All language subtitles for Believe The Eddie Izzard Story (2009) [1080p] [WEBRip] [YTS.MX] SUB English

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Weekend Watchdog
with Anne Robinson...

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Eddie Izzard's still
letting down his fans.
Flogging old gags...

Eddie and his management
didn't want to comment.

Just felt
totally gutted by that.

There was a level of
trust that's been removed...
A safety thing gone.

Huge amount
riding on it.

This wasn't just one gig
in front of 40 people...

To sell 350,000
tickets across the world.

Who's Eddie Izzard?

I know he's crazy.

I think he's
a British comedian.

Ohhh! The British guy?

- Yeah!
- I've heard his name before.

He is a very
dangerous person.

He's a famous comedian.

A gender bending
phenomenon.

My favorite comedian
of all time is Eddie Izzard.
He is fantastic.

There is,
like, a sexiness
about him, that I like.

Seen him in
a ton of movies and stuff.

Wasn't he in, uh,
Ocean's Twelve
with George Clooney?

Eddie, uh, Izzard?

Yes. Uh, um,
I've never met Eddie,

but uh, uh, the people
that he hires tell me that

he is absolutely wonderful.

He's a guy on The Riches
and British comedian.

I saw him in
Across the Universe
as well.

I think he's
a great, great actor.

I've-- I've seen him
on TV and stuff.

I'd heard of him,
but I didn't know
much about him.

Actor, comedian, great guy!

I believe it's-- the actual
pronunciation is Izzard.

Eddie Iz-zard?

Iz-zard? Is... No.

Pretty sure his first name's
pronounced Eddie.

I know
he's really funny.

I think his work
is phenomenal, I think
he's absolutely brilliant.

He's, like, hilarious.

I'm a huge fan of his.
His work as a, um...

I don't know what he does.

Uh, the flag sketch .
It's really funny, I like that.

- Cake or death.
- He does this thing
about Engelbert Humperdinck.

And I mean, I don't even think
people know who that is anymore.

But that's my era.

That's not his real name.
He's from Britain.
But not his name.

There's very few
Humperdincks in Britain.

It was great.

His name was Gerry Dorsey
and then his manager's
obviously said

"We're gonna change the name,
Gerry, it's the name
that's the problem."

His name changed
from Gerry Dorsey to
Engelbert Humperdinck.

I mean, I just wanted
to be in the room when

- they were working
that one through.

Zinglebert Banbleback!

Yengybert Dangleban.

Zanglebert Bingledack.

Slutban Walla.

What?

All right,
Kringlebert Fistybuns,

Steviebuns Butratan.

Who've we got--
Zinglebert Wembledack,

Tinglebert Wangledack,
Slutban Walla,

Uh, Gerry Dorsey. Um...

Engelbert Humpdiback,
Zanglebert Bingledack,

Engelbert Humperdinck,
Vinglebert Wingledank...

No No, Go back one,
Go back one.

That's it!

♪ Mama can you see me now?
Can you see me

♪ Trying to get through somehow
Can you see me

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me

♪ Trying to get through somehow

♪ Can you see me
Can you see me

♪ Mama can you see me now?
Can you see me

♪ Can you see me
Can you see me

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Whoooo

♪ Can you see me
Can you see me

♪ Can you see me now?

Can I get little
more wine?

Thank you.

Normally he will
turn over a new tour
from the previous tour.

This time Eddie has
decided to completely leave
the old material alone.

Is it melting?
Which is a very
dangerous thing.

I'd rather the material
all be fantastic.

It's just getting
your brain organized
and then forgetting about it.

I just wanna...
What?

I don't know,
I don't know.

Okay, on standby Eddie,
we're about to go.

So now, we go.

I haven't written
the second half yet.

Still waiting on clearance,
but I think...

Um, yes, so...

So yes, so breasts.

Um, well, you know,
I just thought, um...

What was I gonna
say about breasts anyway?

Clop, clop, clop. What?

- Oh, yes.

Let's... there was
something else I was gonna say.

Yeah, breast...
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's what.

I have to take on board
how the audience reacts

because that is
your parameter of whether
a joke has worked or not.

And that's very, very hard.

And you can go out
on stage and tell a joke
that you've told

to someone who's roared
with laughter and tell
it in front of 200 people

and they sit there
in absolute silence

and your stomach tightens
on their behalf.

Ah, well, I was
in The Avengers
and Uma Thurman's doubles...

She had two doubles,
one was just a body double,

just for the hell of it,
when she was...

Just wanted to go off
and have a cigarette.

One was a balletic double,
doing things that were balletic.

One was a "through
the window" type double.

Yeah, those three.
One was just a double, yeah.

And they would keep
taking breasts in and out,

and say, "Look." So, I said,
"Oh, can I have a pair?"

And they said, "Yeah."

Well, that wasn't very good.
Start's all right.

No, it's brilliant.

Yeah, well, not so good.

Well, it's just because
there's no flow.
And there can't be yet...

As soon as I go back, I'm going,
"Is that funny? Is that funny?"

You haven't got a pocket
or anything, have you?

- For what?
- For the paper,

so to pull out, maybe,
rather than to...

No, but, even that...
See, just looking at the thing

makes you think,
"What do I say next?
What do I say next?"

The audience don't mind
'cause they're just--

they're just loving
listening to you.

"Talk about your family."

"Try to think something
chronological." Rubbish.

My life story,
that'd be good.

Where do you start?

We'll just start
with nought
and go all the way through.

Here's a thing on Yemen.

There's my home town.
That's somewhere near Aden.

The port of Aden.

I'm just like
Lawrence of Arabia, basically,

except he was there
for many years
and I was there for one year.

My dad was there
for eight years, though.

My mom was there
for five years.

So, my dad has
"sand credibility,"

is what they call it
down there.

'Cause dad spoke Arabic
like a native of Belgium and...

In eight years he picked up
the Arabic for "One beer."

Arabic for "Two beers."
Arabic for "Three beers,"

and that's it.

And if he wanted four beers,
he'd go,

"Three beer,
one beer, please."

-"Three beer, one beer."

So, one, two, and three beer,
and then Allah willing.

- Yeah.
- Insha Allah.

Insha Allah.

- It's a good phrase.
- You can drop them in.

It sounds good.

Yeah, well, all my lads
wanted to learn
to speak English.

So I had to speak English
to them all the time.

'Cause, apparently,
no one's bothering
learning languages anymore.

I should go and learn Arabic.
That should be one of
the stupid things

I keep saying
I'm gonna do.

I was born in
Yemen in 1962,

two years after
my brother Mark,
in the city of Aden.

There was refinery there
that British Petroleum ran.

My dad worked there
as an accountant,

my mum worked there as a nurse
in the BP hospital.

In the end, there was
a revolution in Yemen,
so I had to get out of there.

My dad said,
"We're getting out of here.
Let's go to Northern Ireland,"

where it was a lot calmer.

My house is still there
in Ashford Drive. I went there.

And bizarrely the woman that
bought it from my dad
is still living there.

We lived in the same house,
and it hadn't changed,

it's a bungalow.

- Hello. Hello.
- Hello, and welcome. Come on in.

- How are you?
- Very nice to meet you.

We had the sofa there.
There's a photograph taken of us

all in front of a slatted blind
just like that.

I think a lot of this
is in a similar place.

- But this carpet does look...
- Identical?

Yeah. This garden,
I mean, all that...

That was green,
it was still part
of the countryside.

And my dad would
start the lawnmower.

He'd always take three goes
to start it up.

I think he wanted
to get a crowd.

And...

And he was there, one...
No.

One...
Don't think so.

With all these bits to adjust.

This kitchen is very much same.

I'd be cooking there
with my mother.

Well, not cooking, she cooked
while I just cut things up.

I was about this big.

Just feels like
a different life.

My dad said I, I would
adjust the stocking straps
on my mom's stockings.

His mother told me
that she went into
the bathroom on one occasion,

and he was dressing up
in her clothes.

That had no significance
for me at the time.

The idea of
wearing the dress was

very much a big thing for me,
and something that
I wanted to experience.

'Cause if you're a transvestite,
you're actually a male tomboy.

That's where the sexuality is.

So, running, jumping,
climbing trees,

putting on makeup
when you're up there.
That's where it is.

And I used to keep all my makeup
in a squirrel hole, up the tree.

And, uh, and the squirrel would
keep makeup on one side

and he'd keep nuts
on the other side.

And sometimes I get up
that tree, that squirrel'd
be covered in makeup.

♪ La la la la

"Oh."

"What? Fuck off!"

He seemed to say.

Living here at 5 Ashford Drive,

it's really the best part...
of my childhood.

After that, it just went crap.

Well, if I'd continued
having a mother,

I wouldn't have gone
to boarding schools.

I don't remember wanting
to perform before she died.

When I was seven, in Eastbourne,

I saw this kid getting a lot of
reaction off the audience,

so I just thought,
"Oh, I wanna do that."

The only thing my mom
ever saw me do...

Did she see...
No, she was probably too ill
to see me do it.

I played a raven,
she made this raven outfit.
There was a picture,

me in a raven outfit
made by my mum.

And she was very ill
with cancer at this point.

So, I played a raven.
I remember not being

terribly interested about
playing a raven.

And I got a laugh
when I didn't really mean to.

And I wasn't that bothered.

Then after that she was dead,
and the next thing,
I was desperate to be in things.

Back in Roman times,
when people died.

they had professional
mourners come in.

Which is a totally weird idea.

Someone will go,
"My husband is dead.
There's not enough grief.

There's not enough grief
in this house
to warrant his death.

I wish to beef up the grief!

Slave, get a message off down
to Mourners'R'Us, will you?

Tell them I wish
to beef up the grief!

Here's 10 denarii
for your trouble,
and give it straight back.

You're a slave.
What do you think you're doing?"

