Biography
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Born
7 February 1962 (age 62)
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Born In
‘Adan, Yemen
Edward John Izzard (born February 7, 1962) is a British stand-up comedian and actor. Izzard has a very individual style of rambling, surreal monologue. Izzard has turned their attention to acting as well as maintaining their demanding touring schedule.
Izzard was born in Aden, Yemen, as the youngest child of John and Ella Izzard. In 1963, shortly before Britain abandoned the capital of Aden, the Izzards moved to Northern Ireland. Izzard lived in Bangor, County Down until 1967, when troubles started brewing there as well, and the family moved to Skewen, Wales, and Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England. Izzard's mother died in March, 1968, of cancer.
Izzard has said that they knew they were a transgender person at the age of four, after watching a boy being forced to wear a dress by his sisters, and knew they wanted to be an actor at the age of seven.
Izzard began to toy with comedy at the University of Sheffield with student friend Rob Ballard. After leaving accountancy, Izzard and Ballard took their act to the streets, often in Covent Garden. After splitting with Ballard, Izzard spent a great deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States. Izzard says that they developed their comedic voice by talking to the audience while doing solo escape acts. Izzard then moved their act to the stand-up comedy venues of Britain, the first gig being at the Banana Cabaret in Balham, London.
In 1987, Izzard made their first stage appearance at the Comedy Store in London. Izzard refined their comedy material throughout the 1980s, and in the early 1990s began earning recognition through improvisation, in part at their own club, "Raging Bull" in Soho.
Izzard's big break came in 1991 after performing their "Raised by Wolves" sketch on the televised "Hysteria 3" AIDS benefit.
Izzard's stand-up work brought them British Comedy Awards in 1993 (for Live at the Ambassadors) and 1996 (for Definite Article). After the British leg of the tour, Izzard took 'Definite Article' to major cities outside the UK including a successful stint in New York City. However, their US breakthrough did not really come until 1998, when 'Dress to Kill', which was shown on American television channel HBO, went on to earn Izzard two Emmy Awards in 2000.
Izzard has appeared in numerous films, starting with 1996's The Secret Agent, and has appeared as several real-life individuals, including Charlie Chaplin in The Cat's Meow, actor Gustav von Wangenheim in Shadow of the Vampire, and General Erich Fellgiebel in Valkyrie. Other roles have included Mr Kite in Across the Universe, Lussurioso in Revengers Tragedy and criminal expert Roman Nagel in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. Izzard's voice work has included the titular "It" in Five Children and It, Nigel in The Wild and the mouse warrior Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Izzard appeared in the 2009 BBC science fiction miniseries The Day of the Triffids, based on the 1951 novel, alongside Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and Brian Cox.
Izzard presented the medals to the athletes who had won the 800m T54 race at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, including gold medalist David Weir. Izzard played Dr. Hatteras, a skeptical psychology professor, in the Showtime series United States of Tara and appeared in six episodes of the 2013–15 American psychological horror television series Hannibal as Dr. Abel Gideon.
In 2014, Izzard played the part of Robert Watson-Watt, in the BBC drama film Castles in the Sky, who invented aircraft-detecting radar equipment in time for the Battle of Britain.
In June 2017, Izzard read excerpts from their autobiography Believe Me for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Izzard appeared as a guest on The Daily Show in May 2019 and discussed their current activities as a comic, their political aspirations, and their ongoing efforts as an avid marathon runner.
Comic style
Izzard uses a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps among topics, saying in a 2004 interview with The Guardian, "It's the oral tradition. Human beings have been doing it for thousands of years". Izzard's bent towards the surreal went so far as to produce a sitcom called Cows in 1997 for Channel 4, a live action comedy with actors dressed in cow suits. Izzard has cited Monty Python as their biggest influence, and Python's John Cleese once referred to Izzard as "the lost Python".
Frequent comedic themes:
An impression of James Mason, often representing a hapless, dithering God or authority figure
An impression of Sean Connery, whose character - which has ranged from Noah to Henry VIII - usually interacts with the Mason character
The name 'Jeff' (for instance as in "Jeff Jeffty-Jeff. Born on the first of Jeff Nineteen-Jeffty-Jeff", whose computer password is 'JEFF', Jeff the God of Biscuits, or Jeff Broccoli)
jam
bees
pigs
banjos
badgers
'mmmmmrmmmmmm' - the sound of an E-type Jaguar
Adolf Hitler (often referred to as a vegetarian)
Toasters
Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) the british pop star
Taps
Star Wars references (example - The Death Star Canteen)
Azerbaijan
Belgium
the British monarchy
the National Rifle Association, aka the NRA (he often pronounces it 'Riffle').
Eddie has a number of mannerisms, such as:
Saying "So… yeah…" when thinking what to say next (a fact subtly noted on the back of the 'Glorious' video box)
Saying "and, uh…" as the audience pictures Izzard's bizarre imagery and starts laughing
When Eddie's stream of consciousness appears to lose the audience, holding up an imaginary pad and pen and writing "Lost them there".
Connecting two totally irrelevant topics and pausing as the audience picks up on it "…a Blue Horse on the outside, a Blue Horse from Mars! And then we could tell couldn't we … Now, so anyway, sometimes, though, you want to buy a teatowel…"
Making fun of their own pantomimes. (describing a hotel room in France) "Avec un vue de la mer.. a view of the sea , un grand lit… a large bed . Et, avec un douche … with a spider." Similarly, a character in Izzard's sketch may comment on the joke ("no, that's the wrong punchline, you can't use that") or the audience ("they groaned at that one, do you realise that?").
Often randomly brings back or reworks material the audience initially found funny in their acts, such as their Scottish clarinet teacher Mrs. Badcrumble, and monkeys with guns in several of their stand ups, to name a few.
Personal life
Izzard resides in Victoria, London.
Izzard is genderfluid and calls herself "somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish". When asked in 2019 what pronouns they preferred, Izzard said, "either 'he' or 'she'", explaining, "If I am in boy mode, then 'he' or girl mode 'she'". In 2020, Izzard requested she/her pronouns for an appearance on the TV show Portrait Artist of the Year.
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