Cake or Death's Groovy News

[from eonline.com]

Just because cross-dressing comic Eddie Izzard is hosting the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, you shouldn’t assume he’ll do so in a skirt and killer heels.

“Manly clothes,” he says when asked what he’ll be wearing at the March 5 show. “I’m in boy mode, so if you thought I was in a girly mode, I am not.”

And he’s not exactly happy to be hosting the awards. He’s got some mixed feelings about it…

How did hosting the Spirit Awards come about?
I was persuaded with a gun to my head.

Is that how you get Eddie Izzard to do something—you threaten to shoot him?
I’d only do it for the Spirit Awards. I think this will be my first and last awards show hosting. I don’t like doing these things. I’m happy to give them away, but I just don’t want to host them.

You’ve really never hosted an awards show before?
Nope!

Have you been asked?
Yeah, yeah, quite a few times. I told everyone, “No.”

So how are you preparing for it?
I’m not. I don’t know what you should do for something like this. I improvise. I never write any of my standups…We’ll see on the day. It could be fun. It’s just not something I want to do.

When you hear the words “independent film,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
People changing in toilets. Like when I was doing early standups, we used to change in stairwells and kitchens. I was a street performer before. Talk about independence! We would change in the snow outside. We would all just change our clothes outdoors in the snow or rain or whatever. It’s that kind of thing.

The DVD of the documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story just came out.
I’m very excited about that. It’s six years in the making.

I loved The Riches. I thought it was great. Will you be doing anymore television?
I loved it to death, and absolutely, I plan to do another TV series.

Any particular project in mind?
I can’t really talk about it. I think that would slightly jinx it. But there are things floating around that they are offering, and then there’s something that I want to do. So, we will see.

The 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards air live March 5 on IFC.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b168871_eddie_izzard_hosting_spirit_awards_does.html#ixzz0gkHXngK9

>> IF YOU MISSED IT, HERE’S THE VIDEO

Chris Rock and Ray Romano have signed on for this Saturday’s edition of “The Wanda Sykes Show.”

With “Saturday Night Live” still pre-empted by the Olympics, Fox’s still-young late-night show has put together its most star-studded panel discussion yet. In addition to Rock and Romano, Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and Colin Quinn will also be on “Wanda” this Saturday as part of the show’s regular roundtable segment.

Sykes will also do a one-on-one interview with Eddie Izzard, who’s hosting next week’s Independent Spirit Awards.

“Wanda” airs Saturdays at 11 p.m. on Fox.

[from walesonline.co.uk]

COMEDIAN Eddie Izzard’s visit to Cardiff during his gruelling 1,166-mile run for Sport Relief will be televised as part of a three-part documentary next week.

The flamboyant funnyman visited Cardiff in the summer during his challenge to run 43 marathons in 51 days.

The 48-year-old comic, who once went to St John boarding school in Porthcawl, used the Welsh leg of his journey to go back to his roots.

At the time he said: “Everyone’s been fantastic, from the minute I came over the Severn Bridge there have been people cheering me on, leaning out of windows and hooting their horns.”

The Hollywood star, who has starred in big budget movies including Ocean’s 12 and 13 alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt, was only six when he lost his midwife mother.

The documentary will follow Izzard from his five-week preparation through to the completion of his challenge.

The comedian, who endured crippling injuries, painful stomach problems from his diet of more than 6,000 calories a day and a routine of nightly ice baths, said: “It’s been hell, 26 miles a day is a lot.

“At first the last six miles were agony. Then it changed to the first six miles. Then it was the middle chunk. Then it was pretty much all the same.”

Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man will air on BBC Three on Sunday, March 4.

[from Comingsoon.net via narniaweb.com]

In an interview with David Frost, “Pirates of the Caribbean” star Bill Nighy revealed that he’s replaced Eddie Izzard as the voice of Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, scheduled to hit theaters on December 10. Izzard voiced the role in the second installment, “Prince Caspian.”

You can watch Nighy break the news at the 5:26 mark in the clip below:

[from DenofGeek.com]

The BBC’s recent fresh take on The Day Of The Triffids turns up on DVD. So what does Matt make of it?

