I just got back from seeing Eddie Izzard again!! This isn't at all cohesive, but I want to write stuff down before I forget. I know at one point in the show I was doubled over with laughter struggling to breathe at some throwaway line, and I can't for the life of me remember what it was any more!!!! Plus at least two brand new blog posts were inspired by this show, and I can't remember them either.*
- The experience was far less intense for me because it wasn't the first time. Last time I was agog and in awe of the simple fact that he's real. This time that wasn't there. Similarly, some of the lines I didn't laugh out loud and viscerally at because I knew they were coming. I'm wondering if a significant portion of the audience had also been there at previous shows, because we didn't standing O his entrance this time. Which is unfortunate - I wanted to do it on principle - but maybe we weren't collectively feeling the sheer awe that he is real and right there because we had already been through that just a few weeks ago. Maybe this is a bad idea though, maybe we should have forced ourselves to react like it's new, because we certainly don't want Eddie to think he has to wait another seven years before he comes back so he'll get a proper welcome.
- The show is less scripted than I expected. The set pieces were there, loosely plotted, and the key beats were there, but everything in between was just Eddie being Eddie. I'd thought that more of it was scripted in a way to make it sound unscripted, but it seems it's mostly just Eddie. Which is fantastic, because that's what I'm here for - to spend time inside Eddie's brain.
- Eddie was wearing jeans that were so tight that they showed off his post-marathon leg muscles nearly as well as fishnets. Not jeggings, actual jeans. Regardless of how you feel about that as a fashion statement, you have to admire it as a design achievement! In addition to the expected collection of inappropriate thoughts, I want to have a girl talky conversation with Eddie about these jeans. Precisely how comfortable or uncomfortable are they? (They had some stretch to them, but looked like they had the potential to be uncomfortable.) How many did he have to try on to find that exact look? Were they altered? How often does he wash them? Can he sit in them? Does he really need that belt?
- With Eddie wearing makeup and heels this time (along with the same boy-mode costume, but this time with the astoundingly tight jeans), I noticed that his hairdo is masculine. I had never before in my life consciously realized that short hair styles can be gendered! I've always just parsed them as Other and irrelevant and moved on.
- I just noticed this time around that the giant squid is writing a TripAdvisor review with INK! Yeah, because you can totally send handwritten reviews to websites. (Why yes, that is the most egregious of all plot holes in that bit.)
- The seats in Massey Hall are SO uncomfortable! They make me want to sit with my legs rather wide apart, but I can't do that because the seats are close together and the strange older man beside me is rather large and wearing shorts, and I'm just not going to open my legs while wearing a shortish skirt and rub my bare leg against a strange man's bare leg. Most comfortable would have been to sit knee-crossed-over-ankle, but there simply wasn't room to do that (even if I was willing to be improper and invade personal space), so when I got home I had to spend some time in triangle poses. If it's this bad for me, imagine how bad it would be for people with stiff joints, or especially tall people! Dear Massey Hall, please fix this!
- I don't care what anyone says, there are few sights more beautiful than Eddie making himself laugh
- At one point, Eddie dares God to prove his existence by showing himself, and then offers him various bribes to do so (cash, smoothies, etc.) Today he also offered him 12 virgins, then 23 virgins, then 72 people with experience. My thought: are there 23 (or even 12) virgins in this room, like at all?
- I noticed today that whenever Eddie did his write-on-his-hand oops-not-funny thing, it was always in cases where I wasn't laughing, but I wasn't not laughing because it wasn't funny. I wasn't laughing because I was waiting with rapt anticipation and bated breath to hear what he'd say next. I wish there was some way to communicate "Yes, and...?" to the person on stage.
- (In retrospect, putting my purse between my knees might have helped with the uncomfortable seats.)
- The black-market merch guys were still out there (different guys, same set-up) so I guess that means they did make enough money last time. Either that, or they had a bunch of extra merch left over from the last run and this was their best chance to move some of it.
