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Added RADIO TIMES INTERVIEW (.pdf) to Eddie’s Sport Relief page and Articles page.

[BY SUSAN MICHAL for Venicemag.com]

Most filmmakers know that a documentary is a long-term commitment, sometimes years in the making, but not Sarah Townsend. She had no idea what she was in for when she embarked on her film, Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, some years back. But the fruits of her labors have paid off in spades, as well as a lot of laughter, and even a few tears.

Having known her subject for most of his adult life, Townsend has worked with Izzard to produce a number of his shows, including “Stripped” and “Eddie Izzard: Live from Wembley.” Needless to say, she seemed the perfect candidate to shoot a film about the struggles that actor/writer/comedian Izzard faced, not only finding his way as a comedian in his early years, but, after being accused of reusing old material, finding himself all over again. It turned out to be not that easy. “I started out to make a more personal film … the difficulty with him is, he will talk endlessly but he won’t tell you very much, and nobody ever calls him on it. He was always great and very funny, but that won’t work for a documentary. [Initially,] we didn’t have a film. It took us four years to get a generally revealing interview.”

>> REST OF ARTICLE

[from the star.co.uk]

THE University of Sheffield has named Eddie Izzard as its Honorary President.
A new Honorary President is elected every three years – and Izzard takes over the role from the Dalai Lama.

The Honorary President is a symbolic role awarded to an inspiring individual with university links.

Izzard studied accounting and finance management at Sheffield University but left before completing his course. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 2006. He also set up an alternative comedy society while in Sheffield.

Paul Tobin, Sheffield Students’ Union President, said: “He has close links to the university and is an inspirational character. He has visited us on numerous occasions over the years and hopefully we can get him back again to speak to the students.

> SUPPORT EDDIE & DONATE TO SPORT RELIEF

[thanks Beth!]

Amazon.uk has started taking PRE-ORDERS for Eddie’s newest book:

Eddie Izzard is to write a book about his 1,110-mile run around Britain, in a publishing deal worth ‘a very significant’ six-figure sum. The book – due out in September – promises to examine his motivations for running 43 consecutive marathons, as well as describing his reactions to the places he visited en route.

This is from comedynews.org

Eddie Izzard is to write a book about his 1,110-mile run around Britain, in a publishing deal worth ‘a very significant’ six-figure sum. The book – due out in September – promises to examine his motivations for running 43 consecutive marathons, as well as describing his reactions to the places he visited en route.

[from movieline.com | thanks Ramona!]

Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline’s new weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from the director of Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, which was released this week on DVD.

The cross-dressing comic and actor Eddie Izzard wasn’t always the “cross-dressing comic and actor Eddie Izzard.” Sarah Townsend knew him back when he was just another struggling performer desperate for a break, working round the clock and riding a unicycle for whatever spare change passers-by on the street might have in their pockets. And since 2003, Townsend has been piecing those days — and the rest in between — together for her debut feature documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story. I know, I know: “Why does Eddie Izzard need his own documentary?” You’d be surprised. It’s quite the inspiration, really — motivational substance for people who hate that kind of stuff. It’s also a fascinating glimpse at just how comedy is conceived and delivered. Townsend talked to Movieline about this and much more for this week’s Moment of Truth.

How did you meet Eddie?
I was running a venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I was still a student, and I was directing theater then, but it’s very expensive because you have to pay for your slots. Then I discovered that if you actually took over a venue and collected the money from other individuals, than it would be easier to put on my own show there. So there’s this forum every year, and everyone who’s running a venue meets all the performers who want to go up there; there’s only a limited number of venues. And that’s how we met. He said, “Please can I perform at your venue?”

When was this?
Oh, God, it was years ago. It was 1989.

At what point in your relationship with Eddie over the years did you decide to make a documentary about him?
We actually worked together for years in parallel; he was doing his stuff, and I was doing mine. I’d started in theater but I ended up in moving to music — not intentionally — but I ended up doing a lot of things in a production studio. It seemed very natural to bring a lot of drama into the music, and then suddenly it seemed like the logical place for this to go was making films. But I also knew I’d have to start from the beginning again. So I said, “We’ll do DVD extras, and we’ll do them cheaper than anybody else.”

