Suzy Eddie Izzard (/ˈɪzɑːrd/; born Edward John Izzard, 7 February 1962, often known professionally as Eddie Izzard),[a] is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her[b] comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.
In 2009, Izzard completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief, despite having no history of long-distance running. In 2016, she ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela, raising £1.35 million. In addition to her native English, she has performed stand-up in Arabic, French, German, Russian and Spanish, and is an active supporter of Europeanism and the European Union.
Edward John Izzard[5] was born in Aden (then in Aden Colony and now in Yemen)[6] on 7 February 1962,[7] to English parents Dorothy Ella Izzard (1927–1968) and Harold John Michael Izzard (1928–2018). Their surname is of French Huguenot origin.[8] Dorothy was a midwife and nurse, while Harold was an accountant who was working in Aden for British Petroleum at the time of Edward's birth.[9][10] A brother, Mark, was born two years earlier.[10]
When Izzard was a year old, the family moved to Northern Ireland and settled in Bangor, where they lived until Izzard was five.[6][9][11][12] The family then moved to Wales, where they lived in Skewen.[10]
Izzard began to toy with comedy while at university with her friend Rob Ballard.[21][22] The two took their act to the streets,[21][22] often in the Covent Garden district of London.[15][23][24] After splitting with Ballard, Izzard spent a great deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States. She says that she developed her comedic voice by talking to the audience while doing solo escape acts.[25] She then moved her act to the stand-up comedy venues of Britain, performing her routine for the first time at the Banana Cabaret in London's Balham area.[11][26]
In 1987, Izzard's first stage appearance was at the Comedy Store in London.[12] She refined her comedy material throughout the 1980s and began earning recognition through improvisation in the early 1990s, in part at her own club, Raging Bull in Soho.[24] Her breakthrough came in 1991 after she performed her "raised by wolves" routine on the televised Hysteria 3AIDS benefit.[27]
Izzard is fluent in French and has performed stand-up shows in the language; since 2014, she has also started to perform in Arabic, German, Russian and Spanish,[29] languages that she did not previously speak.[30]
Acting
In 1994, Izzard's West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's The Cryptogram with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at London's Comedy Theatre. The success of that role led to a second starring role, in David Beaird's black comedy 900 Oneonta. In 1995, she portrayed the title character in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.[31]
In 1998, Izzard appeared briefly on stage with Monty Python in The American Film Institute's Tribute to Monty Python (also referred to as Monty Python Live at Aspen). As part of an inside joke, she walked on stage with the five surviving Pythons and was summarily escorted off by Eric Idle and Michael Palin when attempting to participate in a discussion about how the group got together.[32] In July 2014, she appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show Monty Python Live (Mostly) as the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch.[33]
Izzard in 2013
Izzard portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play Lenny. In 2001, she replaced Clive Owen in Peter Nichols' 1967 play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Comedy Theatre. Izzard and Victoria Hamilton repeated their lead roles when the show was brought to Broadway in 2003 in the Roundabout Theatre Company production. The revival received four Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress for its stars Izzard and Hamilton in their Broadway debuts, and Best Direction for Laurence Boswell. In June 2010, she replaced James Spader in the role of Jack Lawson in David Mamet's play Race on Broadway.[34]
In 2009, Izzard was the subject of Sarah Townsend's documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story,[36] which addresses BBC's Watchdog[37] reporting[38] of "recycling material from an old tour".[39][40][41]
From 25 January to 3 March 2024, Izzard performed a one-person version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, adapted by her brother Mark and directed by Selina Cadell, at the Greenwich House Theater in New York.[49] The run was extended three times. The show transferred to Riverside Studios, London, with previews from 23 May 2024.[50][51]
Charity work
Flag used by Izzard to represent Northern Ireland during the 2009 Sport Relief marathon. The green background references the Northern Ireland football jersey, while the white dove symbolises peace.[52][53]Flag carried by Izzard during the Sport Relief Mile event in 2010.[54]