And up will come
a very smooth guy,

"Good afternoon,
I'm Mr Marcellus.
I'm from Mourners'R'Us."

- Just a free sample there.
Now...

And the day it happened,
Dad came and took us home.

And he told us that
Mum had died.

So, we sat down in the lounge
and we cried for a long time.

So, then we went on
a tour of Ireland.

We'd been happy in Ireland.

So now that Mom was
no longer there,
I could sit in the front seat

for the first time.

Though I had
bad travel sickness,

I just sang the theme
toWhite Horses
over and over again.

♪ On white horses,
snowy white horses

♪ Let me ride away

♪ Away

♪ Away

♪ Away

♪ Away

I'm, like, someone who hears
several radio channels
going, "Shh."

Five minutes.
Oh! Five minutes

- Five minutes to drink as much
as fast as you can.
It's three in reality.

Normally, I'd start
with the old tour.

At the moment, I'm trying
to start without doing
the old tour.

I would start with
the old tour and then
you can just,

um, have that material,

then you improvise doing
some good, solid material.

Then people laugh,
they had the good solid material

but you can improvise off it.
You keep the improv,

you dump
the old stuff gradually.

You dump all the old stuff
and have a load of new stuff.

But this is like not having
the backup of something,

um, even though
I should try and do it.

I don't know.

This is going to be weird.

It's going to be crap.

So, if this is crap...

Just to say,
"Hey, it's crap on tour."

Work in progress.
Has this got "work in progress"
on the advertising? It has got--

Hang on.

I remember
his father coming in to see us.

And explaining
the family situation.

The mother had indeed died.

And the father's only answer

seemed to be a boarding school.

The boys were very young.
But it did seem
a reasonable answer.

I used to cry a lot.
I would have fights as well,
because I was an angry kid.

And I had a fight,
when I started crying first,

and I realized
you can't get out
of crying once you start it,

'cause it has all started
coming down your face.

So, I thought crying
equals losing in arguments.

Therefore, do not cry.
So, I didn't cry from then on.

I had, sort of, no emotions.
That's what a lot of kids

who come out of
boarding school are like.

They have no emotions,
no feelings. 'Cause you--
that's your survival technique.

He had a collection
of teddies that
he was very close to,

that he used to keep
on his bed.

Seven or eight of them.

Uh, and he used to re-enact
uh, tales, theater, with...
with these teddies.

Ta-da!

And actually,
he was a marvelous mimic.

"What do you want, little kid?"

-"I wanna be
in the school play."

"No, you're not, joker."

"No, I'm not." "Yes, you are."

He did it in front of
his friends, fine,

and then they summoned up
courage, and matron
was brought into the picture

and she was quite a strict lady.

And to get matron sitting down
and watching it...

And then, yes,
headmaster and wife.

And we had some,
some lovely little theatricals.

When I was seven.
I wanted to act.

And I auditioned
for all the school things.

But, no, I was relegated
to playing clarinet
in the school orchestra.

I played third clarinet, right,
in the school band.

Now first clarinets
play the melody.

That's okay, you know where
you're going. Second clarinets
play the harmonies

that backup the melody,
and sort of link, okay.

Third clarinets play the notes
that are left over.

You're just going...

It's boring. The only exciting
way to do it
is really blow it loud.

The teacher's going,
"Piano! Piano!" You're going,
"It's not a fucking piano.

It's a clarinet."

Very soon after that, though,
they did Beauty and the Beast

and I didn't get any
of the good parts.

I would play the street urchin
with all the rest of the bozos

in the class
who couldn't do anything.

And we had a collective line,
that was,
"Oh, Beauty, don't go."

And I worked out that
when it came to our line,

and if I went, "Oh, Beauty,
don't go," very fast,
then it became my line.

And all the other kids
were going,
"Oh, he's already said it."

I think, "Forget about it."

At 11, I played Trebonius
who's the one conspirator

who doesn't actually
stab Caesar, so that's no good.

He'd just take Mark Anthony
to one side
and stand in the wings,

while all the kids with
the plastic daggers have fun.

I think it was Andrew Boxer
who sat me down and said,

"What kind of role
are you looking for?"

I thought it was
a bizarre question
because I thought,

"Big, you know, that big,
huge lead role that
gets off with the women.

And big, you know, ego waving,
on all the time kind of role."

And he said,
"Well, what about jailer?"

And I thought, "No, that
doesn't quite sound right."

My abiding memory of
St. Bede's was the South Downs.

The first team had
to run up and down
a very steep slope.

And I used to run
and I used to think, it's cold
and wet and this is pointless

and I remember
the teacher going,

"That's why Izzard's
in the team. He just pushes
so hard to run."

People live their lives,
they retire,
they move to Eastbourne,

then they live a little bit
longer and then they die.

And then they move
to Bexhill, all right?

There's just no one
to play with
when I was growing up.

I had to play with
Mrs. Stevens
who was 76, you know.

The English Channel, 1941.

Any questions?

Yes. Where are my legs?

You couldn't escape
from the military
background here,

because in my last year,
my school cert year of 1944-45,

we had regular doodlebugs.

They were a flying bomb,
they had no pilot,

and they were very fast.

All you did was
get under the desk.

But we had hundreds
and hundreds

and hundreds of
doodlebugs across Bexhill.

One morning,
there was a huge explosion,

and we learnt at breakfast that
an unexploded World War II mine

had hit the cliff
at Beachy Head
and blown up.

So, the stuff's still floating
around out there.

And as kids we'd play
on the South Downs,
and there'd be bomb craters.

You just go and play
in the bomb craters.

That's just where bombs
are blown up
from German Heinkels

dumping their bombs
on their way back.

I got really fascinated
by the SAS,
the Special Air Service.

I joined
the Combined Cadet Force,

and I was considering doing
an officer cadetship.

Soldiering appealed to me
because it was unemotional,

tactical dealing
with a situation.

When the chips are down,
you stand up for your friends,
or for your family, or country.

♪ Bling, bling, bling,
bling, bling♪

That was a barrel organ version
of Jerusalem.

It's a hymn, you know, one that
we'd sing in church.

And it's got really weird lines
in it. "And shall my sword
sleep in my hand."

Not a good idea.

You're gonna roll over
and cut your bits off,
aren't you?

And then it's that
Godfather scene of...
"Oh, oh, oh."

"A head of a horse
and my willy."

- And, uh...

When I was 16,
I made a mental decision,

I'm absolutely gonna
be an actor.
No question about it.

I didn't seem right for
doing drama because I'd lost
all my confidence in puberty.

And I couldn't do
lead male parts

'cause I was kind of short
and couldn't get off with girls.

And then I had to chat up girls.
And I had never used my vocal
ability to chat up girls.

And when your voice is breaking,
it's very hard! It's going,

"Why, Susan,
I really
fancy you.

I saw you in the playground."

I had to chat up girls,
and I'd only tagged them before,

and I didn't have the verbal
power to be able to say,

"Susan, I saw you in
the classroom today.

As the sun came
from behind the clouds,

a burst of brilliant light
caught your hair,

it was haloed in front of me.
You turned, your eyes
flashed fire into my soul,

I immediately read the words
of Dostoyevsky and Karl Marx.

And in the words
of Albert Schweitzer.

I fancy you!"

But no. At 13,
you're just going,
"Hello, Sue. I've got legs.

Do you like bread?

I've got French loaf.

Bye.

I love you."

I'm not sure any of us
got lucky back then.

It was actually very unfortunate
because there were maybe

30 girls to 120 boys.

So, it was, it was a challenge.

Even, even on a good day.

We didn't do
mathematics together.

We sort of did
mathematics together,

but what we did was,
we cheated our way up to...

- What did you get in math?
Oh, God.

'Cause he got expelled.
I got two Bs and a D.

He got a B in math,
and I got an A in math.

We made nitro-glycerine.

'Cause there was a book
that had all these things,

make soap, I think,
make nitro-glycerine.

So, we made it. And we tried
to blow-up this old lady

who was the matron
of this place.

So, we poured it on the floor
and we thought

she might stand on it
and go boom.

One teacher said to me, "Yeah,
I saw the play, Izzard.

Not exactly Shakespeare,
is it?

What are you going to do
when you grow up, Izzard?"

"Transvestite comedian, sir.
Hopefully do Broadway."

"Yes, yes."

What a weird thing to say to me.

I did audition in
the Shaw Theatre which ended up
being the place

where I did Raging Bull
years later.

For the National Youth Theatre.
I'd learnt these speeches,

one from Henry IV, Part 1,
and one from Becket.

And I was very calm.
I wanted to be very calm
and knock them out

and be able to
be very confident.

And I got the confidence
together, but somehow

confidence and memory
were not allowed in the body
at the same time at that point.

So I was very relaxed
when I got there. I said,
"Yes, good to see you. Yes.

I'll do these parts.

And, uh, I'll just read
them out to you,
shall I, yeah?"

So I'm standing in my future
dressing room going...

Who, who... sons.

He says,
"Well, try the other speech.

The Becket one."

Nothing, just completely dry.
And he said,

"Well, you better go,
you're crap.

You're a crap kid, you know?"
No, he didn't say that,

but he said,
"Well, I'll let you...

I won't even bother
letting you know."

If The Goon Show
was the Old Testament,

then Monty Python
was the New Testament.

We used to recite
their sketches at school.
And as soon as I found out that

they wrote their own sketches,
then I thought,
"I have to do this."

I thought I will do what
Monty Python does.

I will write my own stuff,
give myself a big role.

Personal nepotism, I called it.

I found out that they were
at Cambridge Footlights.

So I thought
I'll get to Cambridge.

Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

Here we are tonight,
behind camouflage,

at the Iranian Embassy,
here in Eastbourne.

It had moved down here
for safety reasons.

And upstairs, we have some
really bad Iranians up there.

And we've got one here,
our resident idiot.

Come here, resident idiot.

