Out Spotlight LVII

Today's Spotlight is comedian, actor, self described "executive transvestite" Eddie Izzard. Born in Aden, Yemen, the youngest son of British parents Dorothy and Harold Izzard, an accountant with British Petroleum. At, Izzard's family moved to the UK. His mother died of cancer when Izzard was only 6 and his older brother Mark was 8. Boarding school followed with an education at St Bede's Preparatory School and at Eastbourne College, after he began to toy with stand-up at the University of Sheffield and, after being ingloriously kicked out of a major in accounting, he took his act into the streets. Izzard spent a much of the 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States, and moved his act into the stand-up comedy venues of Britain, first appearing at The Comedy Store in London in 1987. He refined his material throughout the '80s, and in the early '90s he finally began earning some measure of recognition, though not in the guise in which he would later become famous.

Izzard's style is heavily influenced by Monty Python, especially in his use of a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics as he free associates on stage. Among Izzard's comic talents are mimicry and mime. He portrays God as a bumbling authority figure using the voice of James Mason, and John F. Kennedy and Noah as Sean Connery, impersonations of whom appear in all of his performances. Izzard also imitates activities such as sawing wood, vacuuming, and mowing the lawn, anthropomorphizing the machines with accents and personalities. He tackles topics both contemporary and historic, including frequent re-imaginings of historical events which result in scenes like 'Cake or Death: Church of England runs the Inquisition,' or 'Jesus Ministers to the Dinosaurs.'

His stand-up work brought him British Comedy Awards in 1993 (for Live at the Ambassadors) and 1996 (for Definite Article). After the British leg of the tour, he took Definite Article to major cities outside the UK including a successful stint in New York City. However, his U.S. breakthrough did not really come until 1999, when Dress to Kill was shown on the American television channel HBO, about a year or so after he performed the show on tour in the U.S., the U.K. and France (that same year, he played a supporting role in the movie Mystery Men). Suddenly, America was aware of Izzard, and the show went on to earn him two Emmy Awards in 2000 (for performance and writing). However, he only rarely performs his stand-up act on television, as he says it uses up material at too high a rate whereas stage material can be continually re-used in front of different audiences for several months.

In 2005, Izzard provided the voiceover (again, in his unique 'rambling' style) for the British government's series of television advertisements promoting recycling. The tagline of the ads was "Recycle. The possibilities are endless!"

In January 2006, the U.S. television network FX announced the production of a new drama series co-written by Izzard called The Riches (formerly Low Life). Izzard and British actress Minnie Driver starred as a married couple, Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, who have been part of a caravan of con-artist Irish travellers swindling their way across the U.S. with their children. After finding another family killed in a car accident, the Malloys assume their identities and start a new life as law-abiding suburbanites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their youngest son has shown a preference for wearing girls' clothing, leading to some speculation that the role was based upon Izzard's experiences. Izzard has stated in several interviews that the character of Sam had been given transvestite tendencies long before he was cast as Wayne Malloy, but he has contributed his perspective to keep the character believable.

Izzard describes himself as an "executive", "action", and "underground" transvestite, as "a male tomboy" or "male lesbian" rather than a "weirdo" transvestite (he cites J. Edgar Hoover as an example of the latter). He regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage and makes it clear that cross-dressing is, for him, neither a part of his performance, nor a sexual thing — he simply enjoys wearing make-up and clothing which is traditionally perceived in the West as female-only. He remarks in one of his shows, "Women wear what they want and so do I." According to Izzard, "Most transvestites fancy women." He dismisses claims that he is a male homosexual, saying he is either a straight transvestite or a "male lesbian". He has also described himself as "a lesbian trapped in a man's body", and "a complete boy plus half a girl."

Often describing his "breast envy," Izzard, after shooting the film The Avengers, occasionally wears a pair of false breasts, reputedlymodeled upon co-star Uma Thurman's own breasts. These had been intended for Thurman's body double to use.

During the 1999 television special It's... the Monty Python Story,which Izzard hosted, John Cleese said Izzard was the "Lost Python"; Izzard furthered that idea via his substitution for Graham Chapman in public performance of Python material with the rest of the original members of the troupe. In 2008, Izzard received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society.

Please note Eddie's comedy is NSFW



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