Nothing comes close to the Golden Coast: The Top Ten Things We Did in LA (Part 2 of 3)
Part 2 of our epic LA Trip of epicness here! On to the Izzard portion of our evening.
Back to Part 1: http://reezoo.livejournal.com/11531.html
9. EDDIE IZZARD! Screening of Believe and Q&A (tl;dr!)
Eddie Izzard has spoiled me for all other comedians. Not only is he ridiculously funny as all get out and very good at physical comedy, but his brand of humor is at times unapologetically cerebral. Who else would dare to do a whole bit on the history of the world using big five dollar words? And manage to keep the audience enthralled the entire time? No one else, that's who.
In short, I adore him.
The first night we were in LA, L_T (who introduced Nyu and me to him in the first place and is an epic fan), and follows Eddie on Twitter, got this message on her fancy phone:
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/status/20099778921
We're like, that's tomorrow night. We're IN LA. We can physically go, OMG. :D We debated whether it would be worth it to even try-they could only guarantee seats for the first 20 fans, and after that who knows-but we decided to go anyway and hope we could get it.
And we did! :D
We got seats off to the side, several rows back. I am pretty sure I will never, if I manage to see him in concert one day, get seats that close to him ever again; it was fabulous. The theater was filled nicely, but definitely not full by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm glad we were all optimistic and made the attempt. Eddie was out in the front of the theatre with an entourage of people and a video camera when I got there (I had dropped Nyu and L_T off and then parked the car in the theatre's parking terrace.) I tried to dodge the camera lens and not be a crazy fan and just walk in nonchalantly, but I did get a glimpse of him, looking dazzling and dapper as always in a well cut suit and his amazing facial hair. (He is a lot shorter than I pictured, LOL. Now I see why the heels are so essential.)
So what were we there for, exactly? It was a screening of the doc about him called "Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story" (Emmy nominated, hooray), followed by a Q&A with him and the filmmaker, his friend (and ex, hah) Sarah Townsend. We got free Believe posters afterwords, and I even snagged a signed one! Amazing, amazing night.
You can see the doc online for free, Eddie commands you:
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/statuses/20160078956
http://www.epixhd.com/believe-the-eddie-izzard-story/
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/status/21531325765
It took seven years for her to make the doc, apparently, collecting footage during that time, and it was her first doc ever, but it was so, so amazing. Very, very impressive for a first timer. In it she let Eddie be funny and be himself, and skillfully handled the tragedies and disappointments of his life when they arose. The doc would go from something hysterical to heartbreaking to poignant in mere moments, and yet it never felt disjointed. That is tricky to do, but she pulled it off beautifully.
I think the greatest thing about it was that, despite being about Eddie, its overarching concept, the thread running through all of it, tied all of its parts together so well: the idea that, no matter what, you must believe in yourself and not give up, that if you keep trying you can make the things you want for your life to happen. Eddie's story, by doing that, becomes OUR story, a symbolic story of perseverance that we all need to be reminded of, when we are close to giving up and taking the easier path in life. He reminds us that we need to believe. Simple yet profound.
(I really, REALLY need that message at this moment-I have been struggling with my path in life-mid-quarter life crisis?-and working up enough courage in the last year or so to finally follow my dreams, and it was a very timely reminder to stick to that path. I need to buy this doc and put it on whenever I am feeling low, I think; the humor will snap me out of my funk, and the message will inspire me to stay on the course and have faith in myself. And I have Eddie and Sarah to thank for the inspiration; I owe them both a giant debt of gratitude.)
Oh, and it has marvelous little animated segues using photos of Eddie and places in his life that they made in Flash! They used them as chapter headings to separate one section of the doc from the other. I absolutely adored them, they were so beautifully done. Apparently they were an homage to Monty Python; you can tell that, yet they were their own unique thing as well. Eddie is a huge Terry Gilliam fan. Sarah said that they are wildly different from their original concept, yet she feels they are truer to his story than what she had initially planed to do.
The only crazy WTF moment of the night came when they opened up the Q&A to the audience members in attendance (Why is this always a Russian roulette move? Why are fans so weird and always make this such a horrible, horrible idea?) The very first girl to raise her hand stood up in the front row and asked, and I am not even joking with you but this IS what she asked: "So, first question: cut or uncut? My husband really wants to know. Second question: if you could be any James Bond villain, which one would you be?"
D:
OMGGGGGGG, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING. Questions, you're doin' it wrong, idiot!!! I'm pretty sure I gasped out loud, and everyone else in the audience was completely stunned. She realized her error quickly, you could tell, but by then it was too late. Eddie, for his part, totally didn't understand the first question, thank goodness-apparently circumcision is NOT part of his cultural vocabulary, LOL-and he apparently was never a big James Bond fan so he skipped answering the second one as well. He actually said something along the lines of why don't we stick to questions about the movie? D: Total drive-by toolbagging, I could not believe it. Luckily everyone else after that asked appropriate questions, many actually related to the screened film, whut. I know, crazy, to ask questions about the film we just saw. So the night was salvaged, but only just. OMG still cringing from the memory of that.