Here we have resident idiot,
Cyrus Amin.

Amini, with the 'I."

And we also have someone
watching us from a distance,
but it doesn't matter.

And upstairs we have the SAS
trying to break in
and get free the hostages.

- What do you think
about that, Cyrus?

Perhaps, it would be wise here
to go to our London studios.

Mathematics, attentive,
searching and industrious.

A+. Good show

In chemistry, there was
a Doctor Edmondson teaching.

And he had this thing,
he would say, "We will take
the sodium chloride

and then we stick it..."

And he would just
leave a gap there

when he was gonna say...
And I'd say, "In the bin."

"No, not in the bin."
"Stick it in your ear."

"Not in your ear.
Shut up, Izzard."

And I made a mental decision,
I said, "I will use this lesson
in particular,

to up my comedy hit rate."
'Cause I was getting laughs

and that was obviously
kind of getting me noticed.

And, so, by the summertime,
I remember this girl said to me,

"I didn't even know you existed
until now."

Hey, plan number one in the bag.

He has been
a very lazy boy.

A long way from the standard
Cambridge University requires.

Fail! See me afterwards.

So I didn't get
to Cambridge, but then

I realized the
Edinburgh Festival
was more key, really.

And Dad wanted me to go
to university.

So I'd go to Sheffield,
go to Edinburgh.
Learn the ropes.

Do a comedy show, take off.
Get a television series
by the time I was 25.

That was the deal.

He was just basically applying
vague models he had, like...

Well, I know
Not The 9 O'clock News
were Cambridge Footlights

and Cambridge Footlights
go to Edinburgh.

But I got there
and I said, "Right, I'm here.

I've come to
the Edinburgh Festival.

Who goes to
the Edinburgh Festival?
I will clean your floors,

I will swab things down.
I will mend tractors.
What do you need?

I am the perfect
helping person."

And they said,
"Oh, we don't go to Edinburgh."

"No, I'm here.

I'm doing a degree course
for no reason.

Just purely to go
to the Edinburgh Festival.

You, everyone at the university,
they go to Edinburgh...

Someone's going, aren't they?"

"No, someone went about
three years ago, lost a lot of
money, so we don't go."

So I was pole-axed by this thing

which I hadn't bothered
to check out and I didn't think
would happen

that no one in Sheffield Uni
was going.

So I thought, "I'll take
my own show up
to the Edinburgh Festival."

Right, okay,
so what is SUF?

SUF, Sheffield University
Fringe, are a group
of self-financed,

self-educated, self-propelled
rug weavers.

They took this crap show,
it was completely crap.

It was so crap sometimes
we would laugh onstage
'cause no one was laughing,

and then run off stage.

I believe that this is
a mini West End
coming to Sheffield. Yes.

Eddie would like to be
the funniest person
in Cheshire,

but the competition
is very strong.

A lot of morale and,

everybody's very keen
for the show to work.

Rob Ballard
is the wisest person we know.

He once came third in
a wisest person
we know competition.

- Look!

I think something's up here!

I think you're right.
Professor Who is not here.

It was really awful,
but it happened.

He did get us all
up to Edinburgh.

We were part of
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Ian Rowland's
sense of humor
is dangerous.

His sense of smell
is the strongest
of the whole group.

What came across
was this absolutely, uh,
cast-iron determination

to make things happen.

In Sheffield,
you had to pass
first year exams to stay on,

but he didn't do the work.

He was busy taking a show
up to Edinburgh Festival.

He was thrown out, really.

Ben-Hur,
The Street Show.

So, Sheffield university
threw me out,
but I didn't leave.

I stayed on people's floors
and I continued doing shows

through the student's union,
due to a loophole,

which was fantastic.
And I went on
to the Edinburgh Festival,

kept going back
to the Edinburgh Festival
for the next two years,

and did shows that were
staggeringly slightly better.

Edinburgh, you just had
to be good at marketing

and promoting and postering
and designing things,

because there's 500 shows,
1000 shows
you're competing with.

This is how he started
eating polystyrene cups.

And you just announce that
you're going to eat them,
and you do.

And he used to give himself
terrible cuts and ulcers
and things inside his mouth.

But it was very, very funny
during those
two or three minutes.

That's when you can give out
your flyers and leaflets,
and publicize your show.

In the old days,
adverts were much more blatant.

Adverts were much more,
"Go on, there it is. Come on.

"I haven't got all day,
there it is."

And as consumers
we were much more,
"Okay, I didn't realize. Sorry.

"Sorry. Don't hit me."

Nowadays we have choice,
don't we?
We're much more choosy

and we're much more aware
of what we can buy.

So, the adverts are
more subtle, they're soft sell.

So the adverts are more subtle.

"Oh, look at that!

"Those two people like it.

"And they are shagging."

We were putting on
a lunchtime performance

of Ben-Hur, with no money,
no budget, nothing.
No costumes, no props.

Every toga is a bed sheet
and every bed sheet is a toga,

and every horse is just
a cardboard cut out from

a Kellogg's cereal packet
or something.

The scale of the ambition
was massive and insane.

Eddie used to get himself
into terrible financial straits

trying to make these things
happen.

We do the show once
in Sheffield, lose a little bit
of money,

take it up to Edinburgh,
lose more and then we'd have
to come back down

to Sheffield and put it
on again for another week
on a public basis,

trying to get more people
to come to see this.

We were on at 12 noon,
the first show we did,
and nobody came.

Later in the evening,
we would do a show called
The Sequel.

- So, on behalf of me,
Adolf Hitler and...
- And me, Eva Braun.

We cordially invite you
to come and see
The Sequel.

That year,
the Cambridge Footlights
turned up.

So it was us against them,
in my mind.

I can distinctly remember us
looking at them, going,
"Who are they?"

They just happen to be
Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie,
Emma Thompson.

And I thought,
if there was a God,
the Footlights would be awful,

but they were kind of
spell binding and they won
The Perrier.

We were taken out and shot,
by the guy who ran the venue.

We weren't even within biting
distance except for one sketch
that got put on

this radio program,
Aspects of the Fringe.

So I did come close to standing
next to these guys
who had done the Footlights.

But the show that
we'd worked on was
terrible compared to them.

He went up
to the assembly rooms.

"Oh, yes, we'll be wanting
the Ballroom.

Right! Probably about 9:00,"
And the guy goes,

"You realize that's about
10,000 pounds?"
Ludicrous sums of money.

"Oh, yeah, that wouldn't be
a problem, I don't think."

Mr. Burdett-Coutts. Come here.

Do you remember when I came
to your house and asked you

in the second year, I said,
"Could you dump The Perrier?"

- You remember that?
- I do.

- Do you remember that
in Camberwell?
- And you had this option

of dumping the Perrier winners?

And me with no reviews,
and I worked out
there was no reason

except that the venue owner
told me our show was shit.

That was 'cause hutzpah,
wasn't it?

That was. You always had
great hutzpah.

I was good on the hutzpah.

- And so, I've never actually
played at your venue.
- No, your time will come.

I got another venue that was
halfway to Glasgow
and did a show called

Sherlock Holmes Sings Country,

and The Scotsman said we were
a load of shabby old tat.

But they did leave a sentence
in that said, "But sometimes
they come up with something

which is completely unexpected
and devastatingly funny."

And that was the only good
quote I had for about ten years.

So, yes, that was all
the beginning
of continued nothingness.

But it was actually fantastic
for me because I,
I was trained

by marching through hell,
basically.

Sounds okay, but I lost a bit
in the second half.

How did I lose it?

Gave up on my life story?
I thought, "Oh, there's nothing
more to talk about?"

Now I was selling ice creams,
'cause they had...

Right down here they have
an ice cream kiosk.

Initially I was just talking
about anything and I was trying
to make it into material.

Being in a kiosk and selling
ice creams has now
become a piece

and I'm not really
talking about anything else.

And I like retail, I like
the idea of running
a sweet shop.

I always wanted to do that.

I'm just jumping
to the next bit,
or cycling back

to Wales or something.
But I need to keep it open,

I need to...
need to be able to chat.

So I lost a bit
in the second half.
How long was that? Anyone know?

First encountered
Rob Ballard at the Students'
Union in Sheffield.

As he had the energy thing that
I did, and he had a band,
and I had a comedy group.

So I just grabbed Rob
and said, "You're in it

'cause you're funny
and we're all hanging
around you."

So he was in it,
and he was great,

and he was energetic and crazy,
and that's how it started.

I was too scared to perform
on my own at that point.

So we became a double act
in about 1985, 1986.

We've seen Pookiesnackenburger
doing stuff.
And Pookiesnackenburger

is Luke Cresswell,
who is Stomp.

That's a really
interesting medium,
the street performing stuff.

When you work on the street,
you have to make the crowd
come to you.

You have to force them
to come to you.

Otherwise you don't eat,
basically.

We came down thinking
we would get the medium

of street performing
within two weeks.

I was sure two weeks, and then
we'd be really good.

A lot of the acts were
very new, different,
and they were very...

some really good performers
down there.

First show was
at Covent Garden,
we were doing bad tricks.

At its best, it was crazy.
At its worst it was shite.

Their act was very basic,
that had lot of toys to

gather the audience,
eating corn flakes,
escaping from jumpers.

We sort of wanted to say,
"You know what
we've done before.

We've done shows at
the Edinburgh Festival
with lights and things,

and audiences and tickets.

No one here's done tickets,
we've done tickets,"

-And then
we were just terrible.
- It was real moronic stuff.

And then they came up
with the sword fighting show,
which was really good.

- Roberto!
- Edwardo.

En garde!

I've directed Robin,
The Three Musketeers
at college.

I thought, we'll do the swords.
So we bought some foils.

We started doing stuff
and it was very flashy.

Eddie became very flamboyant.

Suddenly in his mind,
he had to be D'artagnan.

There was a street
performers festival
in the summer,

I thought we could
aim for that.

