarah Townsend shows Izzard taking his act round the world (including a stop at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre) and heading toward the ultimate venue for a British artist, Wembley Arena. In between, we learn that Izzard was born in Yemen, where his father worked for British Petroleum; that he has an older brother who’s barely mentioned; that his mother’s death from cancer remains a singular trauma in his life; and that his dad never had a problem with his son dressing up in women’s clothing. The film’s best parts show Izzard’s creative recklessness, his unrelenting drive to the shakiest part of every comic limb he can think of. Early in his career, that riskiness didn’t always resonate with audiences, whether at the famed Edinburgh Festival (where his college sketch group couldn’t hold a candle to the Cambridge Footlights, whose members included Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson) or elsewhere. Later, Izzard flailed around trying to make it as a performer. He was half a comic duo, but perhaps really learned to mine his own comedic terror for laughs as a street performer. After that, daring to book himself a solo gig in London’s West End was almost a piece of cake. A couple of scenes, including one where he is surprised to learn that his mother called him “Edward” instead of “Eddie,” are revealing, but the curtain parts only a bit. That may be frustrating, but we never have time to ponder it too deeply because, a second later, we’re diverted by “the wolf bit” or other features of his hit shows, and that’s enough to stifle any complaints.

[from winnipegfreepress.com]

BRITISH comic Eddie Izzard is bringing his one-man show, Eddie Izzard: Stripped, to the Burton Cummings Theatre on Monday, May 10. Izzard, known for his outrageous and occasionally cross-dressed stage persona, also has a list of film and TV acting credits that includes The Riches, Ocean’s Thirteen and Across the Universe. Tickets for the show are $58.80 and $69.30, on sale March 20 at Ticketmaster.

[from edmontonjournal.com]

Cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard will bare it all on Monday, May 17 at the Jubilee Auditorium. Tickets are $50.95 to $71.95 (including service charges) at Ticketmaster. On sale: Saturday, March 20.

The date is part of his Stripped Tour across western Canada. The British actor, who has appeared in The Avengers, Mystery Men, Valkyrie and The Riches, will also perform in Winnipeg (May 10), Calgary (May 14) and Vancouver (May 21, 22).

>> MORE DATES/TICKET INFO HERE

[thanks Ramona!]

Believe will be screened in San Francisco March 25th at 7pm at the Embarcadero Cinema Center.

San Francisco’s Litquake Literary Festival is proud to present a special benefit screening of the new documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story. Q&A will immediately follow, featuring the film’s director Sarah Townsend in conversation with Eddie himself!

From rare footage of Eddie as a child dreaming to one day perform in front of a live audience, to his sold-out performance of a lifetime at the legendary Wembley Arena, Believe is a moving portrait of one of the most celebrated artists of our time.

“An astonishing collection of footage…Beginning with home movies from Izzard’s childhood, the film moves through years of performances on the street and in small clubs to a triumphant West End debut, at which time he declared himself a transvestite, to his international acclaim as a stand-up comic and as a stage and screen actor.” – Los Angeles Times

Proceeds to benefit Litquake, the largest independent literary festival west of the Mississippi. Don’t miss this one-night-only event – it’s guaranteed to sell out!

Thursday, March 25th, Embarcadero Center Cinema
One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level, San Francisco
(415) 267-4893

>> TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

>> CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEOS FROM KCRW’S The Treatment

[from conventrytelegraph.net]

THE agony of everyexploding blister and every aching muscle was written across Eddie Izzard’s face in Marathon Man … and still he kept running.

His challenge was to run an incredible 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief notching up more than 1,000 miles along the way.

The popular comedian had never done a marathon before, but undeterred he took the road and began running.

Eddie soon discovered the pain of the long distance runner as blisters began popping up and his legs started to struggle with the challenge of clocking up miles every day.
The experts told him to walk up the hills, to take a rest when necessary, but Eddie wasn’t having any of it. He was relentless even when it was plain to see he was
totally exhausted at times.

“The positive thing about today,” he said lying wearily in the back of the support van, “is ….? There’s nothing positive about today.”

Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man on BBC 3 captured Eddie as he kept going and
going in all weathers and conditions.

It was hard to watch as he struggled in the early stages, but then Eddie seemed to find the physical and mental energy to push ahead with his challenge.