There was a reception afterwords, with fancy finger foods and Eddie milling about, but we didn't stay, just grabbed out posters and went. What would I have said, other than brilliant film, you have no idea how you've inspired me, and then somehow end up making a fool of myself? Better to walk off, a woman of mystery.
And because rainbowstright sorta demanded it, below I've typed up all the notes I took during the thing (because yes I take notes at everything, shup don't laugh at meeeeee)
REEZOO's NOTES: SPOILERS GALORE FOR THE DOC BTW
• My fave lines/quotes of the doc:
- It's psychological, you've just got to believe
- You've got to believe you are an actor before you can act, you've got to believe you are an artist before you become one, that you ARE a stand up before you do stand up (I am horribly misquoting, boo, I was scribbling my chickenscratch with pencil in the dark)
- People will cut you down and try to tell you you are mad for believing you can do it; when you succeed you prove to them, oh by the way, I wasn't mad after all; you just need to hold on to that belief you are not mad
- The purpose of life is to live it; get it, grab it, if fear gets in the way push the fear back
- Someone asked him when he went into movies, why go and be a so-so actor when you are a brilliant comedian? His answer was because once I was a so-so comedian :D
- It scares the crap out of me...that's why I've gotta do it
- He is afraid of stopping. Slow down? No, it is time to speed up; has people on board now to help him do this
- Everything he does is to try to get his mom back (she died when he was a boy); it's like maybe if he does enough things, she'll come back ;__;
- Question: are you running towards something or away from something? His answer: I think they meet in the middle
- Stake out an identity that is memorable
• Sarah, the director of the film, he really trusts her opinion. Early on in his career when he was dating her, because of her lit background (He compared them by calling it the world of lit vs. the world of talking crap), he decided that if SHE of all people found it funny than it MUST be funny (so she influenced his sense of humor, in a way, huzzah!) It is nice to see that not all relationships, when they end, have to end; and maybe, just maybe, if you are lucky that ex you are friends with still will make a lovely doc of you, hah.
• He explained where one of his best comedic bits, the conversations between two people, came about. (ie the "cake or death" type of back and forth dialogue; not that joke in particular, but the whole orchestration of it.) In his younger days he did street performing at festivals, and began doing comedic bits with a partner; he didn't trust himself to be funny enough to grab an audience on his own or something. But their duo ran into problems, and Eddie decided screw this, I'll go off on my own. But he kept the idea of the comedic dialogue, just performing both parts himself, and still uses that in his stand up. :D (And I love him for doing it.)
• Eddie learned how to be a flame thrower and a unicyclist in the course of his street performing, yay.
• He willingly signed up to be the MC at comedy clubs, a job everyone usually avoids like the plague; his skills at engaging the audience and wrangling their attention that he had learned as a street performer helped him be good at it. He became remembered by people that way, and it led to him getting chances to do his own stand up gigs.
• After his mom died his dad sent him to boarding school; in that environment he sort of retreated inward. There he would make up these little stories with stuffed animals and things and act them out and film them; they had some footage of it in the doc, OMG so cute! Reminded me of me and Nyu as kids. Apparently even the headmaster got to see these plays; years later when he got into contact with him again, the headmaster had completely forgotten who Eddie was but remembered his skits. :D There were teddy bears. The civil engineer in him was as obsessed about putting up curtains too and making them work as he was about doing the actual show. He was also more excited about doing the show than coming up with actual material to perform in the show, hah; material for it was like an afterthought. He sold tickets to see it. <3
• In the most heartbreaking scene of the doc, EDDIE CRIES. D: HE is talking/thinking about his mum, and the tears come, and I just wanted to curl him up in my arms and hug all his pain away. A very raw scene.
• The big event that we keep coming back to in the doc, is the new show that Eddie is writing brand new standup for and practicing it on test audiences and then performing it. This occurred after the Watchdog program came out and accused him of recycling material. I guess it bothered him so much-he said that he is very sensitive to negative comments, one neg in a sea of positives and he zooms in on that-so that accusation was the impetus for him to halt doing standup for a while. D: So, so stupid; there were literal gasps in the crowd and utter silence when the doc touched on this. So the bits we saw were part of his attempted return into standup after that hiatus.
• In the Q&A, Sarah said that the dilemma was telling the story of someone you know so well, as she does with Eddie; when you know someone like that, the story you want to tell is not necessarily that people outside of that relationship want to watch. You have to be objective about it; she had to figure out what parts of Eddie to take and share publicly. She decided to focus on the wanting so much that he had, his struggle to get people to listen to him; to her his brilliance is in the getting up again, his continuing to struggle when others would give in and decide it's not meant to be. She decided to show that side of him to us.
• Creepy mod for the Q&A was creepy; at the beginning he was totally hitting on Sarah. He basically said, so I didn't realize until just now that you and Eddie aren't together, I though you were...you are absolutely stunning in person...what are you doing after the show? D: And I don't think he was joking. It was kinda awkward to watch. She handled it beautifully though, I should have taken notes on her responses; like a masterclass in skillfully turning a guy down in public.
