Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Live at the Ambassadors

Eddie Izzard

1993 · 87 min

A 1993 West End debut built on sprawling, tangent-heavy premises.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Eddie Izzard’s West End debut captures a comedian right on the precipice of international fame, working out the tangent-heavy rhythm that would define her career. Filmed at London’s Ambassadors Theatre in 1993, the show presents a pre-glamour Izzard. Wearing jeans, a jacket, and just a hint of nail varnish, she relies entirely on a sprawling stream of consciousness. The set jumps unpredictably from Agatha Christie trying to spell the word “ant” to the tactical warfare of supermarket checkout queues.

This performance introduced several premises that became staples of her repertoire. Izzard imagines cats operating power tools behind the living room sofa, dissects the futility of high school French lessons featuring monkeys in trees, and points out that Doctor Who’s Daleks can be completely defeated by a flight of stairs.

The original four-week run was extended twice due to ticket demand. It won a British Comedy Award for Top Stand Up Comedian and earned an Olivier Award nomination. Despite the critical validation, Izzard notoriously disliked her physical appearance on the tape and was dissatisfied with the performance rights. As a result, she blocked a DVD release, leaving this recording as a rare VHS-era snapshot of a performer finding her footing.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Raised by wolves

    Surreal storytelling exploring being reared by wild wolves.

  2. Le singe est dans l'arbre

    Riffing on rudimentary French language textbook phrases.

  3. Daleks and cows featuring James Mason and Sean Connery

    Performing impressions of James Mason (as God) and Sean Connery as cows encountering Daleks from Doctor Who.

  4. Dalek using a plunger

    Depicting a Dalek enlisting others to tilt him so he can unblock a sink with his plunger arm.

  5. Talkative person on a bus

    Observational comedy dissecting the non-verbal solidarity of passengers coping with a talkative stranger on public transit.

How it plays

Tone
Surreal, whimsical, eccentric, and broadly inclusive without aggressive or explicit shock humor.
On stage
Whimsical, floppy, and self-deprecating everyman who appears fallible, soft-voiced, and prone to losing her train of thought while maintaining complete stage control.
Pace
Unpredictable cadence and physical tempo, moving between arm-flailing and head-wobbling physicality, meandering musings, and conversational rambling.
About
Christian hymns and religion, talking animals, history and politics, cult television, wordplay and oddities of the English language, daily human impediments and absurdities

What the critics said

Regarded as a formative and slightly unpolished milestone displaying early, looser iterations of her signature surrealism before her material reached its subsequent peak refinement.

In the room: Extremely enthusiastic and prone to helpless, prolonged laughter; high demand pushed the initial 4-week engagement into multiple extensions.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, wikidata.org, themetropolitan.uk, unseenfilms.net, en.m.wikipedia.org, ciaranbrown.com.

Backstory

Filmed during Izzard's 1993 West End debut run, which began as a 4-week engagement and was extended due to demand; notably predated Izzard's full public transvestite/cross-dressing stage persona, with her appearing in relatively understated clothing with nail varnish.

Details

Released
Taped
Ambassadors Theatre, London
Runtime
87 min
Director
John Gordillo
Honors
British Comedy Award for Top Stand Up ComedianOlivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement
Topics
After
Unrepeatable (1994)

More from Eddie Izzard

If you liked this