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Eddie Izzard is many things, a stand up comedian,a Hollywood actor, barefoot sprinter, marathon runner and history obsesseive.

Hear him and Richard talk about how the Stone Age was once modern and the benefits of tunics or skirts on men.

He is also close enough to George Clooney to admit that the handsome star is way better than him at table soccer.

>> AUDIO INTERVIEW HERE

Eddie Izzard chats candidly about the nine-year plan that culminates with him running for Mayor of London.

>> VIDEO HERE

[from laweekly.com]

“I was laughing. It was funny,” a deadpan Izzard fan protested at 2 a.m. this morning. Obviously a newcomer. Maybe an asshole. Clearly it was too late for enthusiasm for some folks on a Thursday because I’m pretty sure Eddie never misses his mark…and last night at the Largo at the Coronet was absolutely no exception. Eddie killed.

Much like his stint here in 2009, for the past three nights it was just Eddie in a room filled with mostly die-hard fans (his Twitter followers, likely). It was Eddie solo. Eddie intimate. Eddie without a dress. These things happen all the time in Los Angeles, right? Our favorite entertainers come to us, the jaded, star-wiped Angelenos, and get real, or at least get closer. Otherwise we might mob them at the Bean & Leaf.

“A midnight show in Los Angeles? Most other cities it’s cool and it happens all the time…but it’s just weird in L.A.,” Izzard quipped to his sold out show. “There’s a bit of it out there. I know that it happens…but there’s three people who do it.”

Looking like our collective hip bachelor uncle in his blazer and jeans, the self-purported “executive transvestite” channeled more executive than transvestite (a balance he’s more or less maintained over the past few years). He delightfully rambled and mumbled his way through recent material in a set that was reminiscent of his recent summer solo at the Hollywood Bowl.

He hammered out some newer bits — all of them combining his trademark historical meandering with Pythonesque absurdity (“Beware the Spartan Sheep!”).

With Izzard, you’re always going to get a few Nazi jabs: “If there are any Nazis here, you’re in the wrong room.” He then pantomimed a hapless middling Nazi at Nuremberg needing to use the loo mid-goose step.

Keeping it fairly fresh and relevant at times (no, absolutely no Gadhafi jokes), he spent a good 70% of the show effectively skewering the Tea Party and theists in general: “If there’s a god, I want my god to have a plan. Because if you go through the thorough history, of well, everything…there’s no fucking plan whatsoever!”

He even showed us how to use the new iPhone…mainly because his act, by his own admission, has become somewhat dependent on Wikipedia. He’s even taken to reading articles at length, adding his own skewed version of reality to the mix.

One die-hard fan who’d seen him in tiny clubs in London, Boston, New York and here likens repeat viewings of the same material to your favorite band. “Oh, it’s great, it’s like your favorite band doing the same songs….but just slightly differently….and improvising a bit,” he told us.

All that said, Eddie solo, even with fairly recent but not brand-spanking-new material is still fucking hilarious. In a small room, the full animation of his facial expressions and absurd pantomime is actually in focus. He’s one of few people left that can say nothing audible or intelligible for ten minutes (with a killer velociraptor impersonation) and still be a side-splitting time. Even at 2 a.m. On a weeknight. In the city that apparently can’t keep it together past midnight.

No worries, Mr. Izzard: We were laughing. It was funny.

[thanks Jean!]

The British comedy star and actor, along with director Steve Barron, were in Cannes to promote Treasure Island, the RHI-produced film whose partners include Sky, who will air the feature in the UK this Christmas.

Izzard plays Long John Silver, but guarantees no “arrrr”s or “Jim lad”s: this is a gritty, realistic and muscular rendition of the classic tale. “We wanted this punk element”, said the star.

Watch out for trailer extracts within the interview!

>> ANOTHER INTERVIEW

[thanks Mark!]

[from thecomicscomic.com | thanks Jean!]