He put up messages on Twitter along the way, was welcomed by passers-by …
and never stopped.

It seemed an impossible challenge, but steady Eddie got the job done.

[from dvdtalk.com]

Comedy may be subjective, but I know at least one thing to be true. Eddie Izzard is a comic genius. He is also an Action Transvestite. If you are familiar with his work, then you need no further explanation. If you don’t know him, his stand-up performances in Dress to Kill and Glorious serve as wonderful starting points to appreciate his brand of intelligent insanity. Believe is a bit different as far as Izzard releases go. Rather than being a performance piece, it’s a loose documentary covering the man’s life. Although not terribly edgy in its approach, Believe paints a sensitive portrait of the man behind the eye-shadow and reveals a side of the artist that his fans don’t typically get to see.

Believe starts with a compelling hook that serves as a framing device while providing structure to the entire piece. In 2000, Eddie Izzard was accused of committing ‘fraud’ by re-using comedy bits during his stand-up performances. Although the allegations were patently ridiculous in nature, they had quite the adverse effect on Izzard leading him to quit comedy altogether. After being on hiatus for a few years, he decided to return to his audience and his craft. Believe documents his return to the stage in 2003 before culminating in a series of massive performances at Wembley Arena playing to a crowd of 44,000 people. If that were all Believe gave us, it would be a serviceable promotional piece dressed up as an underdog story. Fortunately, it has much more in store for us. Intercut with sequences of Izzard preparing for his tour, we get interviews with Izzard’s friends and family while charting his progression from a wee lad through his early schooling all the way to his days as a street performer before hitting his stride as a stand-up comedian. It’s a compelling story as the past informs the present while giving us a perspective on the kind of grief that can drive a man to make the whole world laugh.

Born in Yemen to a father who was an accountant for British Petroleum and a mother who was a nurse, Izzard had a few happy years in his early childhood before his mother grew gravely ill and passed away. This was the turning point that would color the rest of his life even though there was no way a little boy could know that at the time. Faced with the prospect of raising two boys by himself, Izzard’s father sent Eddie and his brother to boarding school in Eastbourne. There he would get his first taste of performing for others as he would put on shows for his friends. By the time he was 16, he had decided that he wanted to be an actor. This realization led to the next stage of his life in which he would frantically look for any available venue to entertain a crowd of people. From choosing his college based on the resident sketch comedy troupe to scrounging his way into the Edinborough Fringe Festival, we get a clear sense of Eddie’s determination and tenacity. By the time we see Izzard take to becoming a street performer, it’s apparent that he is far past the point of no return. From then on, it’s just a matter of time as Izzard pounds the pavement for gigs in comedy clubs while coming to grips with his identity as a comic who also looks fetching in ladies clothing. As we follow him through his first shows, it is abundantly clear that Izzard’s climb to his present position has been an arduous one and that all of his success is well deserved.

Dates and places may give Believe its lyrics but the melody for this piece comes from the revealing interviews with Izzard himself. As the interviewer, Sarah Townsend, is Eddie’s ex-girlfriend, we sometimes get the sense that Eddie is saying things that he may not have told a complete stranger. We follow him as he returns to his childhood home and wistfully talks about memories of his mother. It’s tough watching a man who is normally a ball of energy, sitting frozen by the idea of a childhood that was seemingly stolen from him. In fact, much of Eddie’s motivation stems from the absence of his mother. When he says, “Everything I do in life is trying to get her back” we are faced with the sobering realization that some wounds never heal and try as we might, some things can never be replaced.

If I have made Believe sound too serious or self-important I assure you that’s not the case. We are treated to a number of smaller interviews with Eddie’s co-stars and friends over the years including the always charming George Clooney and Robin Williams. We also get to see Izzard, the comic, in action as he tries out new bits on unassuming audiences in order to gauge their response to the material’s effectiveness. Watching Izzard develop his material is often as much fun as the material itself. He belongs to the Python school of smart silliness and this comes across in his performances which are theatrical yet slightly surreal. Even though the Wembley performance was released separately (reviewed here ), it is fascinating watching him prepare for it. In fact, if I have any complaints about Believe, it’s that I would have gladly trimmed some of the saggy mid-section to give us a little more exposure to him working on his process. Although I suppose, much like a magician, the trick is told when the trick is sold.