Published on Feb 8, 2010

A DVD release of the latest adaptation of John Wyndham’s ‘cosy catastrophe’ 50s classic is heartily welcomed by me as, painfully, I missed episode one over Christmas as my digi-box recorder packed up. After the disappointing 1962 film and the terrifying-at-the-time Good Life­-gone-bad 1981 series, this version suggests that Wyndham’s story is moving in the same direction as The Hound Of The Baskervilles, being repeatedly reinterpreted for new audiences and new generations. I, for one, welcome this. There is plenty of room in Day Of The Triffids for future adaptors to ‘modernise’ and to introduce timely twists to build on Wyndham’s central plot.

Or should that be plots? The Day Of The Triffids follows the adventures of Bill Masen and Jo Playton, played by Dougray Scott and Joely Richardson, as they struggle to survive after most of the world’s population has been blinded by solar flares. As two of the few remaining sighted people, Masen and Playton face the dilemma of whether to save the less fortunate or themselves. This dilemma is complicated by the existence of mobile, carnivorous plants, the Triffids, and by the villainous Torrence played brilliantly by Eddie Izzard.

The one weakness of Wyndham’s story is the improbable double conceit of the solar flares (in the book a meteor shower) and the unconnected Triffid menace. In this adaptation, this is reconciled partly by dividing the two crises between the two episodes.

The first focuses on Masen and Playton encountering two different communities in London, the first excluding the blind, the second forcing the sighted to care for the blind. In this episode, bar the occasional encounter and the hugely effective cliffhanger, the Triffids remain unseen and marginalised, with only Masen’s repeated warnings reminding the viewer of their presence.

The second episode leaves the city and the blind behind as Masen travels across country to find his father, fellow Triffid scientist Dennis Masen, played by Brian Cox. This episode rapidly turns into what Doctor Who fans would call a ‘base-under-siege’ story as Masen senior’s very attractive manor house is slowly surrounded by the deadly vegetation.

The effect of splitting Wyndham’s ungainly double-concept plot in this way is highly satisfactory. In doing so, the parallels between the London bases-under-siege by the blind and the rural bases-under-siege by the Triffids are hammered home.

Thankfully, the adaptors resisted the supposed temptation to relocate the story to a more glamorous location, instead setting it in the cosy and, to me at least, familiar South Downs of England. In doing so they retain the central and most memorable power of the Triffid/blindness crises: the threat to the traditional, stereotypical qualities of Britishness.

Throughout the two episodes both blind and sighted are shown helpless, debased and undignified, at the mercy of and ultimately usurped by the distinctly foreign plant life. After defeating the increasingly violent and desperate Torrence and lead by (ironically) the American Major Cocker, Masen and Playton find their way to the safety of the Isle of Wight, protected from the Triffids by the Solent.

I was impressed by this adaptation and surprised by the negative reactions on Amazon.com. The casting was perfect, especially Izzard who seemed to relish the role of the morally bankrupt Torrence. Brian Cox who, David Tennant-like, seemed to be in almost everything over Christmas, was equally strong as the short-lived but pivotal Dennis Masen.

The CG realisation of the Triffids was well done and true to the original story, The slow reveal over the episodes ratcheted up the menace. I wasn’t entirely convinced by their method of moving, as with the 1980s series, but it is difficult to know, without a major redesign of the whole plant, how this could be done. The overall impression was that the Triffids had some sort of feet that were never shown on screen and this, after a time, becomes faintly comical.

Just as the 1980s series was a late example of the 1970s preoccupation with self-sufficiency that gave rise to, at extremes, The Good Life and the original Survivors, the remake encourages comparison with the rebooted Survivors, a series I rather like but feel needs an extra dramatic dimension.

What The Day Of The Triffids made me realise was that a global apocalypse doesn’t automatically lead to a fast paced drama. What’s required is the more instant threat of the Triffids.

Ultimately, it made me realise that, while Wyndham’s original story seems contrived, both fantastical elements are essential to fully and economically realise the dramatic potential of the catastrophe.

Extras

The disc is extras-light. The accompanying ‘making of’ documentary is satisfactory, but I suspect they could potentially have constructed an entire extra based on an interview with Eddie Izzard.

[four out of five stars]

[from artslink.co.za]

Christina Kennedy: English stand-up comedian (and “off-duty transvestite”) Eddie Izzard is currently packing out venues across South Africa, proving once again that Saffers love a good laugh.

