But please reassure the minions and old timers that I will be unobtrusive while I keep an eye on things. I will be crouching the other side of an invisible line, behind an imaginary Chinese wall inside a transparent box wearing a different hat, running a computer simulation of the current situation from behind an informal desk fellating a made-up banana. They are not to worry about me. Not until I creep up in the dead of night and hit them over the head with a piece of two-by-four with a single six-inch nail sticking out of it.
At the 2008 Robin Ince run “Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People” in London, comedian Tim Minchin performed his 9 minute beat poem “Storm.” Tracy King was at the event and afterwards approached Tim with the proposal of turning the poem into an animation. He quickly accepted. The film is not finished yet (there is a production blog here) but an official trailer has been released and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to see the full nine minutes.
I used to be a fan of Actor, Comedian, Transvestite Eddie Izzard. I remember watching his Live at The Ambassadors VHS, which began to wear out after it has been passed around all of my friends; it was fantastic (It is the only release which hasn’t been converted to DVD at the time of writing). Comedy about nothing in particular, no cruelty, no real politics just funny, funny stuff. I even bought a jacket that looked like the one he wore at that gig (I was an odd 17 year old). I would even say that his speech patterns had an impact on my conversational style which remain in a milder form today. So-Yeah…
I went to see him as part of the Unrepeatable tour in the Bristol Hippodrome which was even better than Live at The Ambassadors. He had really begun to hone his act and knew exactly where his strengths lay and it was clear from this show that he was going to just get bigger and bigger.
Definitive Article, Glorious and Dressed To Kill were released on VHS/DVD and I bought all of them, each one a step on from where he was before. Pure, consummate comedy genius.
However, I then went to see his Circle tour in Cardiff and it was basically a Greatest Hits. I remember everyone leaving the show and complaining about the price of a ticket to see routines that had already been performed and consumed a hundred times in our living room. We had gone to see new material, things that would mark us out from those that hadn’t bought a ticket and been unable to see the show. We felt ripped off and I began to lose faith in him. I bought the Circle DVD when it came out and by that time although he had clearly developed a routine that was not just a rehash of previous videos, it did not seem to reach the same heights of previous work.
I have since then had diminishing returns with Mr Izzards output. I hardly smiled when I watch the latest DVD, Stripped, and I’ve only watched Sexie once. I’m not sure why this is, maybe I have seen so much of his output that I know how his mind works and I get to the “funny” bit before he does, I find he is over reliant on surreal ideas and strange names these days without any central core to what he is saying – although i appreciate he is trying to educate as he goes by hanging the stand up on various stages of history – but for me it no longer works.
However, I was able to put all this to one side when I watched “Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man.” This was the Izzard I knew from my youth, funny without trying and yet still clearly angry and upset about the death of his mother when he was only six. The documentary is in three parts (one yet to be broadcast) and follows his Sport Relief attempt at running 43 marathons in 50 days. As he says “I’ve run before but mainly for buses!” He spends 5 weeks preparing and as he is an out of shape 48-year-old with flat feet makes you wonder how he will achieve this. He is easily distracted and doesn’t seem to really listen to anything that experts might have to say to him, he only really seems happy when he actually starts running and it is just him and his determination, a drive which is fuelled by his personal demons from his youth, to follow through with this madcap scheme. It is a fascinating insight into the man and what makes him tick and he really comes alive in the presence of other people which makes him seem like a charming and likeable bloke.
I want to see the film Believe, a documentary about him (although it feels a little bit like an ego trip on his behalf), but it is going to have its work cut out to beat this piece of, essentially, feel good TV.
Oh, and if you like you can donate to sport relief here (which was the main point in his running all of those marathons).