Craig Ferguson loves to have a loosey-goosey attitude on the set of his late-night talk show for CBS, but this week takes things to another level. Or should I say, another country entirely. This week’s episodes come to us from Paris, where Ferguson recently went on a working vacation.

On last night’s episode of Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, comedian Eddie Izzard and actress Kristen Bell joined Ferguson for a shopping stroll through the streets of Paris. You’ll get to see Ferguson question Izzard about performing his stand-up material in French, as well as whether the French or other cultures have a different sense of humor from the Americans or British. Interesting stuff.

Note: You can skip past the first minute of French Aquaman skittery.

Roll it!

[from digitalspy.com]

Eddie Izzard has suggested that Glastonbury festival does not pay comedians enough.

The stand-up made the comment in conversation with Ross Noble for Absolute Radio about his comedy festival Laughs in the Park.

Asked about the challenges of outdoor events, Izzard said: “I’d say all the hassles that music festivals have already found – weather is the primary one.

“Comedy also knows, because we’re often the poor relation tent to the big ‘I know what I’m doing, I have a lot of gear and a lot of roadies and getting paid actual money as opposed to breadsticks’, you know, which is what Glastonbury… there is a comedy tent in Glastonbury and they do get paid buttons. Buttons?”

Noble agreed: “Yeah, buttons.”

Izzard continued: “Comedy is a mind gig and music is a field gig, people can get right out of it and still be in a field gig and a music gig, they can really get kind of wasted.

“We need people to be happy, slightly buzzed but not too out of it because we’re doing quite subtle stuff here; we’re putting juxtaposing stuff that works in the brain.

“I’ve had people from music festivals in the tent laughing their heads off, but all the way through, at anything, and so it doesn’t help you, doesn’t help us finesse our timing.”

Noble quipped: “Although it’s fine if you just want to laugh in my set. If you want to just p*ss yourself all the way through.”

Laughs in the Park featured Izzard, Noble and Tommy Tiernan and took place on 22, 23 and 24 July at Verulamium Park, St Albans.

Izzard was recently reported to be in talks alongside Bob Hoskins to appear in Kristen Stewart’s Snow White and the Huntsman.

Watch the Eddie Izzard and Ross Noble Absolute Radio video interview below:

Eoghan decided to test his French on the multi-lingual comedian… with mixed results…

>> LISTEN HERE

[from sfgate.com]

Five Clicks to Jesus is an Internet game in which players start on a randomly selected Wikipedia article – the entry for Kevin Bacon, perhaps – and then must navigate their way to the entry for Jesus by clicking five or fewer hyperlinks.

Eddie Izzard’s comedy is kind of like that. An Izzard joke that starts as a riff on the Heimlich maneuver can end up as a jab at the National Rifle Association. Chiropractor satire evolves into a routine about Scrabble. Discussions of human evolution segue into the lyrics from “I Can See Clearly Now.” Naturally.

This Saturday, Izzard will take a break from his dramatic roles, political ambitions, foreign-language gigs and marathon running to bring his scatterbrained stand-up shtick to the Shoreline in a show called “Stripped on the Shore.”

Q: What makes history funny to you? Were you a really good history student?

A: I was a not-good history student. The idea of arguing very lengthy things – like in the U.K. you seem to see the question “Why did the First World War start?” endlessly debated – always kind of floored me. I don’t think I find history funny, but I noticed that no one was doing it. And so I consciously pushed into it because I thought, that’s a good place to go and live. It’s more interesting than saying “men are like this, women are like this,” or talking about things on television programs.

Q: You’re just wrapping up a string of 21 gigs in Paris, performed in French. Does your sense of humor change when you do your routine in a foreign language?

A: No. This is my big theory: Senses of humor are exactly the same, but there are several senses of humor in each country. In the last 15 years, I’ve taken out all my references to local products in Britain or America. But I always start off by talking about the place I’m in. Like, after 13 weeks in Paris, I was talking about the sex shops on the Boulevard de Clichy. But I can’t use that anywhere else. I think the sense of humor is the same. I just plug into the people who like stuff like Monty Python in France, and off I go.