But should we be concerned that it’s only the big international names that attract mega-audiences, while local comics languish in envious self-pity in their damp, rat-infested garrets? Somehow, I don’t think there’s cause for concern (and occasionally languishing in the odd garret is great for character-building, anyway).

In recent years we’ve seen the likes of Chris Rock, Steve Wright and Wayne Brady playing to sold-out houses here. Last year, Irish comedian Jimeoin also enjoyed capacity audiences on the Main programme of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

My feeling is that rather than taking audiences (and ronts) away from South African comedians, these international bigwigs rather serve to enhance and enrich the local stand-up comedy scene. Some, like Rock, have even made impromptu appearances at local comedy clubs. Others have South Africans opening for them (Jimeoin had Dave Levinsohn warming up the audience last year – and it was a revelation being introduced to this seriously funny dude).

All of these visits by overseas laughmongers (and the efforts of comedy-crazy broadcasters like Alex Jay) seemed to have helped stoke interest in the local stand-up scene. This is evident by the success of the various festivals and comedy jams around the country, and by the fact that comics like David Kau, Barry Hilton, Riaad Moosa, Stuart Taylor, Nik Rabinowitz, John Vlismas and Marc Lottering appear to be earning a decent living out of standing on a stage and making daft observations.

Izzard is in the country for a series of shows, travelling to Cape Town and Durban and ending on Sunday at the Joburg Theatre, in support of Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign. With tickets priced at up to R1000, it’s just as well the proceeds are going to charity. But clearly laughaholics are coughing up nonetheless – recession, what recession?

What I found particularly interesting about Izzard’s Joburg show on Wednesday night was the broad, international flavour of his humour. I often ask South African comedians what they talk about on stage when they tour overseas, because surely much of the subject matter that local crowds howl at falls on stony silence in foreign climes. Naturally, they try to talk about more general topics.

I would say that Izzard has got that comedian’s wet dream ideal of “universal humour” – clichéd though it may sound – down to a fine art.

He started off the show rather stiltedly and much of the laughter from the audience appeared brittle and forced – you know, the whole “rock star” awe thing. But he came back after interval on fire: seemingly revived and suitably wired and manic, perhaps fortified by the surprise birthday cake and choral serenade that rounded off the first half.

In between holding forth on the wretched “terms and conditions” of software updates and extolling the virtues of Wikipedia, Izzard went on an wildly wacky trek through the history books, from the big bang to the stone age to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Sort of a “Horrible Histories meets A Short History of Nearly Everything (but very much abridged, simplified and subverted). If I’d had this bloke as my history teacher, I might actually have stayed awake in class!

You see, Izzard’s humour is not base or crass. His entertaining stream-of-consciousness ramblings (I nicked that bit from Wikipedia – his secular bible) – which all seem unrelated but, implausibly, seem to connect to each other at some stage during the show – are feverishly well-informed and fiendishly clever, and you need to concentrate to keep up. Not that it’s at all snobby or snooty, but you could say he delivers upper-LSM laughs.

The show – attended by local luminaries as well as the likes of Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson – was a total hoot. Even God seemed inclined to join in, tossing in some menacing thunder rumbles overhead after Izzard made no bones about his atheism and repeatedly invited the Almighty to pop in and prove him wrong!

[from tonight.co.za]

EDDIE IZZARD IN CONCERT

VENUE: Nelson Mandela at the Joburg Theatre

WHEN: Tuesday night

RATING: ****

Dissing anything from opera to God, Eddie Izzard has a logical explanation for everything he talks about. And with more than three hours of comical chatter, there’s not much he doesn’t attempt.

“I’m an action transvestite,” he proclaims, stepping out in a macho uniform of jeans and tails.

“I like make-up and fights!”

But on the night, he didn’t show any of that. His battle, if any, was displayed in a stream of consciousness that had something to do with civilisation and our reason for being here.

“Nothing,” says the man. “We’re simply here.”

From bok choy, which he describes as a vegetable that’s given up, to carpets and cats that could be had by anyone who was in Persia at the time, an appendix that has little use but to digest grass and thus pleads to be added to the back of a book, his thoughts fly fast and furious and you have to keep your wits about you to stay with the laughter.

But when you do, the rewards are hilarious from this comedian, who wins them over from the US to the UK and finds his rhythm as easily in Africa.