• I now get the whole thing on his twitter bio where he's all "I think like an American", because he went into great depth on that mindset in the Q&A. He said that when you grow up in this country (Britain) you don't even think that doing something like filmmaking is a viable option for a career. The European mindset is, according to him, 'who are you to think you'll succeed?' They find it embarrassing if they have to work at achieving their goals. (His words, not mine.) That Americans, in contrast, don't believe it's in the stars that they are going to fail, and they are not embarrassed by failure or having to struggle to achieve what they want, they just dust themselves off and keep trying again and encourage others to do likewise. That anyone can tap into the American dream; the immigrants who originally came here to find that kind of freedom and opportunity weren't born Americans, after all-the American dream is the HUMAN dream. If Americans achieve the human dream, well, duh, they're SUPPOSED TO, they're already Americans for crying out loud. :) He wants to get that dream out to the Europeans, to help them create their own sort of dream. He calls the American dream the European dream now, because he wants them actually to HAVE one, that they can strive to achieve. You have big plans, now get out there and build them; that is the American dream.
• And an interesting discussion of BP came up during the Q&A. The gist was that Eddie's father worked for a company that was not well known until now, ie BP. The mod totally went on the warpath against BP and both Eddie and Sarah were kind of taken aback. Eddie's dad worked for BP for years and years (it was why he was born in Yemen I believe, part of his dad's job took him there?), and so he doesn't view BP as this evil company; neither did Sarah. When asked by the mod how she could defend them, Sarah was all, I'm not defending them, I'm attacking all the others equally (all the groups making that disaster the massive fail that is was, in addition to BP.) Eddie had a funny bit to lighten the mood, which will not be funny typed up, but he was like, what's the force pushing the oil out? OH IT'S THE EARTH. To imply not all the factors involved in that disaster came from BP alone. (Yeah, so not funny typed up. All the humor during the Q&A will be that way, I'm afraid, but I'm so gonna try!)
• Eddie was a determined child; it's a DNA thing, his father was the same way. He obviously loves and admires his dad immensely; he said that because his dad did not take any big weird chances, he set up a stable environment for Eddie to be raised in, so that HE could be the one to go out and take the ridiculous chances. That his dad did this sneaky thing at BP where he set up all the files so that he became an essential part of the system that could not be easily fired, hah; Eddie said he has that same kind of sneakiness himself.
• He did this big funny thing about cows; something about his dad getting into cows or something? That he was a cow man pretending to be a shepherd. He made fun of the dogies term-they are not dogies they are cowsies, that is not a dog-and that they didn't have great distances to let the cows run like you do in America so they pushed them? (Gah my notes, what is the point of taking them if I don't understand them and ruin all the jokes? I'm so, so sorry guys.)
• Sarah felt that Eddie's story was the story of a creative life; that she's watched and loved his work, which is beautifully crafted yet so loose and adaptable. Also, that the amount of calculation in his career is astounding, I can't remember what she meant by that.
• Talked a bit about military stuff; SAS, a delta force equivalent? Something. That spilled over into a conversation about Nazis, and that for him the funnest things to kill in video games are Nazis, especially with big guns. That killing zombie Nazis is especially satisfying; he loves Call of Duty, if anyone is interested. ;) I'm not a big gamer but I thought that was a fun fact.
• He doesn't want to let rock and roll have all the fun; he wants to play arenas, hangers, etc. When he started out standups just did not do big venues; however he likes the boldness, the theatricality of it.
• His first gig in NY was playing Washington Square Park. <3 (I love that square!)
• People told him that his biggest challenge, after becoming relatively famous in Britain, would be to take his comedy to America. He dismissed this notion; to him humor is humor, it is not a national thing; he just takes out the overly British bits in America and it's all good. For him, it's not British vs America or British vs French or whatever, it is actually mainstream vs alternative. In all developed countries, his main audience is the alternative audience, and he recognizes that. Monty Python, for example, a big influence on him, was made for a British audience, yet it worked over here too. The trick is NOT to change anything.
• Apparently the reason he decided to perform in France, speaking French, is not because he was fluent in the language but because it just seemed like a crazy thing to try. ;) They showed bits of him in the doc practicing in small French venues; he kept ruining the punchlines because he forgot his vocabulary and would have to stop to ask the audience what the word was! :D He got better, obviously. He likes performing in the real language now, of he countries he visits.
• Someone asked him in the Q&A how he thinks his life would have been different if his mom had never died. D: A potential minefield, but he ran with the question and I found his answers interesting. He said that logically there is a desperation in his performing, a need to perform, that would not have been there had she been around while he was growing up, a constant reassuring presence. His mother did amateur dramatics in her spare time; he mused that had she remained alive, he probably would have been a very good accountant doing amateur dramatics on the side. Would he swap it all, his career and everything, to get her back? Yes, he would, and he was very, very sincere on that. When he finally came out to his dad that he was a transvestite, his dad told him, I'm okay with it, and I think your mom would be too if she were alive. That was very important for him to hear.