Q: You recently ran 43 marathons over the span of 52 days. What exactly compelled you to do that?

A: It’s just something I wanted to do. And I did it for a charity called Sport Relief. I was running with the English flag, then the Welsh flag, then a Northern Ireland flag which I invented, then a Scottish flag. I’m going into politics in nine years, and it sort of said, “We are totally different people, but we’re also exactly the same, and we are a United Kingdom.” We used to kill each other, and now there’s an Englishman running with a Scottish flag. It was beautiful. And we raised about $2.7 million. Hopefully some kid somewhere will think, “Oh, here’s a transvestite who runs marathons, does gigs in French, plays Shoreline and the Hollywood Bowl. Sure, I’ll do that.” It’s a good thing to put out.

Q: It sounds like you’re pretty certain that you’ll go into politics. Do you have an exact plan?

A: Well, it was 10 years last year. Now it’s a year later, so I’m saying nine years. I’m going to try to pull an Al Franken. As opposed to an Al Sharpton, I guess.

Q: Will you be running for Parliament?

A: Probably mayor of London or Parliament. I am very positive on the European Union, so maybe the European Parliament would also appeal. I’m being advised that you can get a bit lost out there. The British press pays no attention to what they do.

Q: Are there any projects you’re working on that people don’t know about yet?

A: I’m doing a “Treasure Island” drama which is coming out next year in America. “Pirates of the Caribbean” had a sort of swashbuckling tone. We did a real down-and-dirty version. And a film called “Lost Christmas: An Urban Fairytale,” where I play a curious, somewhat mystical figure who seems to find things that people have lost. And apart from that I’ve got gigs to do in German, Russian and Arabic.

Q: Have you done shows in those languages before?

A: No. I don’t speak any Russian or Arabic. I do feel like now is the time that people from Europe should be reaching out to the Arabic people. It’s sort of my duty, in a way. I’d love to go back to Aden, Yemen, where I was born, and do a gig in Arabic.

Q: You played a part in David Mamet’s play “Race” recently. What do you think about his recent shift to the political right wing?

A: Well, I wish David wouldn’t be shifting. We had big arguments about football, of all things. The World Cup was on at the same time as we were rehearsing for “Race,” and I said that soccer can save the world. He scoffed at that. What I feel that soccer can do is redistribute dignity around the world. Teams from smaller countries go and win. It’s amazing. They don’t have to go to war. They don’t have to come up with a GDP that blows everyone out of the water.

Q: Have you planned your wardrobe for the San Francisco show yet?

A: I have. I’m not in girly mode at the moment. I’m in boy mode. I argue with people when they say, “You have to wear these clothes.” No. I don’t have to do anything. I can wear what I want.

Eddie Izzard: “Stripped on the Shore.” 8 p.m. Sat. Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View. $25.50-$131. www.livenation.com.

[from the Mercurynews.com]

When Eddie Izzard was at a career crossroads in his early 20s, the then-upstart British comedian found immediate inspiration from something less associated with one-liners than with graphical user interfaces: Apple Computer.

Apple inspired the college dropout to consider launching his own computer company, even though he lacked a clear understanding of the business. There was also the bit about his inability to raise capital.

“I couldn’t work out how to do it,” Izzard, now 49, says by phone as he sits in a cafe in Paris’ Place Pigalle section, where he is performing his “Stripped” stand-up show in French. “I chose the other thing.”

The “other thing” will be in full effect — appropriately enough, in Izzard’s beloved Silicon Valley — when he performs “Stripped” at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Saturday. One of his two U.S. appearances this summer, the Shoreline concert reflects the comedian’s affinity with the Bay Area, which stretches back to his West Coast debut in his “Dressed to Kill” show in San Francisco in 1998.

