Eddie Izzard interview
Eddie Izzard's Stripped tour, which sold out a five-week residency in London’s West End in less than forty-eight hours, comes to DVD on 23rd November 2009.
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LastBroadcast caught up with Eddie to chat about the tour, The Day Of The Triffids, his marathon running, the new Narnia movie and his plans for 2010!
The Stripped DVD is out next week - what should people expect who’ve not seen the show?
I think it’s one of my best, if not the best actually. The Telegraph gave me a five star review, which is always nice! It was filmed in the Lyric in the West End. I always spend a lot of time analysing myself and I worked out that my best shows are the ones where I’ve been still in one place, not rushing about everywhere, because it’s so exhausting when you’re touring. So I did five weeks in the West End and I could put all my energy into the performance instead of packing and unpacking constantly. I think it’s a funny show, it’s also layered, which isn’t something comedians do initially - when they start they just want to entertain.
Have you missed running since you finished the marathons (43 marathons in 51 days for charity Sport Relief) in September?
I haven’t missed it actually because I’ve kept doing them, I’ve kept it going! I just did another one in Amsterdam, that was 42 kilometres. I just want to keep doing them.
Do you feel noticeably healthier?
I’m absolutely feeling healthier, yeah. And I feel younger, it completely takes you back to your youth. Not that I think I ever did this much exercise even as a kid! I’m not great at doing all the stretching though. But it’s great, you start to feel real ownership of the road. It’s something Native Americans have, they didn’t own the land with a bit of paper, but they were born, lived and died on the road, and it feels like that - apart from the being born and dying. That was a great feeling though, it was something I really didn’t expect.
Are you looking forward to the Madison Square Garden show in New York in January?
Very much, I’ll be the first British comedian to play there. I would say it’s an honour but I wasn’t actually invited or anything. It should be a great show.
Will that be biggest show you’ve done?
Yeah, I believe it will be!
Were you disappointed that The Riches didn’t come back for a third season?
I was disappointed, yeah, but we might be coming back for a movie, though nothing’s confirmed yet - it's looking hopeful. Just doing the TV show was a great experience, filming 45 minutes of drama in 7 days, it’s a tough schedule.
Would you consider being a lead in a TV show again?
Yeah, I’d love to, it really pushes you. I’ve actually been actively looking for another TV show to work on.
Do you have your eye on anything in particular?
I have, yes! But I probably shouldn’t talk about it, in case it doesn’t go ahead, or I’ll for ever be asked “what happened to that show you were going to do?”.
Are you returning as the voice of Reepicheep the mouse for the new Narnia film (The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader) yet?
I believe so, but I haven’t actually heard yet.
You’re also in BBC One's new adaptation of The Day Of The Triffids - can you tell us anything about your part in that?
My character, Torrence, spends half his time trying to get off with Joely Richardson’s character, which was fun! It’s just a great story really, a great sci-fi thriller. The film from way back when really scared me, with the clicking noise that the Triffids made. I think I’ve done good work on it, I’m still waiting to see, it’s like waiting for exam results! I had to wait 18 months for my “results” for Valkyrie. I think I was about a B+ in that, in an A+ film.
What else have you got planned for 2010?
Ah, 2010! I want to head out to other countries, stand-up-wise, hopefully Germany or France. I’d like to do 3 to 4 months somewhere, so I can really get word of mouth in one place as a must-see show. I keep putting it off like I did with the running, I should just go and actually do it.
19th November 2009.
Written by Will Martin.
