Intimate with Eddie Izzard

Ha, clearly I've given up blogging with a mere three posts in twenty-four hours! But, hey, I just have to report on the Eddie Izzard show last night at the Oakland--oh, excuse me, large corporate sponsor--the Oracle Arena. We were up in the $50 nosebleed seats, but since the whole backstage consisted of huge screens displaying a blown-up version of the small Eddie at center stage, the bargain seats weren't a bad deal at all. I was glad I brought the binoculars, though.

In fact, I would enthusiastically recommend seeing Eddie live if you have the chance. The DVD's are great, but there's something about being right there to soak in his energy that makes you feel intimate, in a big way, of course. (This was the Big Intimacy tour).

Eddie did not wear a dress or fishnet stockings. In fact, he wore jeans, a black T-shirt, and a tail coat with red lining that made me think at first he had a huge red scarf in his back pocket. Actually I like Eddie in men's clothing. He brings a freshness to the usual uniform, possibly due to his travels in transvestitism. As an aside, I really don't understand why anyone, women included, would want to dress in women's clothes. I try to avoid it as much as possible myself, although plenty of female attendees were wearing nasty high heels. But I do understand the appeal of the theatre of it, as of course does Eddie. So yeah, back to him, I really think maturity has just made Eddie all the sexier. He's taken on the gravitas of great British performers like Oliver Reed and Lawrence Olivier. And look at those brilliant (in both meanings of the word) blue eyes!

Of course I can't begin to capture the fun of the evening, but Eddie did take on his usual frivolous topics like the history of the world and the existence of God. His raptor imitation will change your view of dinosaurs forever, and I enjoyed many extended belly laughs, especially when he got going on computers and later the Ten Commandments and burning bushes. My older son is studying Latin and Eddie obliged with some hilarious Latin jokes, too. This outing ranks up their with the Weird Al concert for sure. And it's only five weeks or so until Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story is available at Amazon.

Finally, as a mom saving for two college educations, I don't go out to a lot of shows, so this was my first time to enjoy a scrolling view of Eddie's twitter messages as we waited for the show to begin. We'd all laid bets on when Eddie would come on stage and I won with a prediction of fifteen minutes past official start time. The prize was my teenager let me give him a hug and a kiss, which can be a rare commodity. But hey, how cool are we as parents to take him to see Eddie Izzard?

Anyway, if you get a chance, definitely go see Eddie Izzard in the flesh!