[LISTENED TO: September 13, 2017] Believe Me
When I saw that Eddie Izzard had a book out I was pretty interested to read it. I have loved his stand-up since 1997 or 1998 and I was lucky enough to see him on his Circle Tour (on the date they recorded it!). I have been keeping up with his career and trying to see him in whatever he does (although I like my comedy more than drama and he has certainly made the shift towards drama in recent years).
I thought an autobiography or memoir by him would be pretty interesting (even if he claims to be boring). But when I saw that he read the audiobook, I knew I had to give it a listen (even if it was 12 discs)!
Amusingly, there was a long delay at the library. The lady at the counter (who is not the librarian–we librarians know the difference) said if I knew his voice, I could just read the book to myself in his voice. It was an amusing thought, and I possibly could do that, ….yes, but Eddie’s voice is just so fantastic that it never would have worked properly. Plus, he throws in easily an extra hours worth of footnotes and rambles that aren’t in the print book! That’s right, an extra hour’s worth of nonsense if you do the audio. True you don;t get to see the pictures, but it’s a fair trade-off.
Well the book finally came in and I had plenty of driving time to make short work of this 12 hours behemoth. And I laughed and laughed. And cried and cried.
Because while Eddie Izzard is an action transvestite (transgender, now) and one of the best stand-ups around, he is also an extremely warm and thoughtful person. He worked very hard to become the success he is. And he has used his fame to do some absolutely wonderful things for humanity–including raising millions of dollars. Not bad for an atheist who is sometimes in girl mode and sometimes in boy mode.
The first part of the book is taken up with his mother’s death. It is quite a sad story and a moment that changed his life forever. Note that Izzard has become a very talented dramatic actor. And his reading reflects that. During the serious moments, he reads with perfect pauses and emphases. But during the more lighthearted moments, especially the footnotes, he added all kinds of humor–even cracking himself up from time to tome.
Eddie’s father knew that Eddie’s mother was dying, but he didn’t want to have Eddie and his brother live with the sadness of a dying mom for however long. he wanted them to have happy times. Even though she evidently made Christmas dinner, went to bed and didn’t get out of bed again until she died three months later. This protection didn’t prepare them, however. When their mom died (when Eddie was 6) it was quite a shock. On hearing the news he writes “Me, Mark and Daddy just cried for between half an hour and a lifetime.”
Eddie says that it was much later in life when he realized that everything he did in hid life, every accomplishment, was in hopes of bringing his mother back.
The book spends a lot of time on Eddie’s youth. He grew up at first in Northern Ireland (and has much to say about that). His first memories as a young kid (from around 3 or 4). He also talks about his father and mother’s lives before their birth. Eddie’s father is still alive. Amazingly he worked for BP and was so successful he retired at around 50 years old. How his father and mother bet in Yemen while working for BP. It’s a sweet, romantic story.
But then it turns sad. His mother’s death essentially meant he and his brother had to go to boarding school because his father worked all day (at BP) and couldn’t look after two kids. His father then became very lonely having now lost his wife and (for three-fourths of the year) his children. There is a comment at some point about his father drinking a pint of gin a day (and being amazed that he is still alive). Boarding school really changed Eddie. He went from being a rather emotional child to someone who leaned to shut off all emotion. He became a hard kid.
He tells many stories about his childhood. There are of course some good stories–like his success at football (soccer). There is a rather funny story about winning a silver trophy for his athleticism (and how he eventually ran into the girl whom he beat and apologized for praying that she would lose). There’s talk of his playing a game called Kiss-chase, and his very first kiss. There’s also a lot of detail about his stomach issues. How there were so many foods he didn’t like and how often various foods came back on him (he once got airsick just thinking about flying). He talks about how much he loved sugar as a kid. And he talks a lot about hoe he doesn’t eat it anymore. There’s an excellent story about he and his brother refusing to eat the revolting-sounding “macaroni in warm milk.” The story is hilarious but also fraught with tension (like it was a serious heist–Eddie does love his movies..