- At one point, Eddie was on a tangent about how the word sheep doesn't pluralize, and a bunch of all different people in the audience shouted out "MOOSE!" And I was thinking that too, I just didn't shout it out because it didn't seem the moment. But it was just so interesting that so many people were thinking exactly the same thing at that point. There are other words that don't pluralize, but we all thought of the same one, to the extent that probably 7 people felt the need to shout it out (and this at a point in the show where he wasn't asking us to shout things at him).
- The interesting thing about sitting close to the stage (Second row centre!!! Best seats I've ever had for anything in my life!) is how the audience feels different to me as an audience member. The audience as I was experiencing it was me and Poodle, the very enthusiastic group of die-hards in front of us, and the older couple next to me who kept repeating funny lines to each other. The reaction of the audience as a whole was travelling to Eddie in waves over our heads, not touching us at all.
- Overall, the show as a whole was looser and more relaxed than the previous one. I think a significant portion of the audience had seen it before, but even without the surprise it was still entirely entertaining. I would very happily do this once a month at the same price point for a very long time.
"I'm very good at pure logic. I have to be - I'm a transvestite!" - E. Izzard.
*Oh, I just remembered: the line was supposed to be "everyone take a frog and put it on your head" (plot point in Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt) but Eddie either accidentally or deliberately-repeating-a-previous-mistake-that-had-humour-value said "everyone take a frog and put it on one of your heads" or something like that, then took rather a circuitous route back in a way that alluded to Inspector Tiger. I'm obviously not communicating the humour here, but for some reason it just killed me.
5 comments:
Here are my random observations of and pertaining to Eddie:
I was in the third row for the Ottawa show Friday night. It is an amazing and different experience to be that close up. I too spent an inordinate amount of time marveling at how Eddie's well toned muscles showed through those jeans. Of course, that wasn't the only well developed part of Eddie's body to be showcased by the spectacular denim. Somebody out there is very lucky!
The seats at Ottawa's NAC are also hideously uncomfortable. Way too close together and lacking in padding. Eddie puts on a very long show and when seated at the NAC your body is almost in agony when its over. I wondered how much that atmosphere diminishes the return for the performer. Uncomfortable people laugh less.
Eddie himself was very funny and he gives the audience their money's worth. I am thrilled I had the opportunity to see him live. I won't soon forget it.
The persona of Eddie the stand up is very different from Eddie the Marathon Man and it is an interesting thing to observe when he performs live. On stage, he picks a distant spot in the audience and focuses his gaze there only. He makes very little eye contact with the audience. He is still connected to his audience but almost in an autistic savant sort of way.
You cannot leave his show without noting his intelligence. The man is very, very smart and it shows with his quick wit and spot on observations.
Eddie is everywhere and in everything these days. It is a credit to his chameleon like abilities that he is able to retain a certain anonymity in the entertainment crowd. When I told people I had tickets to see Eddie Izzard, I lost count of how many people said "who?". When you rhyme off a list of his credits, most people realize they actually do know who he is. He becomes so immersed in his characters, his own private persona doesn't intrude.
I don't know how many men could pull off spike heels and full makeup without seeming weird. Eddie does it effortlessly.
Those seats in Massey are AWFUL - absolute agony for anyone with back trouble, and they look like they're from the '40s. I actually won't go to anything there anymore.
Imp, I'm so happy you saw him twice! I will have to come back to read the post. Just wanted to say yay.
Anon #1: Can performers normally make actual eye contact with the audience? I'd have thought that between the lights and the fact that the closest rows are actually below the stage, plus the fact that Eddie wears glasses IRL, would mean that eye contact isn't possible.
Anon #2: I wonder if the seats were equally uncomfortable when they first put them in? I can't imagine anyone installing those seats and considering them acceptable even in the past, but on the other hand I can't imagine how a seat could get less and less ergonomic as time goes on either.
L-girl: It's likely this entire post is completely meaningless to anyone who didn't see the show. I don't have anything substantive to say, I just had to braindump.
I FINALLY got back to read this post and I totally totally LOVED it.
It actually reads perfectly well to someone who wasn't at the show (me). More importantly, it perfectly communicates your feelings, and that's why I'm reading it.
I'm so happy you saw Eddie twice.
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