Eddie Izzard - Circle (DVD)

Eddie Izzard to me is one of the best if not the best stand up comedian I have ever seen. I first became aware of Eddie's talent after I saw Unrepeatable on TV, many years ago now. I became even more aware of this comic genius when I saw his Definite Article show courtesy of Channel Four, albeit with 40 minutes cut.

His previous show Dress To Kill had been a Christmas present and kept up with my high expectations. So I was really looking ...
...Fans will know that Eddie has some quite strong anti religious views in his shows. That's not to say religious people will be offended, that's not his style, he's a live and let live kind of person.

One of my favourite parts is when Eddie takes a pop at the Americans with their so called World Series of Baseball. "It's very impressive to win every time in a world event. Perhaps some other country will win it one day, but I doubt ... more

Eddie Izzard to me is one of the best if not the best stand up comedian I have ever seen. I first became aware of Eddie's talent after I saw Unrepeatable on TV, many years ago now. I became even more aware of this comic genius when I saw his Definite Article show courtesy of Channel Four, albeit with 40 minutes cut.

His previous show Dress To Kill had been a Christmas present and kept up with my high expectations. So I was really looking forward to some new material. At work my Izzard fan colleagues would always be using his quotes, to some strange looks from those who did not know his work.

A few years later I heard of a new show, it was released around Christmas so my girlfriend said she's get it for me as a present.

The show was recorded in New York City, 26 June 2000 and released in 2002. This is the second show he has recorded in America. Americans do not sometimes get English humour, in Dress to Kill filmed in San Francisco the audience really goes along with the spirit of it. I feel in Circle however that the audience did not really give him a chance, they were pretty cold. This could partly be because there was a 26 minute sound problem during the show.

However, it takes more than an unappreciative audience to stop Mr Izzard and so he goes on. There are some real gems in this show.

I find this show takes a little time to get going, he begins with what is familiar territory with religion. Fans will know that Eddie has some quite strong anti religious views in his shows. That's not to say religious people will be offended, that's not his style, he's a live and let live kind of person.

One of my favourite parts is when Eddie takes a pop at the Americans with their so called World Series of Baseball. "It's very impressive to win every time in a world event. Perhaps some other country will win it one day, but I doubt it".

Izzard covers so many things it's hard to remember them all for example, monkey sign language, Dinosaurs, the Greeks, the location of Private Ryan, the metric system… There's a little dig at the French and their attitude to mad cow disease, very funny indeed. Eddie can speak fluent French so it's ok. My favourite part is the Death Star canteen routine, vintage Izzard.

He does lose his way a bit around half way through the show, and ends up doing his trademark "Never do that one again" whilst talking into his hand, but he soon pulls it back together.

This is also the first show I've seen that has heckling, he deals with it well, perhaps they were cut from his other shows?

Chapters
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These are the individual chapters of the show, I've listed them to give you an idea of the topics Eddie covers :

1. Bastards and makeup
2. Popeman
3. Philosophies with strange ideas
4. Monkeys and guns
5. The Crusades
6. Jesus in religions - Part One
7. Americans
8. Jesus in religions - Part Two
9. Jesus and the dinosaurs
10. The awesome universe
11. Talk to the animals
12. Mad European cows
13. Hatred and sharks
14. Greeks
15. Alternative Olympics
16. Highlights of history
17. World War II
18. Jesus and man
19. The future
20. The Deathstar Canteen

As you can gather from that list he covers a wider range of subjects, in fact I'd forgotten how many he did.

DVD Extras
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Circle Tour
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This is a very good fly on the wall documentary on the making of the show. I particularly like it when he gets pulled over by the police. He gets off with a warning, then cheekily asks the cop if he can do a u-turn, he can and he tells him to drive carefully. He mingles with some people and signs some autograph, one who wants to put one on ebay, Eddie's not too happy about that. It's certainly an interesting insight.

Commentary:
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"Sometimes you just say things for no reason.", says Eddie. That's a very true statement, and in the case of Eddie Izzard it's funny. You really get the impression that a lot of what he says is ad libbed, which of course it is. He also explains why he sometimes tries to stop the audience from laughing, when he's in the middle of flow.

The trouble with the commentary is that after a bit I really just want to watch the show so end up turning it off.

Trivia Track
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This option pops up facts in a little box at various time during the show. For example, "Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise" and "The Statue of Liberty's index finger is eight feet long." Quite an interesting feature.

Dress To Circle
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Part of the Dress to Kill show filmed in France and in French. This is a good insight into the fluency of Eddie in French. He really is good, I believe his family was from France somewhere down the line.

Conclusion
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This is not Eddie's best work, it does take a few viewings to fully appreciate it. For newcomers to his work I would recommend checking out Definite Article or Glorious, these are in my opinion his finest shows. If you liked his earlier work then you will love this.

I hope nobody gets put off by his cross dressing, it really doesn't affect the humour in any way. As Eddie himself says, "it's not drag queen, it's male lesbian."

A very small point, it seems to take ages for the DVD to get going with all the copyright notices and intro's that cannot be skipped (the only thing I find frustrating with DVD's). I'm sure the anti piracy warning will make no difference to any would be pirates it just makes the rest of us have to wait.

For fans, yes, James Mason is back ;-)

Show Running Time : 81 Minutes

Certificate : 15
 

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