After years of obscurity, a blizzard of Izzard

Comedian/actor finds his niche on stage and screen

By Nick A. Zaino III, Globe Correspondent, 10/19/2003

When British funnyman Eddie Izzard comes to town with his "Sexie" tour this week, he will do so as a popular comedian, a Tony-nominated stage actor, and a budding film star.

In June, Izzard was nominated for a Tony for his performance in "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg," a play in which he got the rare chance to use his comedic and dramatic skills. He has two upcoming movies and the DVD of his last tour, "Circle," to support. His "Sexie" tour, which stops at the Shubert Theatre Tuesday through Saturday, is his largest ever, hitting 14 cities.

These days, crowds swarm his shows -- and swarm him when they get the chance.

It wasn't always like this for Izzard. The 42-year-old comedian is the classic case of an artist working for years to become a so-called "overnight success." He spent a decade trying everything he could think of to grab attention for his dramatic skills at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe -- from riding a 4-foot-tall unicycle to staging a comic sword-fighting exhibition with a partner.

"It's this massive thing, everyone goes up there and people get discovered," Izzard says of the festival, on the phone from a Portland, Ore., tour stop. "Quite often, people do one, maybe two festivals, they either get discovered or go on tele. I did 12. And then, hey, you get discovered. `Hey, overnight sensation!' "

It was enough for Izzard to give up hope in his acting skills. "I totally lost it in my mid-20s," he says. "I just thought, `I'm supposed to be cookin' by now.' Because I had decided when I was 7 I wanted to act."

Theater's loss was stand-up comedy's gain. Putting together the skills he had learned doing street theater and sketch comedy, Izzard began to make a name for himself on the British comedy club scene, spinning history and pop references into a conversational style of comedy, heavily influenced by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly.

Nearly all his humor, however, had a flamboyant Izzardian twist. A self-described "executive transvestite," Izzard's ornate and ostentatious wardrobe matches the vibrant colors he paints with his words. (After his dressed-down "Circle" tour in 2000, the heels and makeup are back for the "Sexie" tour.) Suffice it to say, it didn't take long for Izzard to start packing English theaters as a comedian.

But when he got to the United States, Izzard had to start all over again. It was a battle to get people out to his shows. He found that a lot of expatriate Europeans were coming to his American shows, but he felt he needed a local fan base to get things going in the States. Then Izzard's brilliant HBO special, "Dress to Kill," hit the airwaves, and he again found himself an overnight success. Having managed to reach everyone in the country with HBO, Izzard started selling out theaters, eventually winning two Emmys in 2000 (for his performance and writing) and earning an additional nomination. All this after Izzard was told British humor would never sell in America. "I always knew it could work, because [Monty] Python had already proved it could work," he says.

Now, Izzard has built a quirky career for himself, including stand-up, theater, and film. (Not in television, however, despite rumors that Izzard would play British sci-fi hero Doctor Who for the BBC. His camp says he was never offered the part and isn't interested in television work at this point.) His goal is to find work in film that lets him use everything he's learned. "Joe Egg" and his turn as Lenny Bruce in "Lenny" in London's West End are the start of that process.

"I'm attacking in two different directions," he says of his career choices. "They're kind of both forward, but they're kind of both working away from each other. So if you actually look at what I'm doing, it doesn't make sense. It'll make sense in about 10 years' time."

Izzard still doesn't think he's found the perfect balance between drama and comedy, and until he does, he's trying to keep the two things separate. He cites 2001's "The Cat's Meow," a movie in which he played his idol Charlie Chaplin opposite Kirsten Dunst, as an example.

"The comedy is so surreal, it doesn't quite fit in with the drama," he says. "And in the drama, I don't want to play any comedy buttons. In `The Cat's Meow,' I don't think I said anything funny."

Izzard shows no sign of retiring from stand-up, but he says he does get a unique pleasure from drama. He describes comedy as an "endorphin rush," but calls drama his "vitamins, carbohydrates, and proteins."

"It's such a pleasure, that somebody would want to watch something I did and know there will be no laughs in it," he says.

Eddie Izzard performs Oct. 21-25 at the Shubert Theatre. Call 800-447-7400 or visit www.telecharge.com.