Eddie Izzard is dressed to con

Standup comedians and con men have a lot in common, says Eddie Izzard, who now knows a bit about both professions.

"Standup," says the Emmy-winning British comedian, "is conning in every word, except it's based on truth."

These days, Izzard is running from the truth in the leading role of FX's drama "The Riches," which debuts tomorrow night at 10.

Izzard plays Wayne Malloy, a disgruntled member of a nomadic group of con artists in rural Louisiana. After a falling-out with the group's leader, Malloy tries to settle down in rich suburbia by stealing the identity of a dead attorney.

But Malloy soon discovers that life in a gated community can be a complicated hustle of its own. Izzard is joined in the series by fellow English actor Minnie Driver, who portrays his drug-addicted wife, Dahlia

"I want to prove my onions with this," says Izzard, who turned down a role as a villain on Fox's "24" to star in "The Riches" instead. "It's quite a steep learning curve. When I do standup, I can stand on a stage in front of 10,000 people and I can be inside of what I'm saying. I ignore the people. I'm basically in my bedroom talking crap. In a drama, I have to learn to ignore the cameras and lights."

Already, though, Izzard's comedic instincts have been put to use. Fellow producers, including playwright and series creator Dmitry Lipkin, Dawn Prestwich, and Nicole Yorkin , have asked him to pitch in ideas for the script.

"Initially it was darker. It was a bit too much of a very bad nightmarish ride," Izzard says. "They asked if comedy could be brought in as a counterpoint."

In tomorrow's opening scene, Wayne is the life of the party at a high school reunion where he is pretending he belongs. While he leads a conga line on the dance floor, his two children are stealing wallets from the unaware guests. Wayne then makes a bizarre impromptu speech onstage to his "classmates."

"At Wayne's most extreme, he can say things off the wall," Izzard says. "But we can't have cats and dogs talking to each other or Jesus talking," he adds, referring to some of his well-known standup material.

Izzard, who won two Emmy Awards in 2000 for his HBO comedy special "Dress to Kill," says he was drawn to the role because Wayne Malloy is a lot like him. "He's essentially someone who wants to put something into the world as opposed to just take stuff out of it," he says. "He's a relentlessly stubborn individual who is very close to me."

Wayne is not a transvestite, however, whereas Izzard announced to the press in 1991 that he is a straight transvestite.

"They thought I was joking," he says. "So I wore a dress [in his act]. Then they said I look a mess. So I told them I would work on my look. I am a transvestite, since I was 5 . I think it's genetic. It's built in. It's just that girly bit that some women have, I have."

When Izzard began performing in a dress, everyone presumed that's what his show was about, he says. No. "Ellen DeGeneres is talking funny stuff in pants. It's not about the pants," he says.

Instead of Wayne, it's Sam , the youngest child in the show, who cross-dresses. He dons a dress and wig in the reunion scene tomorrow, and in later episodes, he's often seen in pink shoes. The producers say Sam was created as a transvestite before Izzard became involved in the series.

"We wanted to play with identity without making it an issue," Lipkin says in a media conference call. "The open-heartedness with which the family accepts the Sam character without questioning what he's going through too much is indicative of how the family approaches other roles as well."

"It sort of goes with the overall theme of the show," Prestwich adds. "You can be what you want to be. That's the American dream."

Izzard is still adjusting to the rigorous pace of producing a television show. But there's no place else he'd rather be. "Doing standup is like taking hits of cocaine. It makes you laugh a lot and then you leave. A drama is a ride. There are ups and downs, highs and lows.

"Since I was 7, I've wanted to be in this place," he says. "Comedy was just the weird, curvy route I had to take to get there."

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com.