We worked out routines,
we were getting laughs,
we were earning better money.

And we didn't even win
our own comedy section.

And that's when I just thought,
"Oh, well."

Except I'd fallen back,
regrouped, come back,
attacked and just failed again.

I was going around saying,
"This is just not
my millennia,"

which I thought
was very droll.

On his 24th birthday,

he was sort of pissed off,
I was going, "What?

What is it? You're 24,
what's wrong?"

"Oh, well, by the time
he was 24..." "Yeah?"

"Orson Welles had
directed Citizen Kane."

And you sort of went,
"Oh, right.

You're pissed off 'cause
you haven't directed
the best movie

probably that's ever been
made before,
you know, you're 24.

I think that's a secretly
accurate portrayal.

We're street performing.
It's the hardest thing.
You're performing to people

who don't want to watch you
in the first place.

I lost all my confidence.

I basically brought myself down
to zero confidence
at Covent Garden.

Rob would take holidays
and he did it quite often,
so I could do nothing.

I realized I was developing
a kind of thing
with the audience.

And I could feel it.
If there's a double act,
you're just sitting on your arse

waiting for the other person
to come back,
and it felt useless.

Morning, Mr. Smith,
how are you feeling today?

- Fine.

Comedy Wavelength
was this program
on Channel 4.

And they said,
"Look, comedy writers."

So they accepted couple
of sketches for the pilot.

And then Rob was in it,
and then they said
I wasn't in it.

And I was probably jealous
of Rob at the time.

And I kept auditioning
to try and act with them.

And the producer said,
"Look, you're not a performer.

You're a writer,
but you're not a performer."

And that totally screwed
with my brain,

because the one thing
I was sure about was,
I was a performer.

Maybe a writer,
but definitely a performer.

And I'd been in
a four person act,
and then a two person act,

I never thought
I could be solo.

Paul Keane used to perform
as Captain Keano.

Paul Keane used to perform
as Captain Keano.

He could be hellish,
he could be obnoxious,
could be brilliant, generous.

He had a demeanor as
king of Covent Garden.

When I am famous,

I'll still do my show on
the cobbles here
at Covent Garden.

So Rob went on a holiday
and I said, "I didn't know
you're going on a holiday."

He was out for a week or so.

Paul Keane had some ropes
and chains for his escapology,

and I said, "Can I borrow
your ropes and chains?"

So I went out with the ropes
and chains one Saturday
in about '87,

and I strapped them on,
did the show, made ten pounds
and that was it.

I split up with Rob
two weeks later.

As soon as I'd gone solo,

it was just a release.

I'd never seen anybody work
so hard at riding a unicycle
as he did.

He was just on it,
you know, constantly.

He knew that he split up
with Rob,
wanted to do his solo show,

and was just really manically
learning everything that
he possibly could.

Once I was tied up
by someone really tight
in my ropes and chains

and I couldn't get out.

I had to dismiss the audience
and ask for friends
to get me out.

Paul said to me, "If you think
you can't get out,
you'll not be able to get out."

You have to believe
you can get out,
it's psychological.

You gotta believe you can be
a standup before a star.

You gotta believe you can act
before you can act.

You gotta believe you can be
an astronaut before
you can be an astronaut.

You've got to believe.
You've got to imagine
yourself in that situation.

The careers adviser used
to come to school
and he took me aside.

He said, "Tell me.
Tell me your dreams."

I said, "I want to be
a space astronaut,
go to outer space,

discover things that have
never been discovered."

He said, "Look, you're British,
so scale it down
a bit, all right?"

If I start apologizing too much,
saying, "Oh, it's not funny,"

then I'll lose it.
It's very psychological.

It's very much, um...

Uh...

When I used to do the unicycle
at Covent Garden.

You have to practice
at Covent Garden.
You gotta find a big open space,

and so you're doing it
at Covent Garden.
If someone walks by...

Lads would walk by going,
"Hey, mate,
you're gonna fall off.

You're gonna fall off.
Hey, you are gonna fall off."

And so you think,
"Don't fall off. Don't fall off.
Don't fall off."

Immediately you fall off
'cause you're thinking it.

And what you actually had to do
is, when they say,
"Hey, you're gonna fall off,"

is just blank your mind.

Have no thoughts in there
at all.

Just keep spaced out.

And that's like here,
I've got to keep the fear.

I've got to block the fear out,
uh, of not being interesting
and just chat.

In the summer of 1987,
I was street performing

at a festival.
And these visual guys came by.

One guy had a helmet on
with a steel girder with
flaming kebabs coming off it.

And I realized that I couldn't
compete with this guy.

There's no way
I can do street performing.

I can't compete with a guy
with flaming bits of meat
attached to his head.

So I thought, right,
forget street.

I'm developing something here,
but I've got to do stand up.

But I didn't know how.
I was already
an experienced performer.

And I had experience
with the energy of an audience,

how to deal with them.

If you stay back there
we're gonna do the show right...

But not of writing ideas
down as myself because
I was dyslexic.

When I was a kid,
I would spell phonetically.

And we'd do the game of "I spy"
with my dad and my brother.

I remember going,
"S, a word beginning with S."
And that was ceiling.

"K" and that was cat.
And they'd spend hours

trying to get these words
and they could never get them.

Later on, I got the impression
that probably was
what being dyslexic was.

I was fully dyslexic until
I met someone who was more
dyslexic than me and said,

"You're only
partially dyslexic."

- There's a lot of rivalry in
the dyslexic camp, you know.

Rivalry with three V's.

It makes you think
in a creative way.

You see shapes
and you see things
inside shapes.

You see clouds, and see lions,
and tigers up there.

So I went and got
a tape recorder.

And I thought I'll just ad-lib
into the tape recorder
and then write that out.

That'll be stand up.

It didn't work.

They did a stand-up workshop
at a place called
Jacksons Lane.

Patrick Marber, who was
a stand-up at that point

became a playwright
who's written
Dealer's Choice and Closer.

We were very spiky
with each other.

He did an impression of me
in that workshop where he went,

"Uh... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Blah, blah, blah, street.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, street."
And I thought, "Oh, God, he must
be really annoyed with me."

'Cause I was obviously just
going on and on
about this thing.

I'd written loads
of sketches at university,

and, in the end,
I took a sketch,
which was a two-person sketch,

and I cannibalized it,
cutting out the interviewer

and just made it into
a one person sketch

about being addicted
to breakfast cereal.

And that got laughs,
and I thought,
"Well, if that gets laughs

I could do more like that.
I could just write them
as two persons,

cut them in half,
make them one person,

and I could do
my whole career that way."

Remember, in the '70s,
there's all that work
we'd done with monkeys.

The signing thing.
Hey, you're a monkey.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a monkey.

So what's it like,
being a monkey?

Not bad, not bad.

What's it like being a human?

Pretty good.

Could I have a banana?

No, I have no bananas...

on this day.

You have no bananas?

Well, if you have no bananas,
I'm not fucking talking to you.

What's happening?

I don't know.
I just ad-libbed it.

Give me a fucking banana.

Give me a fucking banana.

- Alright.

What do you wanna know?

How does the monkey
community interact?

You know, in the usual way.

Give me another banana.

No more bananas.

I've got a gun.

You didn't even sign that time.

I know.

So in the end,
I decided to just work
on one show until it was good.

And then people would come,

as opposed to write shoddy
quick stuff, and then shove it
in people's faces

and say, look, it's brilliant...

because it wasn't.

The only way you could get good
was by doing gigs,
and you couldn't get the gigs.

You could get these open spots,
which were unpaid five minutes.

You would phone up
and ask for one.

They'd give you one,
three months ahead. Just one.

Well done, Hollow.
That was good.

Um, sometimes,
you have to get on stage,

the applause is still going
while you're there.

Once I'd got a few
bookings going, I'd said
"I'd do compering"

and then they said,
"Oh, you do, you will?
We'll have three then."

The host is seen as
a a lower status thing.
People would say to you,

you're quite good, you should be
one of the acts, so I said
"I am one of the acts."

The audience wouldn't
realize this, the standups
didn't like doing it

'cause you have to tell people
to shut up, sit down, get their
drinks, and they hated it.

They just wanted
to talk funny stuff.

All street performers
have to be comperes.

We wrangle the audience
into a shape,
so we're hosting our own show.

So we were already
trained in it, and I was just
relentlessly working.

I was in Streatham
on a Monday night
and they would not laugh.

I just talked endlessly.

Then I bring acts on
and I could smash atmosphere

into people until they're,
"All right, he seems okay."

And I felt it was,
it was coming through,
so I was just grabbing it.

I did a couple of
the Screaming Blue Murders,

when I was just in
real basic gags,

and he was compering them,
and it would be, you know,

he would go out
and for five minutes, just,
they would love him,

and then he would go down
a tangent that would just,
you know,

stink the room out.

You've seen it all before,
haven't you?

You've seen something before,
haven't you?

Seen me before, yeah?

I've seen you before.

Oh, God, we're gonna have
a horrible time.

Well, everyone just talk
amongst yourselves actually.

But he was taking those risks
that nobody else was taking.

Nobody ever thought about
taking risks.

You only did things
that you knew which would
satisfy an audience.

You're on a trapeze and you know
you're safe on the trapeze,
and then you let go,

and you fly,
and the audience goes,

"Is he fucking gonna
catch it?

Is he gonna catch that trapeze?
I don't know."

But the audience loves the gap
between the two trapezes.

There's that great fairy story
of Idi Amin goes around
to the Duvalier house.

And there he gets in,
it's in the middle of the woods.

He goes in there
and there's porridge
on the table.

Tries Papa Doc Duvalier's
porridge, "Ooh, it's too hot."

And he tries Mama Doc Duvalier
porridge, "Ooh, it's too cold."

Then he tries
Baby Doc Duvalier's,

"Mmm, it's just
the right temperature."
So he gobbles it all up.

