Izzard

[Charlie Reams]

Since I know at least one other resident of these hallowed walls saw him at Wembley last night, I thought I'd canvass some opinions. In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that Izzard is amongst my all-time favourites, and I absolute worship the old shows like Dressed to Kill. So I was pretty excited to see him live for the first time, and with decent seats in a great venue. The gig opened with some impressive lighting, three giant screens for those without such a good view, and a live Twitter feed which people in the arena could tweet to.

So after all that build-up the gig was of course... disappointing. He's technically very skilled, as you'd expect from such a long career, and works ideas apart and together with occasional touches of brilliance. His mime comedy is still quite charming and is clearly the cornerstone of his act. But I just didn't find myself laughing that much. Too much of it reminded me of some girls I used to hang out with when I was about 15, who thought that being "random" automatically equalled being funny, and would constantly talk about gibbons, aliens, yaks with such predictability that it wasn't even random any more. The show includes a lengthy skit about the difficulties the Roman's must've faced when speaking Latin, which would be funny if Python hadn't done the same in the '70s (Romani ite domum), which is particularly irritating because Izzard is a big Python fan and must've realised how derivative it was. And so much of the show was reinsertion from this show and homage to earlier ones that the original material was just completely swamped.

Jono once told me that, when he sees stand-up, he wants to laugh til he hurts. For £35, I wasn't even slightly in pain.

[Ian Volante]

Since I know at least one other resident of these hallowed walls saw him at Wembley last night, I thought I'd canvass some opinions. In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that Izzard is amongst my all-time favourites, and I absolute worship the old shows like Dressed to Kill. So I was pretty excited to see him live for the first time, and with decent seats in a great venue. The gig opened with some impressive lighting, three giant screens for those without such a good view, and a live Twitter feed which people in the arena could tweet to.

So after all that build-up the gig was of course... disappointing. He's technically very skilled, as you'd expect from such a long career, and works ideas apart and together with occasional touches of brilliance. His mime comedy is still quite charming and is clearly the cornerstone of his act. But I just didn't find myself laughing that much. Too much of it reminded me of some girls I used to hang out with when I was about 15, who thought that being "random" automatically equalled being funny, and would constantly talk about gibbons, aliens, yaks with such predictability that it wasn't even random any more. The show includes a lengthy skit about the difficulties the Roman's must've faced when speaking Latin, which would be funny if Python hadn't done the same in the '70s (Romani ite domum), which is particularly irritating because Izzard is a big Python fan and must've realised how derivative it was. And so much of the show was reinsertion from this show and homage to earlier ones that the original material was just completely swamped.

Jono once told me that, when he sees stand-up, he wants to laugh til he hurts. For £35, I wasn't even slightly in pain.

That's a shame. As a contrast, I saw Billy Connolly for the first time a couple of months ago, and although he's well past the stage now where he could be seen as original, I think his style helps his longevity - a funny raconteur has much less necessity to produce original material given that a lot of what he's ever done has been recycling other people's stories and jokes anyway. I was in some level of pain at the end of that gig, very pleasing.

Anyway, back to Izzard...

[Derek Hazell]

*Charlie and Dez secretly share same sense of humour sometimes shocker*

I saw Dressed to Kill (1999) on TV and found it very funny, rating it 8 out of 10.

As people never tire of telling me, seeing a comedian on TV is a completely different experience to seeing one live, but as I still haven't seen any live comedy yet, that is all I can judge it by. The difficult thing with comedy, is you can't just take how funny it is into account, but also the kind of mood you are in at the time. I also saw Circle (2002) on TV, but only gave that 6 out of 10, and my second hand video of Definite Article only received a 5.

They're still all halfway or above though, so working it out from any kind of average, one would still come to the conclusion that I find him funny.

[Phil Makepeace]

There was a certain nostalgic element to it, but I still think that there were bits that will live on as 'classic' Izzard. A 2½ hour show is either better value for money than most, or a lengthy bore. I'm going to side with the former statement, I enjoyed it.

It's also worth bearing in mind that Wembley Arena usually charge what they want for such shows, but Eddie himself put a cap on prices at the aforementioned £35. Not sure there are too many top comedians who'd do that for their fans. Though of course the main issue here is not his propensity to be generous, as he famously is.

[Gavin Chipper]

I saw him about a year ago and was disappointed. My friend who I went with had seen him several years before and said he was the best he'd ever seen, but we both agreed that this time it was a bit rubbish. I may have seen worse stand-ups but in terms of value for money this was right near the bottom.

Dylan Moran was probably the worst value for money I've seen though. Apart from amateurs, easily the worst I've seen. Certainly the worst I've specifically gone to see.

[Ian Fitzpatrick]

Eddie's great.

I saw him many years ago at my local theatre, which would be considered quite intimate compared to Wembley! I've also seen a DVD or two of his, but live in a small place is definitley preferable. I owe it to him that I now know that Azerbaijan (?) is a real place! The live show started with him decending on to the stage on a seat from above, I can't remember what the show was called! Trouble is there are so many LARGE venues these days that I rearely go and see anyone. I almost went to the O2 recently but apart from the journey I really didn't fancy such a large place.

Just been watching loads of Alan Bennet stuff on BBC, and more recorded to watch another time, now there's a genius!

[Julie T]

Jono once told me that, when he sees stand-up, he wants to laugh til he hurts. For £35, I wasn't even slightly in pain.

Eddie's great.

I saw him many years ago at my local theatre, which would be considered quite intimate compared to Wembley!........Trouble is there are so many LARGE venues these days that I rearely go and see anyone. I almost went to the O2 recently but apart from the journey I really didn't fancy such a large place.

Venue size could well be part of it. For a lone stand up, a smaller venue is much better.
I've been to see a few comedians at local small venues (e.g. Jimmy Carr and Dave Gorman), and thoroughy enjoyed myself, but only Lenny Henry left me with a painful aching face from laughing so much!

[Craig Beevers]

Venue size could well be part of it. For a lone stand up, a smaller venue is much better.
I've been to see a few comedians at local small venues (e.g. Jimmy Carr and Dave Gorman), and thoroughy enjoyed myself, but only Lenny Henry left me with a painful aching face from laughing so much!

Wow so it's true then. Someone actually does find Lenny Henry funny. I thought it was all a well orchestrated show of compassion because he ticks a quota, is PC and does Comic Relief.

[Ben Hunter]

he ticks a quota

Please elaborate.

[Derek Hazell]

he ticks a quota

Please elaborate.

He's kind to the horizontally challenged.