• The first time he came out publicly as an executive transvestite was actually on TV, at the end run of something. The first time he wore woman's clothes doing standup onstage was, he believed but sounded hesitant about it, at the Comedy Store in London. (In '92 he had done 1 or 2 shows in costume? My notes are fuzzy about that.) He said it was a calculated risk; if they didn't laugh at his jokes, at least he could blow them out the window somehow. A lot of people in America think it is a desperate gimmick of sorts, his dressing in women's clothing, to help him become famous over here; not true he said. He was famous already over in Britain, for his standup, and came out later; his period of coming out just coincided with his attempt to do comedy in America too. He felt like he HAD to tell people; comedy is about honesty, and he wanted to be honest with his audience. He decided he needed some sex, some sheen to his personae, so that's when he switched from blah suits and skirts and the like to the glamor stuff he does now, the leather pants and stilletos and sharp suits and all that. (There is a bit in the doc showing the progression of his fashion, LOL.)
• There were running Dune jokes throughout the Q&A about worms? I've never read it, I was so lost during those. Something about like Dune, you take the water, then ride the worms? That it was so useful to ride on a worm. (I give up trying to make sense of all that, sorry.)
• He likes standup and acting both, but it sounded like he won't be jumping to do any more plays any time soon. He said the problem with plays as opposed to other mediums is that it it less organic; in plays you have to follow the playwright's words as written, you can't just do tangents on the fly, whereas his strength lies in spontaneous comedy. It is a different skill set. You can't be talking about killing people onstage and then be all-have you ever ridden a worm? (Yet another Dune joke, OMG.) It just doesn't work.
• Someone asked what famous actors/actresses he liked and respected. He said Philip Seymour Hoffman, but he seemed rather overwhelmed at answering the question. He said it is interesting how many comedians are fascinated with doing drama.
• Eddie is rather obsessed with Orson Welles; he finds the man fascinating, constantly played his BBC productions. In the doc Sarah got a picture of a still of Welles in Citizen Kane, surrounded by all the newspapers; it transitions to a pic of Eddie in a similar manner, surrounded by boxes; the similarity was quite stunning. Apparently it was one of those lovely serendipitous things that just spontaneously came about while making the doc. While talking about it in the Q&A, Sarah turned to him and was like, OMG that's what you are! (The idea that he is trying to be like Orson Welles.) Eddie said he researched him, and what was he like? An A-hole. ;) But it's kind of a catch-22 thing; because he had an ego he was able to believe in himself and accomplish great things. He did this bit pretending to be Orson Welles: DO IT LIKE THIS. Good, now let's go get potato chips. (Poking fun at Welles' weight probs later in life.)
• They talked openly about the whole Watchdog debacle. Apparently it is this show designed to expose dodgy criminals; people who steal pensioners' money and all that. A good service against consumer fraud in the UK. Well, apparently it just so happened that at that moment Eddie was transitioning from one level of his comedy to another-from a small, intimate set of fans to a broader set of them. And the new fans did not understand how his standup works, that he was doing it the way he knew best but it had been advertised differently. So they felt they were getting ripped off at the shows, and reported him to the program. (Idiots.) His standup at the beginning of a run is very different than the same gig at the end; he morphs the jokes, and they didn't know that. He was like, you don't go to a concert of the Rolling Stones and then complain they are playing the same old songs, do you? His show is the same type of thing. So he was completely thrown by the accusation when it happened.
• There was a joke about being hoisted by his petard-related to the Watchdog stuff-and Eddie spun it off into a joke about being hoisted by his leotard? (Why the crap did I write this down? What is the context? Writing a summary of an event three weeks after it occurs is apparently bad, who knew. Oh well I'm doing my best.)
• Someone asked what's next for him in the future. He said mostly feature acting and standup, maybe TV gigs in LA. He blatantly asked someone to give him a show, LOL. (Something in there about Treasure Island and Long John Silver? And Paris? I don't know.) He would love to sell out big stadiums and perform standup in them, like a rock concert. I swear he said he was going to do a certain eastern European country in their native language, but I'm a bit fuzzy on that.
• Sarah said in making a documentary it forces you to be disciplined; you cannot take responsibility for doing everything, and she learned to delegate. From top to bottom of making the doc there was no financing, so a lot of starts and stops in the process of getting it done, hence the seven years it took to complete it.
• Eddie touched on politics briefly. He is a social progressive, joined the party in '95. He would love to go into politics, but his comedic career would need to be in deep hibernation to do so, then if things blew up for him he could always get back into it, like a paddling pool. (His view of politics is different than mine, LOL; he described himself as being a social democrat because he believes in safety nets and individuals making things-which is rather simplistic and in direct contrast to his desire for individual achievement and celebration of failure and capitalism, I think? Ah well, I loves him anyway.)
• Sarah said that there was a great need for moments of revelation in the doc; a threading of the serious and the comedy together. The scene about his mom, where he cries, was an out of body experience for him; he honestly did not know what he was saying when he said it. It was a big breakthrough for him, to crack that and be that emotionally vulnerable. It wasn't an uncomfortable moment, but it did throw him. Sarah said she was thinking at the time she was filming that, OMG I've finally got something! :)
• He repeated once more in the Q&A, that yes, he would swap it all and be an accountant if she could come back.
• He said that Believe is not the story of him, it is the story of anyone who is fighting. Good luck to those who are still fighting.
