I've seen Eddie Izzard four or five times in concert, including most recently about two weeks ago here in Chicago. So I consider myself a pretty big fan, and I have been from the moment I saw his HBO special "Dress To Kill." Still, as much as I've purchased and watched all his pre-"Dressed to Kill" specials, tried to catch any movie he may appear in fleetingly (VELVET GOLDMINE; THE CAT'S MEOW in which he played Charlie Chaplin; SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE; OCEAN'S TWELVE and THIRTEEN; and VALKYRIE), and was a faithful viewer of his FX series "The Riches," I realized that I don't know that much about his childhood, college years, or early days trying to break into show business.
When I saw Izzard just recently, just before the show started, the video monitors on either side of the stage played a trailer for what appeared to be a documentary about his life entitled BELIEVE: THE EDDIE IZZARD STORY. I was completely unaware such a doc existed until that moment, and the prospect of filling in the many blanks in Izzard's life was almost more than I could stand. His unique brand of comedy is like some kind of twisted hybrid of glam rock concert, stand-up, and classic monologue. And he quite often packages these shows dressed like a woman, breasts and all.
Within days of seeing this trailer, I got an email from the folks at a new entertainment channel called EPIX--a joint venture between Viacom, its Paramount Pictures unit, MGM Studios, and Lionsgate--which launched at the end of October 2009. I'd never heard of the outlet, but the email informed me that it was airing the Izzard documentary, and they were asking me if I wanted to preview it for review, along with a brand-new, hour-long Izzard comedy special, EDDIE IZZARD: LIVE FROM WEMBLEY, filmed during what I believe was his 2009, four-night stand at Wembley Arena during his Sexie Tour. The answer I gave to the EIPX people was "Hell yes." EPIX is apparently a multiplatform channel, video-on-demand, and online service with about 15,000 films at its disposal. The channel will also exclusively carry films slated for theatrical release from Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn. That's about all I know; I'm sure you can do a little digging and find out more.
But most importantly, this Saturday, January 23, EPIX will air the concert special at 9:30pm EST, followed by the BELIEVE documentary at 10:30pm, and even a casual Izzard fan needs to see both as soon as possible. The concert is as good as anything Izzard has put out, and I won't say too much more because I'm could never explain it better than Izzard carries it out. For those of you lucky enough to have seen him on the current tour, this is completely different material and it's all great. The bit about being Medusa's hairstylist might be one of my Top 5 favorite Izzard routines.
But it's the documentary that is the crowned jewel of the evening. To those of you Brits who have been watching Izzard from the beginning or might have caught him when he was playing small clubs, some of this material might seem like old news. But for this little ol' American, I learned so much about Izzard from this very open and honest look at his life, from his mother dying of cancer when he was very young to getting sent to boarding school (where apparently Eddie excelled at math!) to his early university days attempting to get his comedy bits entered in festivals. His life seems especially well documented, especially his years as a street performer (as part of a duo), where he did everything from unicycle riding to an escape act. These aren't exactly skills he used later in life, but what he learned from street performing was how to pull in a crowd and own them for as long as he wanted. The video of these days is phenomenal, and not all of it is funny. The filmmakers do a great job of showing us Izzard's trials and errors over the years.
Speaking of which, the thread the movie keeps coming back to is Eddie workshopping sections of his Sexie Tour act in front of small audiences at tiny regional theaters in England. What made that particular tour so terrifying for Izzard is that he created an entirely new act for the occasion, which we discover is quite different than the part-old/part-new performances he had done in the past (and many fans grew tired of). Watching him test out new material is fascinating enough, but to witness his surprisingly high level of anxiety and uncertainty concerning the strength of the new topics and humor is more in depth than I was expecting BELIEVE to get.
The film features loads of old performances, including the first one where he surprised his audience and most of his friends and colleagues by coming out in drag (and revealing himself to be a lifetime transvestite). BELIEVE also details Izzard's metamorphosis into comedy's glam-rock king as he used clothes to shape his image as much as words and makeup. This documentary is a beautiful, revelatory look into the life and work at one of comedy's greatest talkers and improvisers, and if you're a fan, you'll find a way to see it. If you're knowledge of Izzard is limited to his movie appearances, then you have a lot of catching up to do and this is a great place to start. Now all you have to do is figure out how to watch something offered up by EPIX, and you'll be set.
