WAY Overdue Recap Entry - Part 1: Eddie Izzard
First off, it's effing hot outside. I just got back from running a simple errand over to the post office. I had to drop an order off. Post office is like three or four miles away. But when you have no air conditioning and the feels-like temp outside is about 96F (35.5C) outside, you just sweat and sweat everywhere and don't dry off. I've been home like 20 minutes and I'm still hot. Ugh.
Anyway, that's not the point of the entry, I'm trying to play much belated catch-up on the past week or so, including my never-got-around-to-it write up of Eddie Izzard last Tuesday, June 17th. So let's get on with the show.
Cake Or Death? (Tuesday, June 17, 2008
This was the night I got to see Eddie Izzard doing his "Stripped" stand up show while on tour at Tampa Theatre. Let me first pause to tell you a little bit about Tampa Theatre. It was built in 1926 as one of America's "most elaborate movie palaces." And let me tell you, the place is weird. The decor is the most amazingly over the top you can imagine and yet it's really neat. Escaping demolition in the 1970's it went on to become listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a Tampa City Landmark. When it was opened, it was the first air conditioned building in Tampa. It's really a weird place and it's totally haunted. But it's a neat place just because of it's history and uniqueness.
View outside Tuesday night
And a quickie
video from outside the theater before the show. (Sorry about the crappy quality. It looked fine before I uploaded it. I think YouTube ate it during upload.)
A view of the lobby/concession area. (Not my photo)
A view inside the theater. (Not my photo) I really wasn't kidding about how over the top the decor is inside!
(Take a panoramic tour of the theater here.)
(When he came out on stage, he turned around to look at the walls, and decor and everything and said,
"Oh this is quite nice, isn't it?" He explained that he hadn't bothered with the sound check that day (
"I told 'em to fuck off" said in that humorous Eddie Izzard style) so this was the first time he'd seen the stage.)
We got there and when I gave my ticket to the usher, he said, "Oh! Congratulations! You're in the front row!" And sure enough, yup! We had gotten the tickets through a co-worker of Love's. She's friends with someone who handles shows and such at the Theatre and had access to reserved block of seats.
Hard to see, but this is the view from my front-row seat. I didn't take any photos during the show as they specifically said no pictures.
The seating chart gives you a better idea of where I was lucky enough to sit!
He started late; about 15 minutes past the 8pm show time. Someone said that they were trying to finish up with the lines in the lobby though I don't know that for sure. The first 15-20 minutes or so when he came out, he just kinda chatted, joked and babbled about this and that. He asked what "Tampa" meant (and he kept saying it really funny, like "TAM-PA" all bold and with a big break between the two syllables) and then he pulled out his iPhone and Wikipedia'd it. He joked quite a bit about Wikipedia and how up until only like "two years ago" if you wanted to know something - like how to make jam - you'd ask your friends and if they didn't know, you just had to go on not knowing. And now, though, with wikipedia, well...you can instantly learn how to make jam! And the whole world will know how to make jam together! He also joked about how slow the internet is on the iPhone but how that should change in July. He started reading something about Tampa very seriously, then looked up and said, "no, I'm just shitting you; I just made that up. I'm still waiting for it to load." He also commented about the heat and we shocked him by pointing out that even us residents aren't use to the heat. It was really funny. He literally bopped and danced around the stage all hyper little kid-like and just warmed up the crowd and himself. At one point, he's like,
"This isn't part of the show. I haven't started that yet." And we all laughed. (Of course, because he's fucking funny.)
The rest of the show was great. He said in the show, he'd talk about "everything" - and he was right. He started with the earth being formed 4.5 billion years ago. Joked about dinosaurs and the absurdity of people who dismiss all the amazing scientific facts about life on earth developing and randomly evolving and instead believing that the Earth is 7,000 years old. (
"I have only two problems with 'Intelligent Design.' Number one, the 'Intelligent' part. And secondly, the 'Design' part. Other than that, I think it's brilliant!") Went through historical events and civilizations and such and there's just no way I can even begin to touch on all of it. I mean...he's crazy. But in a good way. We laughed for the whole show (which was over two hours long.)
When he finished up, we applauded and gave him a standing ovation. He came back out for another 10 minutes or so as an encore. We were hoping that we'd get a chance possibly to meet with him backstage as the co-worker's friend can normally hook that up, but I guess he was leaving right after the show and wasn't going to do a meet. I don't know what happened because he did another show in Tampa the following night and I
think he did a meet after
that show but, either way, we just exited the theater after the show and didn't stick around to find out if what we were told was right or not.
We had a great time. He's so funny. And he really hops around and dances about and stuff on stage just like I've seen in the dvd's. He's so hyper I don't know how he does it. And he's so creative because you can tell that while he has an outline of where he wants to go joke-wise, a lot of it he just makes up on the spot and runs with it. WELL worth seeing and I'd definitely so see him again if he ever comes back to Tampa.
Oh yeah! And I even got a "Cake or Death" mug. Which totally rocks:
Ok, this has officially gone on really long, so I'm going to make a part 2 with the rest of the recap after the show. So more in a bit!
~ says the spring child
:: miss m ::
at 6/24/2008 03:57:00 PM ~
~