*dies from writing notespam*
On to the last part! http://reezoo.livejournal.com/12227.html
Back to Part 1: http://reezoo.livejournal.com/11531.html
9. EDDIE IZZARD! Screening of Believe and Q&A (tl;dr!)
Eddie Izzard has spoiled me for all other comedians. Not only is he ridiculously funny as all get out and very good at physical comedy, but his brand of humor is at times unapologetically cerebral. Who else would dare to do a whole bit on the history of the world using big five dollar words? And manage to keep the audience enthralled the entire time? No one else, that's who.
Click to viewIn short, I adore him.
The first night we were in LA, L_T (who introduced Nyu and me to him in the first place and is an epic fan), and follows Eddie on Twitter, got this message on her fancy phone:
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/status/20099778921
We're like, that's tomorrow night. We're IN LA. We can physically go, OMG. :D We debated whether it would be worth it to even try-they could only guarantee seats for the first 20 fans, and after that who knows-but we decided to go anyway and hope we could get it.
And we did! :D
We got seats off to the side, several rows back. I am pretty sure I will never, if I manage to see him in concert one day, get seats that close to him ever again; it was fabulous. The theater was filled nicely, but definitely not full by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm glad we were all optimistic and made the attempt. Eddie was out in the front of the theatre with an entourage of people and a video camera when I got there (I had dropped Nyu and L_T off and then parked the car in the theatre's parking terrace.) I tried to dodge the camera lens and not be a crazy fan and just walk in nonchalantly, but I did get a glimpse of him, looking dazzling and dapper as always in a well cut suit and his amazing facial hair. (He is a lot shorter than I pictured, LOL. Now I see why the heels are so essential.)
So what were we there for, exactly? It was a screening of the doc about him called "Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story" (Emmy nominated, hooray), followed by a Q&A with him and the filmmaker, his friend (and ex, hah) Sarah Townsend. We got free Believe posters afterwords, and I even snagged a signed one! Amazing, amazing night.
You can see the doc online for free, Eddie commands you:
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/statuses/20160078956
http://www.epixhd.com/believe-the-eddie-izzard-story/
http://twitter.com/eddieizzard/status/21531325765
It took seven years for her to make the doc, apparently, collecting footage during that time, and it was her first doc ever, but it was so, so amazing. Very, very impressive for a first timer. In it she let Eddie be funny and be himself, and skillfully handled the tragedies and disappointments of his life when they arose. The doc would go from something hysterical to heartbreaking to poignant in mere moments, and yet it never felt disjointed. That is tricky to do, but she pulled it off beautifully.
I think the greatest thing about it was that, despite being about Eddie, its overarching concept, the thread running through all of it, tied all of its parts together so well: the idea that, no matter what, you must believe in yourself and not give up, that if you keep trying you can make the things you want for your life to happen. Eddie's story, by doing that, becomes OUR story, a symbolic story of perseverance that we all need to be reminded of, when we are close to giving up and taking the easier path in life. He reminds us that we need to believe. Simple yet profound.
(I really, REALLY need that message at this moment-I have been struggling with my path in life-mid-quarter life crisis?-and working up enough courage in the last year or so to finally follow my dreams, and it was a very timely reminder to stick to that path. I need to buy this doc and put it on whenever I am feeling low, I think; the humor will snap me out of my funk, and the message will inspire me to stay on the course and have faith in myself. And I have Eddie and Sarah to thank for the inspiration; I owe them both a giant debt of gratitude.)
Oh, and it has marvelous little animated segues using photos of Eddie and places in his life that they made in Flash! They used them as chapter headings to separate one section of the doc from the other. I absolutely adored them, they were so beautifully done. Apparently they were an homage to Monty Python; you can tell that, yet they were their own unique thing as well. Eddie is a huge Terry Gilliam fan. Sarah said that they are wildly different from their original concept, yet she feels they are truer to his story than what she had initially planed to do.
The only crazy WTF moment of the night came when they opened up the Q&A to the audience members in attendance (Why is this always a Russian roulette move? Why are fans so weird and always make this such a horrible, horrible idea?) The very first girl to raise her hand stood up in the front row and asked, and I am not even joking with you but this IS what she asked: "So, first question: cut or uncut? My husband really wants to know. Second question: if you could be any James Bond villain, which one would you be?"
D:
OMGGGGGGG, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING. Questions, you're doin' it wrong, idiot!!! I'm pretty sure I gasped out loud, and everyone else in the audience was completely stunned. She realized her error quickly, you could tell, but by then it was too late. Eddie, for his part, totally didn't understand the first question, thank goodness-apparently circumcision is NOT part of his cultural vocabulary, LOL-and he apparently was never a big James Bond fan so he skipped answering the second one as well. He actually said something along the lines of why don't we stick to questions about the movie? D: Total drive-by toolbagging, I could not believe it. Luckily everyone else after that asked appropriate questions, many actually related to the screened film, whut. I know, crazy, to ask questions about the film we just saw. So the night was salvaged, but only just. OMG still cringing from the memory of that.