Locally, he was quick to get to the heart of things. “Your president will marry everyone,” he said to screams of laughter. “It seems similar to Bill Clinton, but it’s different,” he said shaking his head, while mumbling, “but I don’t want to go there.”

Performing to a packed theatre and one that gave an ovation when he appeared on stage and prepared to leave, he obviously has hardcore South African fans who applauded wildly whenever he said something they had heard before.

Did he have to adapt? Not much, it seems. And when the audience didn’t seem to get it, he would embroider or let it go as something that didn’t work on this continent.

Sadly for those who’ve been slow to book a seat, all performances are sold out. But for those lucky enough to attend one of his shows, it’s a scream.

Eddie Izzard: Durban at the ICC on Saturday night. All proceeds are earmarked for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 Aids charity.

[from mg.co.za]

Comedian Eddie Izzard is famous for being a heterosexual cross-dresser. It’s not something he has ever shied away from discussing — he once described himself as “a male lesbian”.

But this is incidental to his stand-up comedy, which has not only made him famous but had him declared a genius by his contemporaries. None other than John Cleese once referred to Izzard as “the lost Python”.

One of the few stand-up comedians big enough to fill stadiums, his latest show, Stripped, has broken box office records in Europe and the United States. Aside from this, he is a serious thespian, having done everything from David Mamet’s Cryptogram to Peter Nichols’s Life and Death of Joe Egg, and he has been in films including Ocean’s Eleven and Valkyrie, sharing the limelight with Tom Cruise. In the latter he got to indulge his fascination with World War II by acting as a German soldier plotting to kill Adolf Hitler. Lately he has been involved with charity work and has been running all over England, literally, doing marathons to raise money.

When I get through to him on his cellphone, Izzard is on a bus, somewhere in the US. He is personable but tired and serious, saving up laughs for his next performance. He’s in diplomatic cultural ambassador mode, enthusing about how excited he is to be working with Madiba, whose 46664 charity has inspired Izzard’s visit.

“South Africa is a legendary place,” he says. “You’ve been to hell and managed to get out of it. I’m excited to perform there — one gets bored of the same old tour schedule of the United Kingdom, the US and Europe.

“I’m donating all the money from the shows to the 46664 Aids charity. It’s an honour to be associated with Nelson Mandela,” he says predictably. Next week that honour will translate into expensive jokes as the local public buys into Izzard’s charity drive, paying between R500 and R1 000 a seat to see his brand of comedy.

His trademark includes long, rambling monologues, strange bits of pantomime, tons of self-references and material that is often about “the history of the world and dinosaurs, the ancient Romans and Greeks, and World War II”.

Unsurprisingly, it took a while to catch on and Izzard spent his 20s languishing in obscurity. “Things started working when I was around 30,” he says (today he is 47). “I dropped out of college when I was 19 and there were about 11 years of nothing happening.”

I ask him how he endured the tough times: “What kept me going, I suppose, is a sort of madness — this little part of your brain that says I can actually do this despite all evidence to the contrary.

“At that stage I wasn’t even able to get street performing gigs. I was doing an accounting degree and I dropped out, so the security of that was gone. I just watched a lot of television and tried to keep my mind off the fact that I was failing again and again.

“It was distressing, but I’m very positive and a stubborn idiot, so I just kept soldiering on.”

I ask if it’s possible that his comedy took a while to catch on because it’s highbrow — loaded with historical, political and philosophical content. “I wanted it to look highbrow, but really it’s not,” he says. “I actually just talk a lot of bollocks from Wikipedia, really. Perhaps it’s intelligent, but it isn’t intellectual. In the end I ended up looking highbrow because I know a lot of facts and figures, and I tend to dump that out.

“My comedy is designed to ask big questions. But hopefully it all remains playful.”

Izzard is less playful offstage. It’s a good idea, when interviewing him, not to mention religion. The ensuing diatribe will take up valuable interview time in which you could be asking questions about his penchant for cross-dressing.

An edited version goes something like this: “The more I’ve started questioning things the less I believe in a God. Before I was agnostic, I’m now a nontheist. I just look at the logic of how the world and the universe unfolds, and I’ve come to the conclusion that he [God] isn’t there.”