The issue of being transgender is obviously prominent in the book as it was an important aspect of his life. He says he knew that he was trans (the terms have changed quite a bit since the 1960s) since he was 4 years old. The desire that young girls have to put on adult women’s clothes and make up is the same desire that he had as a boy. Simple as that. Not all girls have it. Some girls do. He did and some other boys do to.
Izzard has thought enough about being transgender that his discussion about it is calm and reasoned. There’s nothing “sensational” about this aspect of his life and he does an excellent job of demonstrating that. He points out that he is not a drag performer, he is not a comedian who talks only about transgender issues. He is comedian who appears sometimes in “girl mode: and sometimes in “boy mode.” He doesn’t even like the phrase “dress like a woman” as he is quite right to point out that men were the original gender to wear high heels and wigs and kilts. Indeed, there is nothing inherently female about wearing high heels. He states: “women wear what they want and so do I.”
He does mention that he had one Transvestite joke before he came out:
I had one joke about being TV that I had been carrying around for about four or five years. It was this: “If you’re a comedian, it’s good to have something to rail against. So if you’re from the working class background, you can say ‘Oh, the rich people! They’re always in control.’ If you’re a woman you can say “oh, men! They’re always getting paid more!’ If you’re from an ethnic background, you can say, ‘Oh, white people. They’re always making it hard for every ethnic group.’ But if you’re a white, male, middle class, stand-up, you have no one to rail against. So thank god I’m a transvestite!” …. When I finally told the joke it got a laugh, but people didn’t actually believe that I was a transvestite. They thought I was joking!
Even though the book is mostly chronological, he does jump around quite a bit especially in footnotes. And so do I.
Anyway, at one point in boarding school he had gotten the performing bug. He would make stages for his teddy bears. He has some very funny bits about playing the bloody clarinet. By the time he was ready to go to college, he wanted to get into a college with a high comedic presence.
None of this worked out exactly as he wanted. He wound up going to a school in Sheffield which never sent performers to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (a tremendous comic festival that has launched many a career). So Eddie wound up doing it by himself. He took public transport to Edinburgh (not nearby at all) and learned how to have an entry in the festival. He imagined that he would do a show, win the festival and become huge.
Ten years later he was still trying to make it.
He admits his early shows were crap, but they were important for him to do. He tried work as a street performer (and he talks about the gulf between street performers and street musicians (buskers). Buskers don’t need an audience for them to have success. But performers need people to stick around or they will not pony up money. His boomerang hippopotamus tea cozy story is fantastic.
He began watching movies and really wanting to get in on them. So he again took public transport all the way to Pinewood Studios, where he snuck in and walked around (but was not discovered).
Izzard is nothing if not positive and supportive. He talks all about–as his title suggests–believing in himself. And about everyone believing in themselves. He says matter of factly that if you don’t believe that you can do something you never will. If you do believe you can do something it doesn’t mean you can , but at least you haven’t ruled out it happening.
He says that he began coming out to friends and colleagues. The first time he went out in public in a dress was one of the hardest things he had ever done–he was harassed by 13-year-old girls, too. He eventually came out to a close friend. He talks about dealing with people who are critical of him and his self-expression. He even gives a couple of examples of people who gave him a hard time–and how he tries to stay positive in every circumstance. He has every right to be happy as anyone else. And he wants everyone to be happy
If you look at what makes us all similar instead of looking to find what makes us different, you’ll see that there is one thing that is the same for all of humanity: And that is love.
He quickly runs through his standup years–not the material but the way his stage show went from small to big with lots of stage design (thanks to his former partner Sarah Townsend who has been working with him even after they broke up).
The end of the book talks about his activism. I knew that he had done some of these things, but its amazing to hear about just what he did.