There was a reception afterwords, with fancy finger foods and Eddie milling about, but we didn't stay, just grabbed out posters and went. What would I have said, other than brilliant film, you have no idea how you've inspired me, and then somehow end up making a fool of myself? Better to walk off, a woman of mystery.
And because rainbowstright sorta demanded it, below I've typed up all the notes I took during the thing (because yes I take notes at everything, shup don't laugh at meeeeee)
REEZOO's NOTES: SPOILERS GALORE FOR THE DOC BTW
• My fave lines/quotes of the doc:
- It's psychological, you've just got to believe
- You've got to believe you are an actor before you can act, you've got to believe you are an artist before you become one, that you ARE a stand up before you do stand up (I am horribly misquoting, boo, I was scribbling my chickenscratch with pencil in the dark)
- People will cut you down and try to tell you you are mad for believing you can do it; when you succeed you prove to them, oh by the way, I wasn't mad after all; you just need to hold on to that belief you are not mad
- The purpose of life is to live it; get it, grab it, if fear gets in the way push the fear back
- Someone asked him when he went into movies, why go and be a so-so actor when you are a brilliant comedian? His answer was because once I was a so-so comedian :D
- It scares the crap out of me...that's why I've gotta do it
- He is afraid of stopping. Slow down? No, it is time to speed up; has people on board now to help him do this
- Everything he does is to try to get his mom back (she died when he was a boy); it's like maybe if he does enough things, she'll come back ;__;
- Question: are you running towards something or away from something? His answer: I think they meet in the middle
- Stake out an identity that is memorable
• Sarah, the director of the film, he really trusts her opinion. Early on in his career when he was dating her, because of her lit background (He compared them by calling it the world of lit vs. the world of talking crap), he decided that if SHE of all people found it funny than it MUST be funny (so she influenced his sense of humor, in a way, huzzah!) It is nice to see that not all relationships, when they end, have to end; and maybe, just maybe, if you are lucky that ex you are friends with still will make a lovely doc of you, hah.
• He explained where one of his best comedic bits, the conversations between two people, came about. (ie the "cake or death" type of back and forth dialogue; not that joke in particular, but the whole orchestration of it.) In his younger days he did street performing at festivals, and began doing comedic bits with a partner; he didn't trust himself to be funny enough to grab an audience on his own or something. But their duo ran into problems, and Eddie decided screw this, I'll go off on my own. But he kept the idea of the comedic dialogue, just performing both parts himself, and still uses that in his stand up. :D (And I love him for doing it.)
• Eddie learned how to be a flame thrower and a unicyclist in the course of his street performing, yay.
• He willingly signed up to be the MC at comedy clubs, a job everyone usually avoids like the plague; his skills at engaging the audience and wrangling their attention that he had learned as a street performer helped him be good at it. He became remembered by people that way, and it led to him getting chances to do his own stand up gigs.
• After his mom died his dad sent him to boarding school; in that environment he sort of retreated inward. There he would make up these little stories with stuffed animals and things and act them out and film them; they had some footage of it in the doc, OMG so cute! Reminded me of me and Nyu as kids. Apparently even the headmaster got to see these plays; years later when he got into contact with him again, the headmaster had completely forgotten who Eddie was but remembered his skits. :D There were teddy bears. The civil engineer in him was as obsessed about putting up curtains too and making them work as he was about doing the actual show. He was also more excited about doing the show than coming up with actual material to perform in the show, hah; material for it was like an afterthought. He sold tickets to see it. <3
• In the most heartbreaking scene of the doc, EDDIE CRIES. D: HE is talking/thinking about his mum, and the tears come, and I just wanted to curl him up in my arms and hug all his pain away. A very raw scene.
• The big event that we keep coming back to in the doc, is the new show that Eddie is writing brand new standup for and practicing it on test audiences and then performing it. This occurred after the Watchdog program came out and accused him of recycling material. I guess it bothered him so much-he said that he is very sensitive to negative comments, one neg in a sea of positives and he zooms in on that-so that accusation was the impetus for him to halt doing standup for a while. D: So, so stupid; there were literal gasps in the crowd and utter silence when the doc touched on this. So the bits we saw were part of his attempted return into standup after that hiatus.
• In the Q&A, Sarah said that the dilemma was telling the story of someone you know so well, as she does with Eddie; when you know someone like that, the story you want to tell is not necessarily that people outside of that relationship want to watch. You have to be objective about it; she had to figure out what parts of Eddie to take and share publicly. She decided to focus on the wanting so much that he had, his struggle to get people to listen to him; to her his brilliance is in the getting up again, his continuing to struggle when others would give in and decide it's not meant to be. She decided to show that side of him to us.
• Creepy mod for the Q&A was creepy; at the beginning he was totally hitting on Sarah. He basically said, so I didn't realize until just now that you and Eddie aren't together, I though you were...you are absolutely stunning in person...what are you doing after the show? D: And I don't think he was joking. It was kinda awkward to watch. She handled it beautifully though, I should have taken notes on her responses; like a masterclass in skillfully turning a guy down in public.