And he nips upstairs,
he's a bit tired.

There were three beds.
Papa Doc Duvalier's bed.
"Ooh, a bit too hard."

Mama Doc's,
"Mmm, a bit too soft."

Baby Doc Duvalier's,
"Just right."

So Idi gets in and falls asleep.
And then the Duvaliers come back

and they find him
and they skin him.

I don't know what to do
with that piece of material,
but I like it.

It's wonderfully sick,
but sort of
needed kind of thing.

The summer of '89,
I decided to go back
to Edinburgh yet again.

This time as a stand up.

I decided to do
an hour and five minutes.

As soon as you've committed
yourself so much

that you can stand up
and do an hour,
I think you've really...

You've decided that's what
you want to do.

I did a show
at Edinburg Festival.

I was setting up and it was
just me and there was
no one else in the area.

There's a one man standing,
watching, and then he went,

"Oh," and then ran off
in the opposite direction.

I thought, well,
that's not very helpful.

A few minutes later
he came back

and he dragged
his entire family up the hill
and said, "Watch this."

And I thought, "This is it."

"That's it. That's the thing
I'm trying to get."

Good afternoon, Edinburgh!

I was doing three shows,
two street performances,

and one stand up
in the first year and I got
completely ill doing it.

I should also point out
that I'm doing

a stand up show every night.

Um, I got lots of leaflets.
My name is Eddie Izzard.

It's a rather strange name.
It's got two Zs in it

and it's going on every night
and I say, I got a load of
details about it.

I think it's fun.

It's an hour and five minutes.
It's on tonight. I like it.

Are you ready?

I certainly am, old chap.

Are you steady?
- Yes, this is
an ominous buildup, isn't it?

- Go.
- Okay. All right.

Five, four,
three, two, one.

Very cute. Very cute.
Very cute.

Aelswith and I
find ourselves

at the Edinburgh Festival.

And suddenly,
there in front of us
was a notice "Eddie Izzard."

We got tickets to what I think
may have been pretty well

his first professional show.

I saw them, my old headmaster.

He goes...
"Oh, shit."

And for one hour,
we fell about.

Why do they say
blood is thicker than water?

It's a strange expression.

I was thinking about this,
"blood is thicker than water"

means you should be kind
to your relatives.

But custard is thicker
than blood.

Does this mean we should be
nice to trifles?

He's a smashing bloke,
but there are a good few shows

you should catch
before this one.

William Cook.

I was a student
and I was running a venue
in Edinburgh for the festival.

I went up to this woman,
she was running a venue

called Greyfriars Kirk House.

She had a slot and I looked
at one other venue
and they may have had a slot.

I thought, "No, I think
I'll go with her. I think
I fancy her more."

He couldn't afford
to take a slot on his own,

so he went in
with another comedian.
The two of them took the slot.

It was a way for me
to get my plays on

because I could hire a venue
and afford to put my own play
on in there

and not lose money
like everybody else

because it was running
venue too.

She had 15 shows in here
and I realized how much energy
it took to set it up.

Because I've never
set up a venue.

He hadn't perfected
his technique at that point.

I remember
your accounting was terrible.

He would turn up
to the venue every day,

checking his
box office figures

when there would be half
a dozen people in the audience.

I fell asleep
in his show.

We just hung out,
and then afterwards
I asked you to come to something

and you said no, and then
your dad said you should
change your mind.

So you said yes.

After the festival,
I came back to London

and I invited Sarah
back to my flat in Streatham.

And I don't think she was
terribly impressed

'cause it was like a mattress,
small black
and white television,

and all my stuff
was in black plastic bin bags.

Kind of stylish.

But I seem to remember
she liked my map

and I had them
color-coded flag system,

and I'd stick a flag in,
different colors
if I'd stormed it.

If I'd died, if I'd been
booked back.

After each gig, I'd come home
and I'd write down
my set list for the night.

What worked,
what didn't work,
any good at improv,

how the audience reacted.
And with that system,

I relentlessly worked my way
through the circuit.

I remember
when he first played.

Well, a lot of rubbish really.
A lot of things

that people didn't understand,
didn't like.

Got quite a few heckles.

My uncle's always used
to say... He used to say,

"Remember, you can
take a horse to water,

"but you can't take him
to a disco."

I kept playing The Comedy Store
and failing.

So I thought, I'm just gonna
stay away from here
until I'm good enough

to come back
and blow the roof off.

He was doing sort of
slightly surreal humor,

he by no means
had found his, you know,
the place where he should be.

In this country, when comedy
is at its best is when
there's a Tory government,

when there's something
to rebel against.

Satire in the '60s
was at its height

because there was
a Tory government.

As soon as Wilson came in,

whoop, it slips away.
We had the mainstream...
You know, men going,

"My mother in law,
my mother in law."

Thatcher came in,
alternative comedy
was at its height.

We have a war.

Everybody has to say things
about it.

You know, we got Ben Elton,

Mark Thomas, Mark Steel,
these strong
political comedians.

And suddenly through it all,
there was this guy

just talking about being
brought up by wolves,

and it was just incredible.

He died so regularly.

But you know, he stuck with it.
He went, "No, this is
what I find funny."

Well, there was a night
in a Comedy Store in London

where another comic called
Bob Mills comes to me
and said,

"Look, they're wild
and they're cranky.

"And tonight is not
time for your...

"I went to school with Paris
Teqauila bit." And I said,
"I got to, it's all I've got..."

I just talked at this speed...

A child was born
and my mother went out,

she said to him,
"Why are you doing that?"

I said,
"Didn't really understand."

...never took a breath.

I never went in there...
'Cause I knew that...

So, I would go, "You can..."
And the people down the front
who are actually attacking you

under your radar 'cause
you're playing out here.

They would gradually
quieten down because
you're like, laugh

laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh,
laugh, laugh, laugh.

- Twenty minutes I get...

And then they would go,

"They like you.
You come back tomorrow."

His off the cuff humor
beats most impro hollow.

Heckle at your peril.
William Cook.

You have to understand
what the comedy circuit

in London was like in the '90s.

It became the biggest thing
in the world. There's about
ten clubs in New York,

and 80 clubs in London.
And people were gigging

at least twice a night.
At the weekends,

four times a night.
You do a gig and you jump
in a black cab

and you'd scoot off
to somewhere in London

and then you'd come back
in another cab.

We kind of owned that town.
And the audiences were coming.

They didn't care who was on
as long as they were good,
didn't know our names.

No one was famous,
and it was all cash in hand,

pockets stuffed with fivers
and tenners and twenties

and drugs and weed and whatever
you kind of wanted was there,

and everyone was doing it
and gigging and drinking
like idiots.

And none of us were known,
and it was great.

He decided he should
open his own comedy club

and compere
and he would get more exposure.

Here I am
in the world of strip joints,

and there's this sort of like
a big black and yellow sign

hanging in Soho. And people
must've walked past and gone,

"I wonder what that's about."

I'd set up my own club
in the center of town

in order to be hosting
a club every week,

be right at the center
of things.

That's Eddie's
thinking immediately.
"I will host it.

"I'll get big names in,
but people will be seeing me."

I remember people walk around
with Raging Bull badges,
the Raging Bull logo.

There's his marketing
working out.

I managed his club.

People liked to come
and play there

even though the money
wasn't great.

It was really tough
and I couldn't make money,
and the rent was too high.

And I had to do other gigs
around this gig in order
to pay for the bills.

He lost so much money
in that one year

that the VAT man
didn't believe
that he really could have.

They investigated him
and eventually found that

it really was just a mad person
throwing their money way.

But it gave me
this place.

People seemed
to be coming on,
watching what I was doing.

It was just packed

and I stood at the bar
'cause it was the only place
I could get in.

You just felt that
he had something special.

He just seemed so ahead
of everyone else

who was doing stuff
at the time,

I would muck about.

I would improvise.
I started doing
this word rap thing.

I'd talk endlessly
about things

and make up scenarios
about people

who are wandering around
and poke fun at people
and, oh...

That, that improvising
was the danger thing

that people were
sort of interested in.

That was a commodity,
that was different.

He was Raging Bull.

Everybody will come along
and they'll see Eddie
week after week.

I don't think any big venue
in London ever had
a regular compere.

Two people are gonna come along
and watch me do stuff,

and if they liked it, I would
get into this benefit
calledHysteria 3.

I really tried to do good,
and I failed.

I was really crap that day.

So at the end of that night,
I said, "Look,
I was really shit tonight,

"so if you don't want
to vote me, that's fine."

And they said, bizarrely,
fantastically,

"No, it's okay.
We'll come back next week
and watch you again."

Which is
just like, "Have a second go."

And so they came back next week
and I decided, "Okay,
don't give a damn this week."

So I just did whatever,
mucked about, had fun.
Had fun. And it went great.

And they said,
"Yeah, you're in."

That was an AIDS benefit,
and no one... But no one knew
who Eddie Izzard was.

And he came on
and did three minutes of,

you know, the very famous
as it is now "Wolves" sketch.

And I was brought up
after that by wolves.
Actually, um...

Well, you know, they were out
yachting one day.

It was great, it was wonderful.

You know, it's great
to be brought up by wolves.

It was wonderful.
They gave me a name.

They called me...

And I did it all. They taught me
all the stuff, you know,

hunting, fishing,
backgammon, all of that.
Wolves are natural at fishing.

You know, they wait
by fast flowing rivers,
you know.

And then when a big fish
comes along,
just at the right moment,

they reel it in. Reel it in.

And, you know, cook it,
Gas Mark 4 with a bit of herbs.

And we were wolves,
we were young, we were crazy.

We'd make love
at the moonlight, you know.
They would. They would.

I'd watch and say,
"No, I'm full. Thank you."

Everyone was turning
around going "Who's that guy?
Who's the Izzard guy?"