Does he worry about expressing these thoughts in a God-fearing place such as South Africa, where people are easily offended? “If I say I don’t believe in God and it offends people, then I, in turn, am offended by their denial of freedom of speech.

“If I ridiculed God then maybe …” He pauses. “Well, I suppose I do, but I think that’s a reaction to religious indoctrination I experienced at boarding school. I’m getting a bit of payback on that.

“I guess that underneath the humour I’m searching for the truth. And I think I’ve got to tread the path that’s in my head. Throughout history people have taken religion and used it for their own gain, but I will say that someone like Desmond Tutu is an example of an extremely strong person who has been inspired by religion to do great things. I’m trying to put out a balanced view. It’s extremism that I dislike.”

In action, Izzard’s routines are surprisingly light, as silly and absurd as you would expect from someone heavily influenced by Monty Python. Beneath that, though, he’s hinting at bigger things: “The planet has been around for 4500-million years,” he says, “so by now we need some answers. If we don’t get them by the end of this century I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

At that stage, it seems, asking why Izzard wears ladies clothes would be inappropriate. But he gives a final self-appraisal — exhibiting a touch of his famous sense of humour, he says: “I think I’m great. But, then, I’m biased.”

Eddie Izzard performs in Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Theatre, Joburg Theatre complex, on February 2 and 3, in Cape Town at the International Convention Centre on February 4 and 5, and in Durban at the International Convention Centre on February 6. Book at Computicket

[from timeslive.co.za]

Eddie Izzard cracks up SA crowd

I was there. Eddie Izzard’s first show at the Joburg Civic was absolutely jam packed with incredibly enthusiastic South Africans. I was a little sceptical. I’ve been to a number of international comic acts here. And most of these great comedians I’ve seen don’t work on us. But Eddie did and he is a genius for managing that.

There were a few minutes of warm up and hours of entertainment. Eddie tweeted this morning “Had a great show last night in Johannesburg. Very good audience and I went on a bit. But good to finally play South Africa”. I don’t think anybody was minding too much that you “went on a bit”, Eddie.

My husband was rolling about next to me. John Vlismas (I’m sure it was him) was sitting a few seats a head of us. I tried to spot his reaction but it was too dark.

Eddie finished after 11pm and earned no money for this. I am impressed. As I am with Matthew du Plessis and Jason von Berg’s video of The Times’ interview with the comedian yesterday:

>>VIDEO HERE

Liaisons are not dangerous

The rest of the world is not going to make a fuss about President Jacob Zuma’s expanding family, says British comedian Eddie Izzard.

“When it comes to how many babies and wives one has, especially if it’s part of tribal custom, the West thinks: ‘Well, that’s what goes on, so let’s ignore it’.”

“Back in the 1990s, during the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky thing, a lot of us in the West thought it wasn’t a big deal because that’s not really got anything to do with anyone, it’s just the Republicans who turned it into something.”

Izzard, born in Yemen and raised in the UK, is touring South Africa with a series of stand-up comedy shows under the banner of Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity and Real Concerts. He is especially pleased at the timing of his first visit to the country.

“There was all this chaos here and then suddenly, 20 years ago – to the day – it all just stopped,” he said yesterday, referring to the unbanning of the ANC and of the liberation of political parties. “And nine days later, Nelson Mandela walked out.”

And it was to honour the former president that the comedian wanted to visit South Africa.

The comedian and actor, whose films include Oceans 12 and its sequel, performed his first show, a sell-out, last night in Johannesburg. He will travel to Cape Town and Durban and return to Johannesburg for a final performance on his birthday, February 7.

The 46664 It’s No Joke comedy continues, when local comedians Trevor Noah, David Kau, Marc Lottering, Riaad Moosa, John Vlismas, Chris Forest and Ndumiso Lindi perform at Sun City’s Superbowl on February 27.

>> VIDEO: Comedian Eddie Izzard ready to crack up crowds

[from tonight.co.za]

Comedy giant Izzard never at a loss for words

Stand-up comic Eddie Izzard is in the country crossing continents from sold-out tours in the US and UK and now six shows from Joburg to Cape Town to Durban with the proceeds contributing to Nelson Mandela’s 46664 Aids charity

He kicked off at the Nelson Mandela at the Joburg Theatre last night and gave the virgin Jozi audience their money’s worth as he launched into a three hours plus monologue starting with his joy at being here. “You had all that shit and 20 years ago, you gave the shit up and it’s all good.”

