Eddie Izzard: Circle

I thought it was great, Eddie at his best. I personally thought this was better than "Dress To Kill".

I loved the sections about "The Pursuit of Happiness" and the Popes though, and the star wars part was very cool. I thought he swore too much though, and should rely on his anecdotes, more than on his profanity for laughs.

I also liked the section about the meek conquering the earth. It was much shorter than "Dress to Kill". NAd has many classic skits that Izzard fans will love. I strongly recommend this show.

Overall 10/10

Before I start, I _love_ Eddie Izzard. I think he's one of the funniest stand-ups around today. Possibly that means I'm going into this with too high expectations, but I just didn't find Eddie funny in this outing.

I think the main problem is Eddie is trying too hard to be Eddie. Everyone knows him as a completely irrelevant comic, and we all love him for it. But in Circle, he appears to be going more for irrelevant than funny, and completely lost me in places. Many of the topics he covers he has covered before - I even think I recognised a few recycled jokes in there.

If you buy the DVD you'll find a behind-the-scenes look at Eddie's tour (interesting in places, but not very funny), and a French language version of one of his shows. Die-hards will enjoy seeing Eddie in a different language, but subtitled comedy isn't very funny.

If you're a fan of Eddie you've either got this already or you're going to buy it whatever I say. If you're just passing through, buy Glorious or Dressed to Kill - you won't be disappointed. With Circle, you probably will.

Don't remember exactly in which order I saw his stand-up routines (none of them live though), but I am sure it was not in chronological order. I think it started with glorious. So maybe the order you see them influences your opinion cause I am (now) a die-hard fan of Eddie's stand-up but I seem to disagree with most other fan's that this is actually almost his best piece. My order would be: 1) Definite article 2) Circle 3) Glorious 4) Dress to kill 5) Unrepeatable 6) Sexie (which was not great actually, to say the least). Haven't seen live at the ambassadeur yet though but I suspect it will knock Sexie of that list. One other thing of course might be that this was actually recorded in the US as opposed to most of the others.

After a terribly dated and silly Matrix-style opening sequence, this DVD opens up with the show filmed live in New York Town Hall. Circle was the first live show I've seen from Izzard in a while and I was quite looking forward to it and was happy to find him on good form. His style is the same as it ever was, with perfectly scripted scatological material done with good timing and delivery that makes him such fun to flit along with. Fans have already noted that some of the topics he covers are similar to ones he has done before – God as James Mason, religion, the British Empire, Star Wars etc; but he doesn't really do the same things or the same jokes with these.

Instead he goes off on different flights of fancy which are witty and clever even if they are slightly more hit and miss than normal. One of the problems is that the film either doesn't capture the atmosphere or there wasn't at atmosphere to capture. The venue doesn't feel "full" in the way that a venue full of excitement can do but rather it feels full of people who have come along for a look. This feeling probably wasn't helped by the fact that technical problems with the sound broke up the flow for about thirty minutes during filming but regardless the audience don't seem to be getting into it and it is something Izzard notices with his regular references to "6 people jokes" etc. It knocks him a little bit at times and you can see it as he doesn't appear to be enjoying himself quite as much as his best shows but still he delivers it well.

Fans will still have much to enjoy here because Izzard is almost as good as he has been in the past and it is only the slight feel that he has done some of the topics before and also the slightly stilted audience that takes away from it.

I thought he was hilarious! As soon as he walked on stage I started laughing. But the audience was in no mood for it and that threw him off, I think. Like when he was telling the one about the god of chaos out there in the middle of nowhere just trying to light his oven, (to make a flan), and he's poking a match in there and going "I'm just trying to light the oven... can't seem to get it lit.. Just trying' to.... BANG!!!" LOL!! But nobody laughed until he told them "And that was the big bang, thats how it all started." And they all kinda nodded and clapped in a "oh...I get it" way.

And then there were a few people who were laughing at everything, just in case it was funny. Every once in a while he'll just toss some nonsense out there and see what happens. But I could tell he wasn't connecting with them. He is at his best with an audience that already knows him, like in S.F. or London.