- Catch you later.
'Cause no one
had really heard of him.

And he just absolutely
took the place apart.

Well, to be honest,
there were around

19 wolves and me
and I'm trying to blend in
going "Woof. Woof."

And these bears standing there
saying, "Oh, what's that?"

"Oh, hi, I am a wolf."

"Catch you later."

And we'd be chasing
these things, they turn out
to be antelopes.

That was great.
And 'cause we eat them.

And that was great.
Chasing them.

And after about 20 minutes,

they put on a real lead
and so we had a discussion

and agreed to move
our legs as well.
That really helped.

So, whoosh. Out there.

And I couldn't
keep up with them.

Two legs. So I took
to driving a small red car.

It was great, you know.
It was the same mind position
and everything.

And it was a hatchback.

It was roomy.
So I said, "Guys,
get in the back."

Ironical thing about
Hysteria 3 was that it was
being run by Stephen Fry,

and Hugh Laurie was in it
with Stephen Fry,

who were part of that
Footlights group that won
the Perrier ten years before.

Ten years.

Well, I've been
out in the wilderness.
Living off pine cones.

I remember the next day
being woken by the phone

ringing off the hook and faxes
coming through
on top of each other.

You tore the place apart
on Sunday night!

The most talked about
item we had!

It really was
the classic overnight success
after many years.

I always wanted to do
in the big god television.

Then I thought,
maybe I don't need television.

People thought I wasn't
doing out of principle,

but I was, in fact, doing it
as a revenge for always
wanting to do it.

Well, it's the madness.
What I call a madness
'cause I think...

You think you can perform
and the whole world is saying
that you can't perform,

then you are obviously mad.

If you hold onto that madness
and you hold on to it
and you hold on to it

and you hold on to it for years,
and then later it comes good
and you can actually perform.

Then it proves
that you weren't mad.

And I just... You just had
to surround that little bit
of belief

and hold on to it
for as long as it takes.

He's one of these people
who have been told

throughout life
that he's not capable
of certain things.

And he'll just bang on the door
until you open the door
and let him in.

I thought I could play
the West End because
people were phoning up

and saying, "I want to see
that guy."

I've done that on the street.
I seem to be doing it
in the clubs.

He was the first person
I know that had
a mailing list.

People would write to you
and say, "Eddie's on here,
Eddie's on there.

"Let's go and see him
do a fall in China."

That that's how
the Ambassador's
first sold out.

So I left the circuit
and I tried out my show

in small theatres
around London,
and they sold out.

So I thought, I'm gonna go
and do the West End.

It was completely
unheard of to book yourself

into a West End theater
like that.

People thought he was
taking a terrible risk.

It was a risk, yes,
because we didn't
have the money.

We would be doing so many shows
that everyone was letting us

have printing and stuff
on 30 day credit.

We had 30 days
to break even or go bust.

Okay, that would be crap.

I thought it was a great idea,
you said no, never worked...

I say things, you say no.
If you do the big silence thing,
I know I'm very wrong.

I came in late
the first night.

I really seriously thought
I walked into the wrong show
because I had no idea.

Okay. I've only got a couple
of dresses, so fuck off.

I was so shocked.
I had no idea.
It was a fantastic show

and I think the audience
were incredibly warm.

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I thought
I'd do the gig in a dress
and uh...

Good reaction, London.
Come on. Yeah. Fucking hell.

Up to this point,
he still had never dressed
in the clothes

and he did not want
the tabloids trying to make
something out of it

so he thought, "Right,
I'll become visible."

I'm a very stubborn,

pig-headed personality
and quite thick-skinned.

And was always looking
for a challenge or a quest.

Do you want me to talk about
sexism? You know, 'cause men
could never really get there.

You all know. If you're
a ethnic minority,
I can talk about racism,

but for me personally,
white, male, middle class,
completely fucking useless.

There's no angles there at all.
You can't say, "Oh, no.
When I was growing up..."

All right.

School's not too bad.

Kids at school would taunt me,
they'd go
"Ooh, do you wanna play?"

Oh, the good old days.

It was the acceptance
I couldn't take.
The constant acceptance.

So, uh... So the only thing
working in my favor is

thank God, I'm a transvestite.
Phew, eh?

It was very dangerous
because my career was
just finally taking off,

and I could just be about
to blow it out the window
by wearing a dress.

With me in the studio
is the well known
stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard.

It was recently revealed
that he is a transvestite.

Why aren't you dressed?

Because I chose not to.

It was also 'cause I wanted
to talk about it rather than
wear the clothes.

I think it's very brave of you
to come out and tell everybody
you're transvestite.

Why do that at this stage
in your career?

I just told a newspaper that.
TV, and of course,
all the newspapers

after that decided
to pick up on it and uh...

But you do feel it's important,
don't you, that people
should know?

Society makes, uh,
people fear it, you know,
be scared and feel ashamed.

And it's just the way I am.

I am TV. I have been since
I was four, and I have
no problems with it.

Now, you have to come out
and basically get...

I have a girlfriend,
and she's quite cool
about it as well.

The only way you can
get cool about it is
by society backing up,

all people who are TV
coming out and saying,
"I'm TV, it's not a problem."

The first time
he came out with stand ups

was at a party
that I gave at my flat.

He turned up
with turquoise eyeshadow
up to his eyebrows

and a huge jumper with a belt,
a skirt and really high
Peyton shoes.

I wasn't gonna come out
about it 'cause that
just seemed foolish.

And then
when I thought I should,

there is an element
that it was absolutely positive.

Do it, it's truthful.
I'm coming out, it's difficult.

People see
it's difficult for me.
It is a fight.

It was really important for him
that time to wear the skirt.

He wanted to go on
and do it honestly,
and he felt that way.

And I think it was
a very brave move.

Look, this is me.

This is what you get.
This is Eddie.

The show,
in fact, worked,

and extended twice.
It would play
for three months.

And it had a gotten
an Olivier nomination
out of it

got I got a video
distribution deal out of it.

That was surprising.

You have to accept
your children for exactly
what they are.

I couldn't see anything
in his dressing up,

in his own women's clothes
to get upset about

as long as he didn't get
into situations where

he got clobbered
by a lot of people
who thought it was outlandish.

And he doesn't seem to have
managed to do that, except once
in Cambridge, of course.

Comedian Eddie Izzard
was attacked late last night
in Cambridge City center.

If you had a knife and you were
coming down like that,

it's doing that, and then
you go back and you do that
and then you do that.

Oh. I see. Wow.
That's very good.

That's from a book.
I've never practiced it.
Except on this guy in Cambridge.

I didn't go down.
I was pleased I didn't go down.

It was like cool hand look.

He went down, but he kept
getting back up.
I didn't even go down.

I just stayed up and, you know,
and I was pleased
I didn't run away screaming.

I've looked at fear
in a big way

'c ause coming out,
you have to deal with,

basically whole of
the world saying,
"Oh, your abominable snowman."

And me going, "No,
I don't think so. No."

And that's quite...
You have to deal
with this fear thing.

I tend to go towards things
that scare me now.

I think it's very positive.
Not anything.

You know, like, leaping off
a cliff onto a spike, scares me.

Don't do it.
Oh, let's go. Here we go.

Crash helmet on.
Great belly flop. You know...

I know lots of women
who find him

very, very attractive
dressed as a woman.

I don't. I think
he's very attractive
dressed as a man.

Is difficult to live with?
Yes, but you compromise.

In that respect,
it's pretty normal.

I think most of all,
the courage that's taken
to live his life this way

is the thing that makes him
the most attractive.

But, yeah,
he does drive me nuts.

I thought my brain
was visually hip,

but I didn't think
my look was visually hip.

Tonight,
Eddie is wearing

black velour kaftan top,
western buckled belt.

Wow, partner.
Mustard pleated baggy trousers

and black monkstrap
rubber-soled shoes.
Stealthy.

Gosh, girls, look out!

It's a Batik patchwork shirt,
brown and black striped belt,

grey herringbone suit trousers
and brown shiny
cowboy boots. Yee-haw.

I just wore
whatever clothes
happened to be lying around.

Most comics just look like me.

Just this big slob
that walks out on stage

with what they've been
wearing all day.

I was wearing a dress
on stageand the journalist
believed I was a transvestite.

For they said, "Okay, you are
a transvestite, but you look
a mess." And it struck me.

I had to get it to land
in some sort of sexy
rock and roll place.

So I stole that sensibility
from Sarah who was doing
rock and roll gigs.

And I got her
to write the intro
in every show after that.

They got more funky,
and more rock and roll.

You didn't have to say,
"Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome this guy."

Just put on the music and boom.

It just blew out the speakers
and everyone knew what to do.

Get ready to kick.

Pears can fuck off too, because
they're gorgeous little base.

But they ripe for half a hour

and they're never there.
They're like a rock,
or they're mush.

So you take 'em home
and they'll ripen up.

But you put 'em in a bowl
at home and they sit there
going "No, no.

"Don't ripen yet.
Don't ripen yet.

"Wait till he goes out
of the room.

"Ripen now. Now, now."

If you just saw his picture,
and had no idea who he was,

you'd never think
he was comedian.
You'd think he's Madonna.

It was a rock picture.
It wasn't a comedy picture.

I've never seen one person
in a film on a computer

doing a normal kind
of thing going...

Control P, print.
Control P, print.

"Cannot access printer."

Cannot access? It's here.

I can access it.
Print. Control P, print.
Control P, print.

Print that.
It's five in the morning.
It's only a paragraph.

In 1996,
I got my first film role.

On the first day of shooting,
I got a huge surprise

when I found out
who else was in the cast.

I had been told that
there's this comic
who's in the movie.

For me it was like,
"Another comic?"

I thought I was gonna walk
down there, and I walked up
to Mr. Robin Williams.

- You went "Mr. Eddie Izzard."
I went "How do you know me?"
- I know you.