THE DVD:

Video:
I received a screener copy for review so I can’t be certain of the Video quality until an official copy is obtained. For what it’s worth, the image on the screener was relatively clear given the sheer number and quality of the disparate sources involved. We have a variety of digital artifacts scattered throughout the older material but nothing that would prevent you from enjoying the release. The newer material is reasonably clean if a little visually flat.

Audio:
I received a screener copy for review so I can’t be certain of the Audio quality until an official copy is obtained. For what it’s worth, the English audio was presented in a 2.0 Stereo mix. The mix was adequate for the material at hand. There didn’t appear to be any Subtitles.

Extras:
I received a screener copy for review so I can’t be certain of the quality of the Extras until an official copy is obtained. For what it’s worth, the screener didn’t feature any extras at all.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
For fans of Eddie Izzard, Believe is a revealing look at the man behind the makeup. We gain a newfound appreciation for the forces that drive Eddie and compel him to perform. Admittedly, folks who are unfamiliar with his performances probably shouldn’t start here. This is clearly intended for the fans and on those terms it works quite nicely. Hopefully the final release will have a reasonable audio / video presentation that at least matches my screener in quality. A nice set of extras would also be highly desirable. As it stands, this release is Recommended.

Via @craigyferg on Twitter:

“Lovely Eddie Izzard making a secret surprise visit to the LLS tomorrow so don’t tell anyone. He will help me with the email & tweets”

[from denofgeek.com]

Normally on Den Of Geek, we plan what we’re to write about, but I just couldn’t help myself in spouting about this well hidden nugget of British TV. Eddie Izzard is a unique personality who has successfully combined acting and being a stand-up comedian, but a sportsman he’s not. So it’s with some degree of incredulity that I tuned into BBC Three to watch the first of three documentary episodes where, for the charity Sport Relief, he sets out to become an extreme athlete.

In the first of three portions he starts his running career in London with the objective to run to an old family home, with bitter memories, in Wales. The terrifying reality is that Eddie has committed to run more than a marathon’s distance six days out of seven, a horrific total of 43 in just 51 days. He attempts this with just a few weeks’ training and no history of running! It’s obvious from the outset that the future for Eddie involves pain and personal sacrifice of a nature that most of us will never actually experience.

The shock, and I don’t think this is a giveaway, is that Eddie might be a transvestite, but there is nothing ‘girly’ about his determination. Beneath that amiable exterior he’s a man of steel.

Adding to his adventure are a support team of people, some there to capture his initially awkward running style and torturous feet-repair sequences, others drive his accompanying ice cream van and provide other means of practical or moral support. They all seem very nice people, but it’s also plain to see that they’ve met in a pub beforehand and rationalised that Eddie isn’t fit or marathon ready and is a ‘comedian’. And, as such, if he gets through the first of the 43 days on the road it will be a miracle, and any more are highly unlikely.

Some of the giveaways to this are things like the battery-assisted tricycle they bring along to film him, which after a few days has entirely flat batteries – like they’d assumed it wouldn’t need to go that far.

They also, as things get tough (and they get tough very quickly), keep trying to offer him ‘outs’ which, frustratingly, Eddie almost entirely refuses to take.

I was massively impressed by his determination, given that I’d be dead in a gutter before I’d got out of earshot of Big Ben. One day turns into two, into three, into six. Eventually he gets a ‘rest day’, which is tempered by the information that he’ll need to walk 15 miles on that day just to stop his legs seizing up entirely.

As an interesting extra dimension to the athletic challenge, Eddie also runs to the home in Wales where, as a small child, he had the traumatic experience of his mother dying. This isn’t presented in an overly sentimental way, but in more of the context that, as we all get older, we’re often drawn to connect with powerful events from the past, even painful ones.

The first episode ends entirely implausibly with Eddie having ten Marathon distances under his belt and even more pain on the horizon. If his courage doesn’t make you want to sponsor him, I’m not sure what might. My only concern is that the BBC decided to relegate this to the relative viewer-free pastures of BBC Three, which makes me wonder what it is exactly Eddie would need to do to justify a BBC One or Two slot? Those that made that scheduling decision should be forced to repeat his challenge, I’d suggest.

Episode two is on at 10:30pm BBC Three on Thursday, and I’ll be tuning in to see Eddie run….