Describing himself as an action transvestite who likes make-up “lots of it” and fighting, he stepped out in a sober uniform of jeans and tails. But he wasn’t going to sidestep any of the issues as he dipped in and out of religion and God, none of which he takes seriously. “Logically it doesn’t fly,” he says.

Playing the script like a jazz tune which swings easily into improv, he’s never at a loss for words even if sometimes, the stream of consciousness has the performer baffled.

But he’s gloriously funny, both in the way he expresses himself using words, movement and sound to equal effect and the way he approaches his audience. The theatre appeared to be packed with hardcore fans who knew some of the material and would show their appreciation when they recognised a phrase or a story.

And there’s no hands-off for this stranger to our country. “Your president will marry everyone,” he said obviously in touch with what’s happening out there. “It seems similar to Bill Clinton, but it’s different,” was as much as he was going to give on that particular topic. “I don’t want to go there.”

Whether he’s discussing bok choy (a vegetable that’s given up) or Persia (where you could have helped yourself to cats or carpets), there’s a serious message if you are quick enough to find it in-between the hysterical content that’s flying by continuously.

Performances are all sold out but those who were quick to buy tickets will have a blast. His performance is sheer genius.

[from the LA Times.com]

The iPad was finally unveiled this week after a frenzy of excitement and speculation. Steve Jobs called the tablet “the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.” But Steve, have you seen Eddie Izzard? The British comedian who thinks different appeared this weekend at the Nokia Theatre, bringing his Google-scale fancy and nanosecond timing to talk about, as he put it, “everything that ever happened … with gaps.”

The buzz on his Stripped Too tour is that Izzard appears sans usual skirt and high heels. But the charismatic performer’s new look — a black tailcoat lined in red satin, black shirt, Levi’s and black footwear of a manly variety — didn’t prove a drag. He’s still applying eyeliner and a deadpan comic logic to dress down the world’s absurdities.

Besides running in charity marathons (27 miles a day, six days a week, for 51 days), Eddie’s latest passion is Wikipedia. For Izzard, nothing is as much fun as clicking on “one of those blue lines” and being transported to a new page with yet more information. (Of course, Eddie is the Original Hyperlink—it’s just that technology has finally caught up with him.)

“Wiki” refers to an easily edited, collaborative website; the word was coined by programmer Ward Cunningham, from the Hawaiian, meaning “quick quick.” And that’s the tenor of the evening, as Eddie speeds through a two-and-a-half hour history lesson. Call it stand-up disambiguation. (The set, with its massive receding panels, on which various ancient languages were projected, suggested an ancient temple. High on one wall, an animated window revealed a giant eye that appeared and disappeared throughout the show.)

The evening’s leitmotif is God, or the lack of him, or at least a deity with a serious crack habit, who thinks creating dinosaurs who spend 150 million years doing nothing but grunting and eating is good fun.
But there’s plenty of human error on view as well. Eddie’s characters are often the haplessly embedded, trying to keep their cool in a world gone bonkers. We check in at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, where the photojournalists are weavers, frantically at work on the Bayeux Tapestry as the carnage unfolds in front of them (“More red thread!”). There’s the squid writing on Trip Advisor about accommodations on Noah’s Ark (“The minibar is crap”). An ancient Egyptian reporter reads the news in hieroglyphics (“Triangle, boat, three squiggles. Man with dog head, dog with man head, fish with gun…”).

If Izzard occasionally takes an overextended detour into an idea, consider it down time to reboot your brain and get ready for the next neural assault. Besides, the comic’s biggest problem now is how much his fans adore him. There’s something downright reassuring (sorry, Eddie) about his signature dashes back and forth across the stage: part ringmaster, part wicked little boy delighted to show mum his latest naughty thingy. (Memo to Guy Ritchie: Izzard belongs in your “Sherlock Holmes” sequel, doing something genuinely scary.)

Maybe Eddie shouldn’t worry too much about God. Droll, assured and ever iconoclastic, Izzard creates his own universe and invites us in, all the while tracking our reactions to his riffs. Eddie makes us believe we can surf World 2.0 instead of just being swallowed up by it. As search engines go, he makes us feel lucky.