On 27 July 2009, with only five weeks' training and no significant prior running experience, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief.[55] She ran from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London, carrying the flag of the country—England, Scotland, or Wales—in which she was running. In Northern Ireland, she carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove. The blog Eddie Iz Running documented the 43 marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totalling more than 1,100 miles), ending on 15 September 2009.[56] Izzard received a special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for these achievements.[57] In March 2010, she took part in the Sport Relief Mile event.[58]
On 16 February 2016, the BBC announced that Izzard would attempt to run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa for Sport Relief.[59] The significance of the number 27 came from the number of years Nelson Mandela was held in prison. In total, she would aim to run more than 700 miles in temperatures of up to 40 °C. Izzard had attempted such a project in South Africa in 2012, but withdrew due to health concerns.[60] She completed the first marathon on 23 February 2016, completing the marathon challenge on 20 March 2016 at the statue of Mandela in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Because she had spent a day in hospital, she had to run two consecutive marathons on this last day. She raised more than £1.35M for Sport Relief.[61] A BBC documentary detailing the feat was broadcast on 28 March.[62]
On 8 December 2020, Izzard announced[63] that she would attempt to run 31 marathons and perform 31 stand-up gigs, in the 31 days of January 2021 to raise money for a range of charities including Fareshare, Walking With The Wounded, Care International, United to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases and Covenant House.[64] The series of marathons raised in excess of £275,000.[65]
Activism
Political views
Izzard with the flags of the UK and European Union in 2006
Izzard is a vocal supporter of Europeanism and European integration, and has campaigned in support of the European Union. In May 2005, she appeared on the BBC's political debate show Question Time, describing herself as a "British-European", comparing this with other cultural identities such as "African-American". As part of her campaigning, Izzard was one of the first people to spend a euro in London. This pan-European approach has influenced her work, regularly performing in French[23][43] and occasionally in German.[24] On a June 2017 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, she claimed to be working in English, French, German and Spanish.[30][29]
Izzard campaigned unsuccessfully against the closure of the departments of Drama and Languages, Linguistics and Translation at the University of East Anglia, although the department of Drama was later reprieved.[71]
Labour Party
Izzard (left) travels to Brussels with Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006
On 25 August 2022, Izzard stated in an interview on BBC Radio Sheffield that she would like to ask the local Constituency Labour Party to stand in Sheffield Central, replacing the incumbent MP Paul Blomfield, who is standing down at the 2024 election.[86] Local reaction, according to the Sheffield Star newspaper, was mixed.[87] She launched her election campaign on 11 October.[88] On 5 December, it was reported that a local Sheffield City councillor had been selected as the party's candidate for the safe seat, with Izzard coming second in the members' vote.[72]
In August 2023, Izzard announced her campaign to become the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the next general election, following the decision of the incumbent Green MP Caroline Lucas not to recontest the seat.[89] On December 17, 2023, it was announced that Izzard had not been selected as a Labour candidate at the next general election and that Tom Gray would be contesting Brighton Pavilion on behalf of the Labour Party instead.[90]
Comedic style
Izzard uses a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics, saying in a 2004 interview with The Guardian that "it's the oral tradition [...] human beings have been doing it for thousands of years".[91] Her bent towards the surreal went so far as to produce a sitcom called Cows in 1997 for Channel 4, a live-action comedy with actors dressed in cow suits.[92] She has cited Monty Python as her biggest influence, and Python member John Cleese once referred to her as "the lost Python".[12]
Personal life
Izzard identifies as genderfluid[93][94] and calls herself "somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish".[18] She uses the word "transgender" as an umbrella term.[95] When asked in 2019 what pronouns she preferred, Izzard responded, "either 'he' or 'she'" and explained, "If I am in boy mode, then 'he', or girl mode, 'she'".[96] In 2020, she requested she/her pronouns for an appearance on the TV show Portrait Artist of the Year and said she wants "to be based in girl mode from now on".[97] In March 2023, she announced that she would begin using the name Suzy in addition to Eddie, saying that she is "going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard".[2][1] Explaining that she had wanted to use the name Suzy since she was 10 years old, she added that people "can choose" which name they want to use to refer to her,[1][2] and that she would keep using Eddie Izzard as her public name since it is more widely recognised.[98]
