Comic Stripped

Eddie Izzard's new tour jumps across the pond.

by A.D. Amorosi

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Unlike the con artist characters he's pegged to in film and television, Eddie Izzard is as mixed a bag as you can ask for. It's no shock when you consider the British actor and comedian's stream-of-consciousness-style standup, which he's bringing stateside on his Stripped tour. Here, he dishes on everything from R.E.M. to Vladimir Putin to why we should forgive Benedict Arnold already.

City Paper: Why do you think Americans have a fondness for imports like the Goons and the Pythons?

Eddie Izzard: I don't think there is a difference between English and American humor. Or Italian or French or German or Angolan. There's really — like films and music — mainstream and independent. R.E.M. hooks up with an independent audience no matter where they go. Same with Little Miss Sunshine. The alternative audience got Python. The mainstream audience in England still doesn't. Even The Office. They didn't need to do an American version, but marketers assume Americans are stupid.

CP: The film industry, as opposed to the theater industry, seems to like you as a wizened con man. Why do you think?

EI: You're trying to get but thousands into a theater and it can be a more discerning audience. When it comes to a film, they want to cast for the middle. Casting priorities are different so you look for a more salient way to get your point across — i.e., the way someone looks. You have to make it work to your advantage.

CP: Since you work totally stream-of-consciousness, do you ever find yourself totally bored in the middle of an idea or phrase?

EI: Oh yes. That's why it's so easy to change direction right in the middle. I might just find something more interesting. Sometimes, yes, I'm very much boring myself and need to change gears. Shame you can't do that in other mediums.

CP: Not counting what the Bush family has rendered, do you find the U.S. a humbler place these days?

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

EI: I don't know if humbler is the best word — it's more about national egos and how it is they flare and how it is politicians play upon that. Bush played it up. Putin is doing it now. But no matter what, things change. It's just like the argument regarding gay marriage. It'll happen, kid. We got it in Europe. It'll get there. That's the way society rustles.

CP: You're a history buff. What do you like in Philadelphia?

EI: Carpenter's Hall is my favorite of your places. 1774 is when everything started. I've been to Valley Forge. Benedict Arnold spent time there — he was its military commander, was he not?

CP: They didn't give him the keys, but he had his moment until he spent money that wasn't his to spend and switched sides.

EI: Yes, but Congress wasn't paying him. If you'd won the fucking Battle of Saratoga and got nothing for it, you'd be pissed, too.

Eddie Izzard Mon.-Wed., May 5-7, 8 p.m., $45-$65, Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., 215-731-3333, kimmelcenter.org