Seeing as this is the first time in my experience that you have said
anything about Eddie Izzard, I thought it'd be rude not to respond....
mmward@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> Eddie's "intellect" is from ideas from the telly....didn't you know
> that?
What?! Are you saying that Eddie Izzard's humour is derived from sitting
watching TV all day? I'm sure he'd love to hear that. From someone who
is so vocally offended when others don't put Eddie on a pedestal, that's
pretty insulting to Eddie and shows just how little you know about him.
Like any comedian, Eddie's material derives from observation of his
environment, which admittedly includes television, but to say his
intellect is from ideas from the telly (apart from not making any sense)
is ludicrous.
And the "free-form expression" takes months before it's
> presentable on telly, like, oh, I don't know. Ever heard of "Dress to
> Kill"? A huge hit, won him awards in the UK and US. Nothing
> "conversational" about it. Took months, like all his shows, of
> "working it".
I think anyone who has followed Eddie's career knows that he prepares
his material as much (if not more) than other comedians; what he doesn't
do is have a set routine. There's a clue in the title of the
"Unrepeatable" tour. I saw that tour live twice, plus the recorded show,
and apart from a core 5-10% of material, the rest was completely
different for each show. He may start from a common point, but each show
evolves, changing its direction to suit Eddie and the response from the
audience. His "catchphrase" lines of "err...so...." and "note to
self:..." are clear evidence that he is changing the routine as he goes
along. I'm not saying his routines are improvised by any means, but they
aren't set in stone either. Neither do his sets involve traditional
jokes - they are a series of overlapping comedic imagery, more often
than not made funny by the delivery rather than the content. If that
isn't a conversational style, then please tell me what it is. The only
thing that prevents it being a conversation by definition is that
audience participation is incidental rather than integral.
If you're basing your opinions purely on recorded shows, you are sadly
missing out on a large chunk of what Eddie Izzard is about.
|
