I had a great day at work last night...
Liquid is the name of the club where I'm a manager.
There was a big anti-racism thing at the football ground near where I live. Eddie Izzard has been very vocal in this area, and has been doing appearances throughout the UK lately in opposition to the BNP (British National Party. Border-line Nazis in my opinion...) and he was scheduled to appear at this gig. We were hosting the after-party, so I knew there was a chance that he would come over, and so I brought my DVD box set with me.
Sure enough, around 11:30, he casually walks down the road to our club. Awesome. I'm introduced to him as the manager, and he's lovely. Really nice guy.
I leave him alone for a while. He's in our VIP room with his assistant and someone else from his management. It doesn't take long before he's holding court, the centre of attention in the room. Nothing is too much trouble - pics, autographs, chatting to anyone who wants to. I don't want to bother him, but I can't let the chance to get it signed, so I ask him. "Sure. What's your name again? Tracey?" and he signs the box for me. I tell him I've been a fan for years, that I had the VHS box set way back in the day that came in a metal briefcase. "Oh, really? Well, seeing as you've been a fan for so long...", he then shook out all the individual boxes, and started signing each disc for me. I'm totally stunned at this point. I will confess to being star-struck... *blush*
Someone near-by said "Oh, I bet it just sits on the shelf gathering dust", "No, I watch them quite often..." right on cue, he opens a box and there's no disc in it... But that doesn't stop Eddie. He opened the box right out, takes out the slip cover and signs that instead.
We chat a little - he told me that he sometimes listens to his old stuff "because I'm that sad...". He said about he'd never been to Stoke before, but that sometimes doing gigs in small towns he gets a bigger reaction from the crowd. He told me about a gig he did in a small town in New Zealand, and they were one of the best audiences he's ever had.
I then go off to actually do some work. Now, when we have pseudo-celebs in our place, they don't venture out from the VIP area. You get the sense that they didn't want to mingle with the general plebs. So here we have a bonafide star. He's done films with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise... a proper celebrity. So imagine my surprise when I saw him in the middle of our dance floor, giving it some good-style. He was out there for about 90 mins, just enjoying it, not really being noticed by anyone.
As he leaves around 3:30am, that's when people spot him. More pics and autographs, no problems. I walk him out to the door, he thanked me and shook my hand, and he was gone.
Just awesome. What a great guy
I should have pics tomorrow... :)