• I now get the whole thing on his twitter bio where he's all "I think like an American", because he went into great depth on that mindset in the Q&A. He said that when you grow up in this country (Britain) you don't even think that doing something like filmmaking is a viable option for a career. The European mindset is, according to him, 'who are you to think you'll succeed?' They find it embarrassing if they have to work at achieving their goals. (His words, not mine.) That Americans, in contrast, don't believe it's in the stars that they are going to fail, and they are not embarrassed by failure or having to struggle to achieve what they want, they just dust themselves off and keep trying again and encourage others to do likewise. That anyone can tap into the American dream; the immigrants who originally came here to find that kind of freedom and opportunity weren't born Americans, after all-the American dream is the HUMAN dream. If Americans achieve the human dream, well, duh, they're SUPPOSED TO, they're already Americans for crying out loud. :) He wants to get that dream out to the Europeans, to help them create their own sort of dream. He calls the American dream the European dream now, because he wants them actually to HAVE one, that they can strive to achieve. You have big plans, now get out there and build them; that is the American dream.
• And an interesting discussion of BP came up during the Q&A. The gist was that Eddie's father worked for a company that was not well known until now, ie BP. The mod totally went on the warpath against BP and both Eddie and Sarah were kind of taken aback. Eddie's dad worked for BP for years and years (it was why he was born in Yemen I believe, part of his dad's job took him there?), and so he doesn't view BP as this evil company; neither did Sarah. When asked by the mod how she could defend them, Sarah was all, I'm not defending them, I'm attacking all the others equally (all the groups making that disaster the massive fail that is was, in addition to BP.) Eddie had a funny bit to lighten the mood, which will not be funny typed up, but he was like, what's the force pushing the oil out? OH IT'S THE EARTH. To imply not all the factors involved in that disaster came from BP alone. (Yeah, so not funny typed up. All the humor during the Q&A will be that way, I'm afraid, but I'm so gonna try!)
• Eddie was a determined child; it's a DNA thing, his father was the same way. He obviously loves and admires his dad immensely; he said that because his dad did not take any big weird chances, he set up a stable environment for Eddie to be raised in, so that HE could be the one to go out and take the ridiculous chances. That his dad did this sneaky thing at BP where he set up all the files so that he became an essential part of the system that could not be easily fired, hah; Eddie said he has that same kind of sneakiness himself.
• He did this big funny thing about cows; something about his dad getting into cows or something? That he was a cow man pretending to be a shepherd. He made fun of the dogies term-they are not dogies they are cowsies, that is not a dog-and that they didn't have great distances to let the cows run like you do in America so they pushed them? (Gah my notes, what is the point of taking them if I don't understand them and ruin all the jokes? I'm so, so sorry guys.)
• Sarah felt that Eddie's story was the story of a creative life; that she's watched and loved his work, which is beautifully crafted yet so loose and adaptable. Also, that the amount of calculation in his career is astounding, I can't remember what she meant by that.
• Talked a bit about military stuff; SAS, a delta force equivalent? Something. That spilled over into a conversation about Nazis, and that for him the funnest things to kill in video games are Nazis, especially with big guns. That killing zombie Nazis is especially satisfying; he loves Call of Duty, if anyone is interested. ;) I'm not a big gamer but I thought that was a fun fact.
• He doesn't want to let rock and roll have all the fun; he wants to play arenas, hangers, etc. When he started out standups just did not do big venues; however he likes the boldness, the theatricality of it.
• His first gig in NY was playing Washington Square Park. <3 (I love that square!)
• People told him that his biggest challenge, after becoming relatively famous in Britain, would be to take his comedy to America. He dismissed this notion; to him humor is humor, it is not a national thing; he just takes out the overly British bits in America and it's all good. For him, it's not British vs America or British vs French or whatever, it is actually mainstream vs alternative. In all developed countries, his main audience is the alternative audience, and he recognizes that. Monty Python, for example, a big influence on him, was made for a British audience, yet it worked over here too. The trick is NOT to change anything.
• Apparently the reason he decided to perform in France, speaking French, is not because he was fluent in the language but because it just seemed like a crazy thing to try. ;) They showed bits of him in the doc practicing in small French venues; he kept ruining the punchlines because he forgot his vocabulary and would have to stop to ask the audience what the word was! :D He got better, obviously. He likes performing in the real language now, of he countries he visits.
• Someone asked him in the Q&A how he thinks his life would have been different if his mom had never died. D: A potential minefield, but he ran with the question and I found his answers interesting. He said that logically there is a desperation in his performing, a need to perform, that would not have been there had she been around while he was growing up, a constant reassuring presence. His mother did amateur dramatics in her spare time; he mused that had she remained alive, he probably would have been a very good accountant doing amateur dramatics on the side. Would he swap it all, his career and everything, to get her back? Yes, he would, and he was very, very sincere on that. When he finally came out to his dad that he was a transvestite, his dad told him, I'm okay with it, and I think your mom would be too if she were alive. That was very important for him to hear.