After we’d done a few of those, Eddie said, “Why don’t you guys come down and film the show?” I said there was no way I was ready for that, but I thought about it for six months and said, “Well, I don’t want to do that, but I’ll do a doc.” We did it in dribs and drabs; we didn’t have a budget, really, to start with. So I was being economical to start with. It was a huge learning experience for me. You also have to find a team, which is a hard thing even for people who really, really know how do this. So I’m coming out the other side of it saying, “Wow, I didn’t know I could do this.” But there’s no substitute for the years it took. I feel good about it now.

“But we were doing what the documentary’s about! We were living it! It was so funny.”

That’s interesting, because it virtually mirrors the ways Eddie struggled to launch his comedy career. In a kind of cosmic sense, do you feel like the documentary had to go this way?
You know, I found this wonderful editor who helped me put this together, and we were laughing about exactly the same thing. But there were four different cuts of this. It started off being one story and then it changed completely to something else. Then it was something more personal, which wasn’t right; that was kind of what the UK market wanted, but I thought, “No, it’s got to be something that everyone can relate to.” It doesn’t mean you have to know this person or be a fan to get it. But the biggest story — and this is where we got the laugh — is to not give up. Don’t give up. Even if all the odds are against you, you’ve got no budget left and you don’t know what the hell you’re going to do. But we were doing what the documentary’s about! We were living it! It was so funny.

The film does feel like it finds its true purpose once Eddie expresses his “Believe” mantra: “If you want to be a comic, you have to believe you’re going to be a comic.” Did you sense the same?
Well, the thing about Eddie is that he’s such a consummate performer, and he’s always on point and will always deliver. That’s great for the work he does. The problem is that when you’re trying to make a documentary, it isn’t enough. It actually took us four years to get that final interview, which was really the only occasion when he revealed himself. When I met him, he was just trundling on until this guy told Eddie something he didn’t even remember he’d said. He didn’t realize he’d been a catalyst for Eddie. That was a precious little moment. Inadvertently, people sometimes do say these life-changing things.

“There’s an extreme analytical side to him, which is surprising given his style.”

Believe offers an unusually close look at the metaphysics of comedy as well. Eddie’s like a scientist with this stuff.
Oh, yeah. Having spent those years in the early ’90s running those clubs and being around all those comedians, it was like the birth of rock and roll. It was an incredible period. The system is different in the States; here it was the reaction to a very right-wing government. People were motivated, they were polarized. It gave the comedians something to rail against. And that’s the irony: Eddie wasn’t doing that. Even though he is very politicized, he doesn’t want to use that side of himself for comedy. At the time, that was very rare. But he’s such an analyst. People who watch him onstage think he’s so freeform and that all this stuff spews out. But it’s based on a framework that is so technical that his analysis of comedy is fundamental to how he creates. It’s a weird balance between saying anything — coming up with rubbish — and also having a rigid structure underneath. I was trying to show what I knew to be the truth, even if I couldn’t get him to say it. There’s an extreme analytical side to him, which is surprising given his style. I think people do find that surprising.

It’s also surprising to see him so tightly wound; one shot shows Eddie digging his nails into his palms until the nail polish rubs off. Even as someone who’s known him so long, did you discover a different guy the way the viewer does?
It’s funny you mention that shot. That’s exactly what we thought when we saw it. Usually he won’t show that stuff. We had to go through tons of stuff to find those moments where he showed — inadvertently — the real tension that’s there. In a normal interview he’ll just talk: “Everything’s fine!” He’s very good at hiding that stuff.

What did you think of Eddie’s performance as host at the Independent Spirit Awards?
I think it’s very difficult to host awards shows. That’s why Eddie, up to this point, has always said, “I won’t do them”: The situation is almost completely non-conducive to doing stand-up. And he doesn’t see himself as a presenter, which is another entirely different skill. So I think it was good under the circumstances, but it’s a stressful situation. And definitely not one where you can easily do comedy.

Internet Presale Password – BEES worked for Toronto and Winnipeg

>> TIX HERE

[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