Eddie Izzard: Sexie

A dreadful show by a great comedian. The audience laughter is often out of relief that there's finally a joke or out of habit. He's on auto pilot, instead of witty ad lib we have ramblings, instead of bizarre clever observations we have inane diversions. When a comedian notes to himself that a joke hasn't worked well, it can be quite funny, when he's had to do it five or so times in the opening 15 minutes, it's embarrassing; if an unknown comedian performed this, he'd be booed off within minutes.

In short don't bother watching this, watch everything else he's done and let's pretend this never happened.

I am a massive Izzard fan, as are many others. His shows have inspired many people to see the world from a different, and particularly more random view.

His shows like, "Dress to Kill," "Live at the Ambassadors," and, "Glorious," blew me away, and continue to lighten up my life even now, after countless viewings.

Months before, "Sexie," came out, I would travel to the DVD store once a week, and ask the same question: "Is is out yet?" The reply was always, "no," and I knew then that I would have to wait another week at least before enjoying the legendary comedian's new material.

Once it came out, I was appalled. It was the worst Izzard performance I had ever seen, and it angered me so much.

It became obvious that the DVD was rushed out to make the Christmas lists of the many millions of Izzard fans, and therein lies the problem. Normally, Izzard's DVDs are recorded towards the end of a tour, meaning that many random discoveries made during a performance could be added to the next show in a snowball effect. This means that by the end of a tour, he will have amassed even more material. The recording in Eastbourne had the manner of one of his first shows on the tour. The material was not funny, and sometimes, it felt like the only person who found it funny was Izzard himself. I question whether or not the fame has gone to his head, or whether or not the guy has a drug problem.

I was bitterly disappointed, and as a fan, I felt so let down at this pitiful attempt at humour. I can't remember a single quote.

This special was one of his earlier routines. It revolved a lot more around the transvestitism than his more recent offerings. He explains transvestitism in a way that seems logical to those of us who don't share the compulsion. He's very articulate and his comedy doesn't really look like him. His comedy is intelligent and while it does occasionally revolve around sexual topics, you never get the impression that he relies on the blue for humor at all. There are two kinds of comedians. There are those who talk about things that are, by general consensus, funny or shocking topics like differences between men and women, or in-laws or feces or sex and then there are comedians who are funny no matter what they are talking about. Eddie Izzard belongs to the second group. I'm sure that if he did a stand-up routine about expense reports it would be a stone riot. With some comedians, when they finish their act, you feel as though you've wasted your time a little. I always feel like the time that I spend watching his stuff is time well spent. I'm to the point now where I will rent any movie or watch any special if it has his name on it.

So if you like humor that's fresh and intelligent, check him out. They show his specials about once a month or so on BBC