Eddie Izzard on BBC America
BBC AMERICA presents a special season of shows featuring one of the
UK's most celebrated contemporary comics. Kicking off with the all-new
spoof rockumentary, Lust for Glorious, March 9, 2006 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m.
PT, this must-see collection of live shows features the U.S. television
premiere of some of Eddie's most acclaimed stand-up performances.
Eddie is hailed as one of the foremost stand-up comedians of his
generation. Appearing in trademark high heels and lipstick, Eddie is renowned
for his ability to take simple ideas and situations and extrapolate
them into bizarre, absurd and surreally comic narratives. The featured
performances include Dress to Kill, Sunday, March 12, 9 p.m. ET/PT and
Circle, Sunday, March 17, 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.
Later this year BBC AMERICA will also present the U.S. television premieres of Lust,
Unrepeatable and Definite Article.
Eddie began his career as a street performer in London's Covent Garden
riding the unicycle and performing handcuff escapes. He soon mastered
the art of talking incessantly and started performing stand-up. In
addition to his legendary live performances Eddie has starred in numerous
Hollywood and independent movies including Velvet Goldmine, Shadow of
the Vampire, The Cat's Meow, Ocean's Twelve, Romance and Cigarettes and
The Aristocrats. Eddie's work has garnered many accolades including
coveted British Comedy Awards and two Emmys for Dress to Kill.
PROGRAM SYNOPSES
Lust for Glorious
Eddie Izzard's spoof rockumentary - a play on Patton and Lust for Glory
- follows Eddie during the making of a promo designed to pitch him to
the American market. Exploring the notion that 'comedy is the new rock
n' roll,' Lust for Glorious shows Eddie behaving like a true rock
superstar driving fast cars (in reverse), bedding babes, throwing tantrums
and of course wearing lots of lipstick.
Lust for Glorious premieres March 9, 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.
Dress To Kill
Eddie reflects on his birth in Yemen and his childhood in Northern
Ireland, Wales and London, and muses on animals, male tomboys, street
theater, sex, crime, God, The Great Escape, Bible stories starring Sean
Connery and James Mason and cats who dig for oil. He also muses on the
trials and tribulations of being a cross-dressing surrealist comedian
intent on making it in America.
Dress to Kill marked Eddie's breakthrough in the U.S. and Canada. In
February 1998 Eddie took the show to Stamford, the Aspen Comedy Festival
(where he won the Jury Award for "Best One-man Show"), Toronto and the
Westbeth Theatre in New York, where he played to packed houses for four
months. He returned to the U.S. in September that year where he
performed the show in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The shows were promoted
by Robin Williams and were seen by celebrities such as Eric Idle, Steve
Martin, George Harrison, Carrie Fisher, Madonna, Gabriel Byrne and
Ellen Barkin.
"A human search engine...the funniest boy on the block...a ticklingly
entertaining comic with an actor's sense of word and movement, adept at
creating little worlds in instant one-man plays."
The New York Times
"Izzard's brilliantly regulated stream of eloquent nonsense leaves one
heady, and the acclaim for this devastatingly charming performer was
deserved."
The London Evening Standard
Dress to Kill airs Sunday, March 12, 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Circle
Recorded at the Town Hall, New York, religion is the loose but constant
theme of Circle in which Eddie moves back and forth in time. He begins
with Pope John Paul II, criss-crosses to Pius XII, the Spanish
Inquisition, the Crusades and Jerusalem, the world's five major religions, the
Dark Ages, Jesus and the future. Along the way, Eddie makes
observations about guns and monkeys, the World Series, the NRA and the IRA, mad
cows, Socrates, the Stoned Olympics, the Roman Empire, the Renaissance
and the Mona Lisa.
Eddie wears black nylons, black leather pants, a black jacket and a
diamond necklace.
After opening in New York, Eddie performed the show throughout the UK
and Ireland and completed 13 performances in French in Paris. He then
returned to London for five shows at the Brixton Academy before returning
to the U.S. and Canada. Circle marked Eddie's stand-up debut in
Australia and New Zealand.
"....his latest show, called Circle, amounts to a rewarding, laugh-littered evening of entertainment."
The New York Times
"He just lights a touchpaper in his brain and off he goes....With Izzard, there is an exciting
frisson of anticipation...gloriously unpredictable." The Independent
Circle premieres Sunday, March 17, 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.
