It was interesting watching this routine again in the context of this class. My dad has always thought Eddie was hilarious, so i have seen the special before, but by not just listening along and laughing, rather looking into his style and the construction of jokes.
The part that really got me in class on Wednesday was the Englebert Humperdink (i really don't want to look up how to spell that, sorry). The whole story of the change of name was great, but when he talked about how he died in a car crash, and then didn't let anyone know whether or not it was true, that just killed me. But wait, why? This man was a popular singer, not someone that anyone thinks about that often any more, and for some reason, there are an entire theater full of people laughing because they don't know whether or not he is dead. I doubt most of the people there could have told you with certainty when they walked in whether or not he was dead.
So the facial gestures of Eddie Izzard had an arena full of people nervously laughing about a man who might be dying or dead, who these people really don't care about, and without making a freakin' sounds for almost 2 min. That kind of virtuoso performance is why he remains one of the top comedians around today.
John's Little Kid Joke of the Week:
Why can't you tell if there is an elephant in the cherry tree?
He is wearing red sneakers
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John, I am completely with you here, and I actually wrote about this on my blog as well. I thought that Izzard's facial expressions during that scene were absolutely priceless. He managed to control a full theater for well over a minute just by messing with their heads, and not in the traditional sense. How many comics would be able to do that? Very few, if any, I can think of.
ReplyDeleteThis, in my mind, was the single best piece of comedy we have seen this year. And go figure, it was all physical.