EDDIE IZZARD Crash Into Me

Eddie Izzard
by Amelie Gillette September 11, 2007
Comedian-actor Eddie Izzard lives up to both parts of his hyphenate, though thanks to the awards he's won for his stand-up specials, the "comedian" part usually gets top billing. As a stand-up, Izzard is known for his dizzying stream-of-consciousness monologues, as well as for his occasional onstage cross-dressing. As an actor, however, he tends to play smaller, darker character roles—villains (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), historical figures (Charlie Chaplin, Lenny Bruce), and in one case, a wise-ass hacker (Ocean's 13). But Izzard's latest role, in FX's The Riches as Wayne Malloy, paterfamilias of a clan of con men, has let him add a few more labels to his hyphenate: "TV star" and "writer." Recently, The A.V. Club spoke to Izzard about writing for TV, never writing for stand-up, and the difference between dramatic and comedic actors.

The A.V. Club: You've been performing a bit in L.A. recently, right?

Eddie Izzard: Have I been performing? Yes, yes, I have been performing in L.A. I try to keep performing as much as possible—I just like to. I used to take huge gaps off between gigs, now I just like to do stand-up gigs as much as I can.

AVC: How was it for you when you had long breaks from performing?

EI: Well, it's fine. If I'm doing stand-up regularly, I like it. If you have breaks for too long and you come back into it, the first time back in is all a little bit weird. It's riding a bicycle, you can get back on it, but it's just a little bit—I don't know quite what's going on, and then I get back in it. It's better to be constantly doing it, and that way I can just seamlessly leap onstage. I like ad-libbing as much as I can, so that needs a certain amount of practice, a certain amount of speed and being happy with what you're talking about, or interested in what you're talking about, that's one of the main things.

AVC: You tend to work kind of stream-of-consciousness. How do you approach that?

EI: It sounds kind of crazy, but the trick is, it's like a conversation. It's a one-sided conversation, so it's the equivalent of some sort of thing where you're passionate about a subject, and you go "Let me tell you what I've learned about fly-fishing. Here's what I know about the Israeli-Palestinian situation." So you can just unload a whole bunch of information. That's what I think about it: Have a one-sided conversation, and then make it phenomenally interesting. And that's how you can bring in stuff that you haven't talked about before.

AVC: Have you always worked that way?

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