• The first time he came out publicly as an executive transvestite was actually on TV, at the end run of something. The first time he wore woman's clothes doing standup onstage was, he believed but sounded hesitant about it, at the Comedy Store in London. (In '92 he had done 1 or 2 shows in costume? My notes are fuzzy about that.) He said it was a calculated risk; if they didn't laugh at his jokes, at least he could blow them out the window somehow. A lot of people in America think it is a desperate gimmick of sorts, his dressing in women's clothing, to help him become famous over here; not true he said. He was famous already over in Britain, for his standup, and came out later; his period of coming out just coincided with his attempt to do comedy in America too. He felt like he HAD to tell people; comedy is about honesty, and he wanted to be honest with his audience. He decided he needed some sex, some sheen to his personae, so that's when he switched from blah suits and skirts and the like to the glamor stuff he does now, the leather pants and stilletos and sharp suits and all that. (There is a bit in the doc showing the progression of his fashion, LOL.)
• There were running Dune jokes throughout the Q&A about worms? I've never read it, I was so lost during those. Something about like Dune, you take the water, then ride the worms? That it was so useful to ride on a worm. (I give up trying to make sense of all that, sorry.)
• He likes standup and acting both, but it sounded like he won't be jumping to do any more plays any time soon. He said the problem with plays as opposed to other mediums is that it it less organic; in plays you have to follow the playwright's words as written, you can't just do tangents on the fly, whereas his strength lies in spontaneous comedy. It is a different skill set. You can't be talking about killing people onstage and then be all-have you ever ridden a worm? (Yet another Dune joke, OMG.) It just doesn't work.
• Someone asked what famous actors/actresses he liked and respected. He said Philip Seymour Hoffman, but he seemed rather overwhelmed at answering the question. He said it is interesting how many comedians are fascinated with doing drama.
• Eddie is rather obsessed with Orson Welles; he finds the man fascinating, constantly played his BBC productions. In the doc Sarah got a picture of a still of Welles in Citizen Kane, surrounded by all the newspapers; it transitions to a pic of Eddie in a similar manner, surrounded by boxes; the similarity was quite stunning. Apparently it was one of those lovely serendipitous things that just spontaneously came about while making the doc. While talking about it in the Q&A, Sarah turned to him and was like, OMG that's what you are! (The idea that he is trying to be like Orson Welles.) Eddie said he researched him, and what was he like? An A-hole. ;) But it's kind of a catch-22 thing; because he had an ego he was able to believe in himself and accomplish great things. He did this bit pretending to be Orson Welles: DO IT LIKE THIS. Good, now let's go get potato chips. (Poking fun at Welles' weight probs later in life.)
• They talked openly about the whole Watchdog debacle. Apparently it is this show designed to expose dodgy criminals; people who steal pensioners' money and all that. A good service against consumer fraud in the UK. Well, apparently it just so happened that at that moment Eddie was transitioning from one level of his comedy to another-from a small, intimate set of fans to a broader set of them. And the new fans did not understand how his standup works, that he was doing it the way he knew best but it had been advertised differently. So they felt they were getting ripped off at the shows, and reported him to the program. (Idiots.) His standup at the beginning of a run is very different than the same gig at the end; he morphs the jokes, and they didn't know that. He was like, you don't go to a concert of the Rolling Stones and then complain they are playing the same old songs, do you? His show is the same type of thing. So he was completely thrown by the accusation when it happened.
• There was a joke about being hoisted by his petard-related to the Watchdog stuff-and Eddie spun it off into a joke about being hoisted by his leotard? (Why the crap did I write this down? What is the context? Writing a summary of an event three weeks after it occurs is apparently bad, who knew. Oh well I'm doing my best.)
• Someone asked what's next for him in the future. He said mostly feature acting and standup, maybe TV gigs in LA. He blatantly asked someone to give him a show, LOL. (Something in there about Treasure Island and Long John Silver? And Paris? I don't know.) He would love to sell out big stadiums and perform standup in them, like a rock concert. I swear he said he was going to do a certain eastern European country in their native language, but I'm a bit fuzzy on that.
• Sarah said in making a documentary it forces you to be disciplined; you cannot take responsibility for doing everything, and she learned to delegate. From top to bottom of making the doc there was no financing, so a lot of starts and stops in the process of getting it done, hence the seven years it took to complete it.
• Eddie touched on politics briefly. He is a social progressive, joined the party in '95. He would love to go into politics, but his comedic career would need to be in deep hibernation to do so, then if things blew up for him he could always get back into it, like a paddling pool. (His view of politics is different than mine, LOL; he described himself as being a social democrat because he believes in safety nets and individuals making things-which is rather simplistic and in direct contrast to his desire for individual achievement and celebration of failure and capitalism, I think? Ah well, I loves him anyway.)
• Sarah said that there was a great need for moments of revelation in the doc; a threading of the serious and the comedy together. The scene about his mom, where he cries, was an out of body experience for him; he honestly did not know what he was saying when he said it. It was a big breakthrough for him, to crack that and be that emotionally vulnerable. It wasn't an uncomfortable moment, but it did throw him. Sarah said she was thinking at the time she was filming that, OMG I've finally got something! :)
• He repeated once more in the Q&A, that yes, he would swap it all and be an accountant if she could come back.
• He said that Believe is not the story of him, it is the story of anyone who is fighting. Good luck to those who are still fighting.
*dies from writing notespam*
On to the last part! http://reezoo.livejournal.com/12227.html