Then I think later on you bought
me the tape and said,
"Could you watch my tape?"

This is what I do.

Did I say, "Do you think
this would swing in America?"

Yeah, I said... May I say it?
"Honestly, fuck, yeah."

And you said, "Do you think
American audiences will get it?"

I said, "Yeah,
the intelligent ones will."

New York is
the tastemaker.

It's gatekeeper to the whole
of America and Canada.

You get New York
and specifically,
The New York Times.

You have to get them
to say you're good.

So I realized I have to go
to a small theater in New York

and play it and play it
and play it
and just keep doing that.

There was a big change.
We're going from
the UK to America.

Well, I played to 8,000 people
at the Docklands Arena

and then in New York
I was playing to to 80 people.

It was like playing
Edinburgh Festival
all over again.

Well, I found an issue
when I came here.

I had to try and stop
Europeans coming
and get Americans coming.

Got to stop the Europeans.
Please don't come.

Yeah.

If you know about Eddie,
don't come.

Because otherwise,
they're just...
- They'd pack theaters with...

And then you can't get
any American word about.

But I think
you cracked it perfectly

'cause everyone tries
to come here and go big.

Your plan is you start
very small, the way you did
in England.

Small. Like a small thing.

Yes, you do it back and forth.
Word of mouth.
It was a planned test I think.

From the first day
that you played
with these three people.

Eighty seats, I think.
Yeah, eighty seats.

- Only three people there.
- Yeah, okay.

But those three people
are good people.,
And then you built in.

Next time you came,
it was like 300.

And now you're up
to a couple of thousands.

Show time.

Cool is a thing of youth.
It's a link to fashion.

Being cool is linked to fashion,
and there's a circle.

A lot of circles
involved in things
like politics.

Extreme right wing
and extreme left wing
politics join up...

Like, madness and genius
joins up in the back
and also with fashion.

So you go over,
you got looking like a dickhead

and you have average,
normal looking, then you have

cool, cool, hip and groovy,
looking like a dickhead.

I personally, cruised

- up back corner
looking like a little...

And if you're
on the cutting edge
of cool, hip and groovy,

- you must look
like a dickhead, yeah?

- You've got to be
over in there,

but it has to go
around this way.

You can't back in
from looking like a dickhead.

Call him and go, "No, fuck off.
It's that way around."

"I wanna be cool, man."
"No, you look like a dickhead."

"Well, you look
like a dickhead."

"Yeah, but I know why
I look like a dickhead.
Now, fuck off."

With the success
ofDress to Kill
in New York in 1998,

I decided to go and play
the West Coast, San Francisco
and Los Angeles.

Robin Williams found out
and said,

"We want to support you
coming to the West Coast."

I said, "We're already going,
it's perfect."

He put his name
above the title,

we put our names
under the title,

and it was
a wonderful marriage.

And then, in the end,
instead of opening
in San Francisco

with three cans
of beans and banana.

It was everyone
from San Francisco
just turning out.

So it was just massive
amount of people coming.

Well, he looked stunning.

That's not a comic, is it?
That's a superstar.

We stole countries.
That's what we...
That's how you build an empire.

We stole countries
with the cunning use of flags,

- Yeah.

Just sail around the world
and stick a flag in.

"I claim India for Britain."

"Mate, you can't claim
as we live there...

-"...500 million of us."

"Do you have a flag?"

Most of us in the UK,

where we have
alternative comedy,

specifically,
I'd say the majority
do not have writers.

I'd say about 90%
did not have writers,
they're writer-performers.

And that's what's tricky.
You could be a great performer

and not be able
to get material together.

Or some people
are great writers,

and their performing skills
are not so good.

Um, you have to be
two things and...

I only really become
starkly apparent

is when I did Dress to Kill.

I got this one Emmy for writing,
one Emmy for performing.

You think, my God, they, they,
they're too highly valued areas.

And Emmy goes to...
And the Emmy goes to...

Stop it!

Ah, and the Emmy goes to...

- I think, it's...

- Eddie Izzard!

Be careful.

It's a hole.

Thought there would never
be a hole in the stage
at the Emmys.

Eddie Izzard is on location
in Vienna,

All the Queen's men.

We accept this award
on his behalf.

Congratulations.

That's two.

Well, it's...
What's, What's
the number two?

Hey, I couldn't do that.

Ooh.

You all right.
Yeah, that's fine.

In the end, if you count
one to five in a language,

that's gonna get
the best reaction.
That's right.

I'm talking
for an hour and half.

There's no stand-up
in France.

And the night you think,
these people
are speaking French.

First gig
I did in France,
a stand-up gig,

was in '97,
at the La Fleche d'Or.

The Golden Arrow.

He's a europhile. Wants to do
every country in every language.

He was kind of excited,
you know, and...

Oh, my God,
we walked into this venue,

which was a sort of,
um, cavern.

We went backstage to the office

and, he just,
went sort of, like,

"Fuck, fuck,
fuck, fuck."

Pacing up and down,
pacing up and down, going,

you know, "I just don't know
if I can do this.

"I don't know
if I can do this."

That night he was going,
"I can't remember anything.

"I can't remember
any vocabulary."

She sat down
and just went
choosing vocabulary.

Now I'm thinking,
"I can't remember
any vocabulary."

We're in trouble.

- Hello!

If all the room was aimed
at me, that's a...

that's confirmed false, I'd say.

I said to him,

"Look, you really don't have
to put yourself through this.

"Please, it just doesn't matter.
We can cancel it now.

"Say you're ill.
It doesn't matter.

"I don't want you to get
so worked up about it

"that you,
you won't be able to do."

But, of course,
he wasn't going
to hear that.

Okay, um...

I felt so sick
all the way through.

I just stood at the side.

And he would get through,

my French is pre-pretty basic.

But he would get through

you know, a sort of joke,
a sequence about supermarkets.

And then,
at the very last minute,

Oh, fuck!
I don't know the words.

He'd forget the French word
for the punch line

and he would have
to ask the audience
what the word was.

What'd they call them?

The feedback I got

was that his French
was not really good enough
to be down there.

I don't know why
he didn't do it in English.

Because he'd set himself
the task of doing in French.

And he is stubborn.

You think
the French people
found it funny?

I thi... No.

So that was the first gig,
and it was atrocious.

But at least I did it.

If the meaning of life,
or the purpose of life
is to live it,

then, which I think it is,

this life that we're here,

you can go,
"What is it all about,
Hmm-Hmm."

And just get lost
in a circular argument.

Or you could just say,
"Well, get it,
grab it, try and put

"something positive into it."

And, uh, that's what,
that's what I wanna do

and if fear
gets in the way,

you just push fear back.

Well, since that gig,
I have really pushed
to do more studying.

And also,
before the gig starts,

I worked
with a language expert,

and I think, it's very key
to speak a lot of slang
in language

because that's what you do,
when you're doing stand-up.

I'm very much
looking forward
to getting my doctorate.

It's because
I didn't pass my degree.

There was a thing
in my head saying,

"Well, if I work really hard

"maybe, well,
someone will give me one."

Eddie Izzard is committed

to challenging assumptions
about language.

Thank you.
Thank you very much.

My dad's here.
He had to wait 20 years

to get one of these ceremonies
to happen,

so thank you very much.

German's the next one,
and, um, Spanish.

I think it's quite keen to,
maybe learn a smattering
of Scandinavian.

I don't know.

I dread to think
of it every time.

A critic reviewed a show,
and within the show

he said, "Why do you wanna be
a so-so actor when you're
a brilliant comic?"

But once
I was a so-so comedian.

I was always trying
to get to Hollywood.

We play bad guys
in Hollywood movies.

But, the best are just full
of British actors
opening doors and going,

"Oh, I'm, oh, oh..."

"What is it
Lieutenant, Sebastian?"

"It's just the rebel, sir.
They're here."

"My God, man.
Do you want tea?"

"No, I think, they're up to
something more, Master.

"I don't know what it is,
but I brought a flag."

During stand-up,
he's always paved his own way

whereas with acting,
you're in a system, and,

it's much harder
just to do your own thing

and prove your own point.
You have to play the game.

But you lose
all your gut feelings

because you worry
that you're going to hit comedy
instead of hitting truth.

Well, I did the Ocean's movies,
but I felt like, I've got

to base camp on Mount Everest
and everyone was saying,

"We're going up the mountain."
And I was saying,
"All right, I'll be here."

And now I'm in The Riches,
Wayne Malloy,

great critical acclaim
for the show

and I think,
I can now call
myself an actor

or, if not, uh,
I can call
myself a postman.

I wanna do those things,
not just 'cause
it scares the shit in them.

I think,
that's the reason
to do it.

It's like running
the marathons of theater,
where you got to do it.

You know, there's always that,
there's the three biggies.

My guess is, uh, Hamlet.
You play it a certain phase

and then you go, uh,
well, obviously,

the end of your life
is always Lear
that's waiting for you--

I can start with Lear.

Yes, start with Lear
and then go--

- They went backwards. Yeah.
- Do the only
85-year-old Hamlet?

Well, I haven't done
Shakespeare yet,

but I did do Broadway.

The theater people,
you know, were great.

And they really welcomed

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
on Broadway.

It-it was huge buzz about it,
and I got a Tony nomination

and my dad was there,
opening, my--

No, I got down on my knees,
like, pray to God.

I said, "God, I've only
just found her.

"The baby doesn't matter

"if it is a question
of a swap..."

Oh, Bri.

And then I found I was so drunk,
I could hardly
get to my feet again.

But that was
a very good experience.

And then I had to come back and,

uh, go into
this new type of tour

to develop a tear to do it
because I had to change it

because I was on a program
about fraud.

On Weekend Watchdog

New field of petrol stations
causing a massive rise

in car breakdowns,
claim the IA.

