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Eddie Izzard post-God, post-dress

By Eric Deggans, Times TV/Media Critic
In print: Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Riches star Eddie Izzard, at the Union Square Theater in New York City, became a cult figure 10 years ago after an HBO special.
	[New York Times]

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A conversation with comic Eddie Izzard can feel a bit like being shot out of a cannon. Topics pass by at blinding speed — from his intention to run for office in the European Union to his steadfast belief that the word "sociopath" is a misnomer. ("It sounds like you'd come 'round and have a cup of tea with people all the time — like you're really social.")

I talked with the star of FX's The Riches just before his new stand-up tour, "Stripped," comes to Tampa. Calling from a stop in Dallas, he was enthusiastic about everything, from the joys of using Wikipedia to his recent designation as the English actor brandishing the second-worst American accent on U.S. television.

With a growing film and TV career, why still do stand-up comedy?

There's something about sitting on a set, and people bringing you tea or coffee, which seems slightly easier than going to some stage and holding it down for two hours. It's a ground attack kind of thing — the way I first came to America. I want to do it forever.

We're in the middle of a landmark presidential election. Has anything emerged so far that's surprised you about America?

We can't understand America going on about the God thing. In Europe, we say we've had two world wars and a lot of us died and he didn't seem to be watching. So we've kind of gone past God; we're a post-God continent.

That seems tough.

He never brings you an extra banana every day. He does typhoons, pestilence, plagues, famine, but you never wake up and discover an extra banana lying around for everyone in the world. . . . If God has written the Bible, surely he would have mentioned somewhere that the world is round. Right?"

After breaking big as a transvestite who wears dresses onstage, I hear you're now pretty much dressed as a male.

Well, when I started, I thought I'd be honest about the transvestite thing, otherwise it's this big secret you don't tell the media. I started talking about it onstage and people thought I was joking, so I thought, "I'll wear a dress and some makeup and they'll know." . . . Now, I didn't want to come out of a box where you couldn't wear a dress as a bloke and go into a box where you always had to wear a dress.

You know, readers of the British media magazine Radio Times named you the second-worst faux-American accent on TV.

Just about every Brit doing a good accent is on that list . . . so I feel pretty good about it.

I hear you're thinking of running for office someday?

My job right now is to go around the world and prove that humor is human, and it's the same the world over . . . just like politics.

Look, the biggest surprise to British and European people is that Americans are exactly the same as us. We look different because we watch different TV shows or speak with an accent and the sports are different. But monkeys are only

1 percent different than us, so how big are these differences really?"

Eric Deggans can be reached at deggans@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8521. His blog, The Feed, is at blogs.

tampabay.com/media.