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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Unrepeatable

Eddie Izzard

1994 · 75 min

A whimsical 1994 theater set focused on vampires, cats, and laundry.

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Eddie Izzard built a career on digression, treating microscopic nerdery with total glamour. The material that works best here isn’t broad commentary, but deeply specific, whimsical rabbit holes. She spends her time onstage imagining daytime vampires, analyzing the exact personalities of cats, and pitching the concept of free-range jam made from volunteer fruit. It is an exercise in taking the absolute most circuitous route to a punchline.

Filmed in March 1994 at London’s Albery Theatre, the taping captured a sold-out seven-week run. It served as the immediate follow-up to her massive theatrical breakout the year prior. Izzard uses the platform to casually assert her right to wear whatever she wants, pointing out that women wear what they please and she is simply doing the same. The set list itself functions as a time capsule of standard observational topics, including washing machine logic, grocery shopping, and Star Trek. However, her rambling delivery keeps the material distinctly off-kilter.

The set list

8 bits

  1. Are You Happy With Your Wash? / Washing machine routines

    Observational riff on the travails of laundry day and 'bizarre wash', imagining military special-ops missions occurring inside the washing machine and anthropomorphizing clothes ('Hello! Blue pants here!').

  2. Prince Charles and hecklers

    Explores Prince Charles' contemporary problems dealing with public hecklers.

  3. Bloke in a Dress / Cross-dressing

    Early standup material openly discussing transvestism and wearing dresses, laying the groundwork for her later famous routines.

  4. Secret Service in a crisis

    Muses on the breakdown of the Secret Service when confronting an attacker and shouting for 'Kev'.

  5. Cats and dogs

    Supplies hilarious interior monologues for pets, including cats drilling behind the sofa and the happy-go-lucky thoughts of dogs playing catch.

  6. Star Trek phasers

    Jokes about the logic of science fiction and inventing new phaser settings.

  7. Horror movies and Dracula

    Deconstructs conventions of classic horror cinema and Dracula.

  8. Auctioneers at Sotheby's

    A prolonged, surreal routine dissecting the mannerisms and practices of fine art auctioneers.

How it plays

Tone
Surreal, whimsical, observational, and mildly satirical.
On stage
Whimsical, intelligent, mildly surreal, and conversational; personifies inanimate objects and animals with distinct vocal characterizations.
Pace
Fast-moving mind where she pulls up in mid-flow leaving the audience racing to keep pace; fluid stream-of-consciousness delivery.
About
laundry and washing routines, cats and dogs, cross-dressing and transvestism, horror movies and Dracula, Star Trek, British royalty and hecklers

What the critics said

Met with critical acclaim and rave reviews; The Independent praised her agility noting the audience races to catch up with a mind that moves too quickly, while DVD Talk highlighted the perfection of her comedic voices and standout surreal routines.

In the room: Enthusiastic and engaged sold-out West End theater audience.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, comedydynamics.com, allmusic.com, dvdtalk.com, en.wikipedia.org, ciaranbrown.com.

Backstory

Filmed in March 1994 during a sold-out seven-week limited engagement at London's Albery Theatre playing to 34,000 people. At the time, Izzard performed without full drag or heavy makeup, presenting a more conventional look than in later specials.

Details

Released
Taped
Albery Theatre, London
Runtime
75 min
Director
John Gordillo
Topics
Before
Live at the Ambassadors (1993)
After
Definite Article (1996)

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