Since his 1991 breakout performance at a London benefit coproduced by future “House” star Hugh Laurie, Izzard has built a reputation as a fiercely original comedian. His ability to riff on everything from Steve McQueen to Gregorian chants to Greek mythology, to raft down assorted streams of consciousness, led to his being called the human search engine of comedy.

But the hilarity of Izzard’s observations is in the details. He re-imagines God, as voiced by James Mason, or Darth Vader grumbling in the cafeteria line of the Death Star.

All that normally would be enough to cement a comedian’s reputation, but Izzard has never made it easy for himself.

From his time as an aspiring sketch performer to his jump to stand-up to his move into serious acting, Izzard has almost stretched himself to absurd lengths rather than follow the obvious or easy path. When he took up running two years ago, he completed the equivalent of 43 marathons in 51 days. When he wanted to connect with an audience in Paris, he began performing his routine in French.

Though he immediately proved his marathon mettle, Izzard’s first foray into performing in French in the ’90s, though charmingly earnest, initially fizzled. He has since mastered the language and completed a self-financed 71-show run of “Stripped” — which, yes, included the bit about giraffes performing charades. His next goals as a performance polyglot: doing his shows in German and Russian. He ultimately would like to perform in Arabic in his birthplace of Aden, Yemen.

“I think I have a determination gene,” Izzard says. “It has something to with the death of my mother (when he was 6). And I quite consciously wanted to act since the age of 7. I’m putting together military tactics, determination, hopefully a good heart, and trying to set a positive image, so it’s all swirling into one thing.”

Izzard is regarded as one of the finest comedians of his generation, but he has yet to match that success as an actor. He’s landed plenty of plum jobs, such as the role of Sir Miles Axelrod in Pixar’s “Cars 2.” Izzard also has shown up in Hollywood hits (“Oceans Twelve,” “Oceans Thirteen”), starred in his own acclaimed TV series (“The Riches”), appeared in fanboy faves (the “Day of the Triffids” miniseries) and scored a Tony Award nomination (“A Day in the Death of Joe Egg”). Yet the breakout role has eluded him.

“The clock is ticking and I think I try too hard sometimes, which doesn’t always work,” he says. “My stand-up is based on having fun onstage, and when it works, it really works well.”

Izzard’s self-determined performance window closes in 2020 when he plans to enter politics. With the experience of campaigning for former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and fundraising for the Democratic Party in the U.S., Izzard is eyeing a run for the mayor of London, or perhaps a seat in the European or British parliaments.

“I’ve lived a life,” he says. “I’ve been talking about politics for 10 years, trying to establish myself as someone who’s paying attention and can maybe articulate on some things. But there are things I need to do for this career before I put it into deep hibernation. I want to get my drama at the right level. I feel like I’m getting close.”

What’s remarkable about his rise and ability to sustain his career is that it all could have ended abruptly in the early ’90s when he came out as a transvestite. Though perceived by some as a publicity stunt, if not career suicide, his fondness for performing in mandarin smocks and high heels is now nearly a nonissue.

“I think that it has become that,” he says. “In interviews, it is mentioned less, but the people who are fascinated by it go on and on and on. I say, ‘Hold on! I don’t want to be a professional transvestite. I just am a transvestite. It shouldn’t be the thing.’ ”

With a career that seems to keep building momentum, Izzard has just completed the filming of the British TV movie version of “Treasure Island,” in which he plays Long John Silver; has signed on to play a dwarf in “Snow White and the Huntsman”; and is now developing a political drama for FX network — all from a guy who at 24 considered himself a failure, unlike Orson Welles at that age, because he hadn’t yet directed his “Citizen Kane.”

“I’m kind of happy with the career,” he says. “It’s kind of bonkers, but it works for me.”

Eddie Izzard
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Shoreline
Amphitheatre,
Mountain View
Tickets: $20-$81,
www.ticketmaster.com