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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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eddieizzard.com/

BELIEVE ME

Eddie Izzard

A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens

Critically acclaimed and award-winning British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard details his childhood, his first act on the streets of London, his ascent to worldwide success on stage and screen, and his performances which have won him audiences around the world, in a wide-ranging and candid memoir.
Over the course of his 30 year career, Eddie Izzard has proven himself to be somewhat of a creative chameleon, able to invent myriad performances and acting roles, and to inhabit the stage and film and television screen with an unbelievable fervor. Born in Yemen, raised in Ireland, Wales, and post-war England, he lost his mother at the age of six. In his teens, he took to the streets of London as part of a two-man escape act; when his partner went on vacation, Izzard kept busy by inventing a one-man act, and thus his career was ignited. Izzard quickly made a name for himself, most often in Covent Garden, with his surreal, stream-of-consciousness banter, designed to misdirect his audience from the magic trick he was performing. In UNTITLED MEMOIR, he recounts the dizzying ascent he made from street busking to performing stand-up on the London stage, to his first appearances in New York and beyond.

Izzard has reached international fame and performs in several languages—English, French, and German—and counting. He is one of a very few contemporary comedians who has performed at Madison Square Garden, Wembley Stadium, and many other enormous arenas to sold-out crowds. With his brand of keenly intelligent humor, incorporating world history, pop culture, and personal politics and philosophy—as well as his stunning “executive transvestite” clothing and make-up—Izzard has embedded himself in the cultural firmament, as an advocate for freedom of expression and built an extraordinary fan base of all ages. Izzard has appeared in acclaimed dramas on Broadway and London’s West End, as well as in Hollywood blockbusters such as the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, and starred in several television series. He continues to tour the world performing comedy, and his reach shows no sign of abating. In 2020, Izzard plans to make a bid for mayor of London, and to expand on his endeavors to provide services for others, continuing on the benchmark he set in 2009 by running 43 marathons in 51 days, which raised almost $3 million for charity.

One of the great talents of our time, Izzard is the rare performer whose reach is global and appeal is universal. The catchphrases culled from his acts—“Cake or Death,” “Star Wars Canteen,” and “Do You Have a Flag?” rival the popularity of Monty Python’s. For fans of Steve Martin, John Cleese, Monty Python, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais, this memoir is a no-holds-barred account of a life in show business with personal reflection and razor-sharp insights on the world we live in. Candid and generous, with a wink to his audience, even as he inhabits a persona, Izzard’s is an inspiring and wonderfully imaginative world.
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Book

Published 2017-06-13 by Blue Rider Press

Book

Published 2017-06-13 by Blue Rider Press

Comments

UK & C: Penguin UK imprint, Michael Joseph Swedish: Massolit