In the past, Izzard identified as a transvestite and has also called herself "a lesbian trapped in a man's body"[99] and "a complete boy plus half girl".[100] According to her memoir Believe Me, she first cross-dressed in public at the age of 23 with the help of a lesbian friend, an experience which ended in a verbal confrontation with three 13-year-old girls who had followed Izzard home from a public toilet.[101]
She started to publicly identify as transvestite in venues such as the Edinburgh Festival as early as 1992.[102][103] She states that the way she dresses is neither part of her performance, nor a sexual fetish: "I don't call it drag; I don't even call it cross-dressing. It's just wearing a dress. It's not about artifice. It's about me just expressing myself."[104] She remarks in Unrepeatable, "Women wear what they want and so do I." She has expressed a personal conviction that being transgender is caused by genetics and that, someday, this will be scientifically proven. In preparation for that day, she has had her own genome sequenced.[105]
Izzard keeps her romantic life private, citing the wishes of her companions not wanting to become content for her show.[106] She once dated Irish singer Sarah Townsend, whom Izzard first met while running a venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1989.[107] Townsend later created the documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story.[23]
Izzard is an atheist. During the 2008 Stripped tour, she said, "I was warming the material up in New York, where one night, literally on stage, I realised I didn't believe in God at all. I just didn't think there was anyone upstairs."[106] She has since described herself as a spiritual atheist, saying, "I don't believe in the guy upstairs, I believe in us."[108]
Izzard supports Crystal Palace and became an associate director at the club on 16 July 2012.[109] She is also a train modeller.[110]
Honours
In 2003, Izzard received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, for her work promoting "modern languages and tolerance of other cultures and lifestyles", and for having "transcended national barriers" with humour.[71][111] She has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Sunderland in 2012,[112]York St John University in 2018,[113] and the University of Sheffield in 2006,[114] where she had spent a year on an Accounting and Financial Management course in the early 1980s and established the now-defunct Alternative Productions Society in the Union of Students with the aim of promoting fringe-based arts. She was elected Honorary President of Sheffield's Students' Union in 2010.[115]
In 2007, Izzard was listed as number 3 of the 100 Greatest British National Comedians (behind Peter Kay at number 2 and Billy Connolly at number 1) as part of British television station Channel 4's ongoing 100 Greatest ... series, and was ranked 5th in 2010.[118]
In 2013, Izzard received the 6th Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism,[119][120] which is presented at Harvard University each year by the Humanist Community at Harvard,[121] the American Humanist Association and the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.
In 2015, Izzard was chosen by readers of The Guardian as their 2014 public language champion. The award was announced at the Guardian and British Academy 2014 Schools Language Awards as part of the annual Language Festival.[122]
^Izzard went by Eddie as a personal name until 2023, when she prepended it with Suzy, saying "People can choose what they want. They can't make a mistake. They can't go wrong." She continues to use Eddie in professional contexts.[1][2]
^Izzard identifies as genderfluid and prefers she/her pronouns but "doesn't mind" he/him. This article uses she/her pronouns for consistency.[3][4]
^ abcDessau, Bruce (19 December 2003). "Going for bust". London Evening Standard. UK. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
^One Plus One: Eddie Izzard, Jane Hutcheon, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 6 February 2015, retrieved 12 October 2017{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Izzard, Eddie; Simon Amstell (11 February 2009). "Did You Die On Stage for Years?"(audio). Live from London: Eddie Izzard. Did You Die On Stage for Years?: iTunes Store. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
^Sutcliffe, Tom (20 December 2010). "The Weekend's TV: Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story, Sat". The Independent. Retrieved 25 October 2021. Sarah Townsend's intriguing film about the comedian began with a snippy and ill-informed report on the consumer programme, which accused him of recycling material from an old tour.
^Burrell, Ian (16 December 2010). "Tears are never far from ruining the make-up of Eddie Izzard". The Independent. Retrieved 25 October 2021. At least that has been the case since 2000, when Anne Robinson and the BBC's Watchdog threw a spanner into the works.
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