We report on Eddie Izzard's
recycle jokes and guarantee--

Their issue was
"He's doing old material."

That show--
- He never performed
that show here,

but they would have
seen it on the DVD.

The DVD had been released.

Original sin.

What a hellish idea that is.

People having to go,
"Father, bless me
for I have sinned.

"I-I did an original sin.

"I-I poked a badger
with a spoon."

"I've never heard
of that one before."

"Five Hail Marys
and two Hello, Dollies."

-"All right, thank you."

Well, funny hearing it once,
but still funny twice? Maybe.

I would start a new tour
with the old show.

I just used to ad-lib it
on the stage,

and then hone it,
and then dump out
the old stuff

and put in the new stuff.

It's just a constantly
running thing--

Every tour
has always started off

I told people, "I did this."
I told critics, "I did this."
That is what I did.

We've counted up
all the gags on this video.

Fifty-five in total.

And we put them here,
on our Weekend Watchdog.

Eddie Izzard gag count.

Now we're going to send in
our gag accountant--

It's like going
to a rock and roll concert.

and say,
"We've heard the stones.

"We've heard
these numbers before.

"Your on Watchdog for fraud.

"The Stones
on Watchdog for fraud

"because we've heard
all this stuff before."

In the same sentence
they're attacking

one of biggest oil companies
in the world,

and then,
one independent comedian.

We knew, we could absolutely
justify the situation.

And he was in no way

should have been
criticized for it.

The theater got their hand
on the stick

and they said,
"All new material."

at Birmingham Hippodrome.

And people complained
to Watchdog saying,

"I'm trying
to fuck everyone over."

So you paid 18.50,
each for their seats

and by the end of the night,
in fact, realized it was
very little new.

Eddie was the first one
I'd ever known

not to be putting out
his material
during the tour he was on.

That's what everyone does.

I'd been part of the movement
beginning in the '90s

to try and change material
over at a faster pace,

before the people
had done the same 20 minutes

sometimes for years, back in
Morecambe and Wise times.

Forever. You'd get together
your hour show and just do it
forever.

Was it only you two tonight?

Umm, obviously, yeah.

- Yeah?
- Yeah. Just told
in different ways

the things
that he had said before.

You can go in there and be like,
"I've recipe for making cake."

And it will still be fantastic.
It's just Eddie being Eddie.

It's just felt
totally gutted by that.

" I will have
the Penne all'Arrabbiata."

"You'll need a tray?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"This is not a game of
'Who the fuck are you?'"

"I'm Vader. Darth Vader.

"Lord Vader.

"I can kill you
with a single thought."

"Do you still need a tray?"

"No, I will not need a tray.

"I do not need a tray
to kill you.

"I can kill you without a tray,
with the power of the force,

"which is strong within me.

"Even though I could kill you
with a tray if I so wished...

-"...for I would
hack at your neck

"with the thin bit
until the blood flowed
across the canteen food."

"Sir, the food is hot.
You'll need a tray
to put the food on."

"Oh, I see. The food is hot.

"I'm sorry. I did not realize."

He's always
excessively hard on himself.

If you had a room
of hundred people who said
"Eddie, you're fantastic."

And one person said, "Hmm."

And it's that,
that he wants to act on.

They took it
to the government.

And he received
a warning letter.

Eddie's been injured
by what's happened in the past.

And I think, he's carrying
the scars of that injury
onto this tour.

It just took a long time
to get around till then,
doing another show.

Um...

Sorry, I got
to concentrate, Nancy.
Fuck off.

Please. Off.

I'm thinking about
the arenas over the years.

Thinking, "What if
I screw those up?"

Yeah, I'm somewhat
stressed about it.

The pressure
on Eddie

is greater now
than it's ever been
in the past.

The expectation is greater.

We sold 350,000 tickets
across the world.

All the time
that he was in Australia

he must have been working,
like, a mad thing.

Everyone's just
so good here.

Everyone has been
inconsistently good here.

I don't know how to end.

Maybe they just
might be relaxed.

I just want to play it down,
so that's good.

I've heard that, uh,
kangaroo means, "Fuck off "
in Aboriginal language.

That's what I heard.
And I've asked people,

no one seems to admit this,
but the English arrived,

the British, and said,
"What the hell
is that bouncy thing?"

And they went, "Fuck off!"

"Oh, it's a fuck off,
it's kangaroo."

"Kangaroo!"

"What kangaroo. You kangaroo!"

He is besotted with him
you know.

- I'm thinking of citing him
as correspondent.

Given how thick and fast
the story is

and the loose threads
come and in,

and apparently chaotic bursts.

It's hard to believe
any one performance

will be anything like the next.

Hi, Eddie.

Just wanted to let you know
that I've received

some old letters
from your mom

to Aunt Margaret.

I will keep them here
until you get back to the UK.

Call me when you can.
Love from Dad.

They kind of didn't
really care what he said.

There were just so pleased
to be there.

He was worried about it
because basically,

stand-up comedy can't have
that kind of graduation.

They have to calm it down
a little bit. They have to tell
their gags.

Now, the screaming thing
is fun.

- Ah...

But, and in rock and roll
it's great.

And I do like to be
in the rock and roll wing.

But, in the-the mind gig
that this is,

we have to control our "Hoo",
and our "Hurrah-ahh".

We're with you, Eddie,
we wanna be

part of this setting,
it was almost like

some religious
revivalist meeting.

Eastern and Western medicine
is interesting.

Western medicine very much
appealed their own way

and go to them and say,
"Got a bit of a throat thing."

"Antibiotics, you mean, sir."

"My leg has been caught
in a dangerous
tractor accident."

"Antibiotics will make
that leg better."

You kept me laughing.

I know, I was really afraid.

I nearly died, a year ago,

I had a brain hemorrhage and um,

I came out
the operating theater,

reciting your,
we keep a sketch
from Glorious.

Thank you so much.

Definitely.

We're nearing the end
of the tour now.

We've done all of Australia.
We done all of New Zealand.

We've done Canada, America.

And tomorrow we go
on to the UK.

If you're a performer,
you want to play Wembley,

it's the Madison Square Garden,
it's2 the Hollywood Bowl,

England.

♪ Mama can you hear me now?

I think, everyone tours around
by saying,
"Good night, Wembley."

You can say that
in a very small place.

You could say that
when you're street performing.

And it's kind of weird
to get to play Wembley.

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Mama can you hear me now?

♪ I'm desperate
Tog et through somehow

♪ Can you feel me now?

♪ Mama! ♪

He's just always
at something.
He's always thinking.

He's always working.
He's always developing,
scheming.

His day is starting
at nine o'clock in the morning,

and it's finishing again
at three or four o'clock
the following morning,

as a constant.
And at the end of the day,

Eddie has to be
fresher than anybody else.

'cause he has to go face
12,000 people, 14,000 people,

whatever it happens to be.
He's afraid of stopping.

He's fighting against that
to such an extent

that he pushes himself
beyond that

which anybody else
could dare stand.

I went down
to see my dad,

and he'd been given
some letters,

which my mom had written
before she died.

Five Ashford Drive,
Bangor, County Town,

26th of September, 1967.

My dear Margie and George.

By now you all know,
the result of the operation,
I had

to find out what was wrong.

It was a bit of a shock.

I expected bad news last time,
not this time.

I am carrying on just as usual
for Harold's sake and the boys.

I still feel a bit shaky,
but I'm in quite
good shape, really.

Maintain not to let
this get me down.

I've persuaded Harold
that we must move now.

I want to see the boys
settled at their new school

and making new friends.

And a home comfortable
for them and Harold.

I just want to carry on
normally as possible.

I hope you're all well.
With all love,

Dorothy, Harold,
Mark and Edward.

I thought she called me Eddie.

I don't know how I got Eddie.

But I was an "Edward" to her.

We didn't understand
what was going on,

and I just thought she was ill.

You get it all
and you get better.

And then, one day,
she wasn't there.

I think, the performing
was trying to get everyone to,

to, uh,

to love... You're trying to
get the love of the audience,

and that was a swap
from Mom's love
not being there.

The big problem is
that everything I do in life
is trying to

uh, get her back.

I think, if I do enough

things, well, maybe she j--

That maybe she'll come back.

Yeah, I think
that's what I'm doing.

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ I'm trying to
Get through somehow

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Trying to get through somehow

♪ Ooh!

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Ooh! ♪

The trouble is spending
too much time in your mind.

You either question it
all the time

or you don't question it.

And then you can end up
living in a ditch

because you thought,
you're on top of the world

and actually your career
is going down the toilet.

Do I think
he's running towards something

or running away
from something?

I think,
they meet in the middle.

There is a man in there
who is going

in the biggest
and most nicest way,
lovely.

♪ Ooh!

♪ Ma-Mama

♪ Ooh!

♪ Ma-Mama

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me Mama?
Whoo!

♪ Can you see me?
Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me Mama?
Whoo!

♪ Ooh!

♪ Ma-mama

♪ Ooh!

See what do you get?

I'm a comedian.

I'm a comedian.

You've got to believe
you could be a stand-up
before you could be a stand.

You've got to believe
that you can act
before you even act.

You gotta believe you can be
an astronaut before you can be
an astronaut.

But you got to believe.

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ I'm trying to
Get through somehow

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ I'm trying to
Get through somehow

♪ Ooh!

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Can you see me?

London!

The greater city
in the London area.

♪ Can you see me?
Can you see me?

♪ Can you see me Mama?
Ooh! ♪

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Mama can you hear me now?

♪ I'm trying to
Get through somehow

♪ Mama can you feel me now?

♪ Mama can you see me now?

♪ Mama can you hear me now?

♪ I'm desperate
To get through somehow

♪ Can you feel me now?

♪ Mama

♪ Mama ♪

Do I think
he's running towards something,

or running away
from something?

I think they meet
in the middle.

I don't wanna learn,

I wanna go out
and smash things
with hammers.