Eddie used to be very active as a kid–lots of running. But since he;d gotten older he hadn’t done much. The charity Sport Relief asked him to do something sporting to raise money. And so in July 2009, with only about 5 weeks’ training he decided to run across the country: He ran from London to Cardiff, Wales to Belfast, Northern Ireland to Edinburgh, Scotland and back to London. He was followed by a documentary film crew and an ice cream truck (which gave out ice cream to children and hoped to raise more money). In addition to raising money, he wanted to raise aware of peace and hope between countries. He carried the flag of each country–England, Scotland, or Wales–while he was running. In Northern Ireland, which has no flag, he carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove. This became 43 marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totaling more than 1,100 miles). He raised over $2 million.
Then in 2012 the he attempted to run 27 marathons in 27 days, through South Africa, once again for Sport Relief. He explains the significance of the number 27 came from the number of years spent in prison by Nelson Mandela. He failed on this attempt because he had to be hospitalized with an infection.
In 2016 he attempted it again. Despite being hospitalized for a day (and being given the all clear), he was still able to run 27 marathons in 27 days. He ran two consecutive marathons on the last day. Technically, he ran 90km on that last day. After completing the final marathon at the foot of the statue of Nelson Mandela, he decided to keep going the extra 6km to celebrate the Comrades Marathon–the worlds oldest ultramarathon (established in 1921). The rule for the Comrades is t hat yo must do it in 12 hours. Eddie managed the 90 km in 11 hours and 50 minutes. He was 54 years old at the time. Once again he raised about $2 Million.
Damn, if that doesn’t inspire you to push yourself, nothing will (although I have no desire to run for 12 hours in a day).
Izzard is an atheist. He has some pretty convincing arguments (and some silly ones) for why he does not believe in any god. And yet despite this (or perhaps because of it) he believes in humanity and that it is up to humanity–not a God–to save us. He is distraught at the way the world seems to be reverting to hatred and divisiveness through Brexit and Trump. He talks about doing whatever he can to try to bring the world closer.
To prove this point, he decided to do some standup in French, a language that he spoke only passably. But he learned. He learned more and more and was soon able to comfortably do an entire tour in French. He pushed further and leaned how to do a show in German (this was more memorized than spontaneous, but he was able to take Q&A in German). He is currently learning Spanish so he can tour South America. And he has plans to learn Russian and Arabic, to show that his kind of humor can work anywhere. By the end of this section if you aren’t moved to tears by his love for humanity then perhaps you were brought up in boarding school and learned to turn off your emotions. Or you voted for trump.
Being a comedian, Izzard has thought a lot about a lot of things. He has some interesting, some crazy and some bizarre theories about all manner of things. Many of them do make quite a bit of sense. And some of them are just based on his experiences. His constant railing against processed sugar is a bit tedious, although his joke that you never see spotty adolescent animals is pretty funny. And he really hammers home the no God belief. But it is, after all, important to his overall message.
Some people say I am a nonbeliever. But I am a believer; I believe in humanity. I believe in people. I believe in our ability to make the world a better, more compassionate, and more civilized place.
The repetitions come primarily from the extemporaneous way he reads this footnotes. He reads the book proper pretty straightforward. But it is chock full of footnotes (and sometimes he adds new one). Nearly every footnote has a tangent. It is when he is on these tangents that he tends to repeat himself (I assume it was not all read in one day, which may have something to do with it). But it is very funny to hear him doing things off the cuff, or as on several occasions when he does real-time footnotes–he looks up information online to confirm what he’s talking about (why he didn’t do that during the book I don’t know).
He also talks quite a bit about his love for movies and comedians. The list of great movies/books/concerts he mentioned left me with plenty more to check out. Not least of which is the documentary about him, Believe (which I can’t believe I haven’t seen). also the 1973 Three Musketeers movie, The Great Escape ( I think everyone in Britain loves this movie), The Goon Show (which I should have watched from Monty Python’s love of it), Spike Mulligan in general and dozens of comedians (I’m not sure if there is an index of these performers in the book).
Eddie Izzard may be a dull person (debatable), but he has done some extraordinary things. He is quite inspirational.
I believe we can all do more than we think we can do.
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