Eddie Izzard: Force Majeure Live

Like all other negative reviews, I start this by highlighting how much I enjoy Eddie Izzard, and can remember how much of an event his shows were way back in the days where he didn't appear on TV. This familiarity is important because part of the issue with this show is that it constantly reminds us of other shows, and then follows that up by then being a very much lesser show. I will not overdo the criticism of it, but it certainly was disappointing. It is not just that it is mostly not funny (but it is), the issue for me was that it lacked a real spark of wit or freshness. Doing call-backs is one thing, but a call-back to an entire style is not the same – and that is what is happening here.

Flights of fancy go on too long and are not fanciful; and material too often feels like it is aiming for such a place, rather than being a joy in the moment – hard to describe but it is obvious Izzard is leading to such moments, whereas at his best he convinced us that they just occurred to him off the back of something else. The huge venue does not help him – he comments on it very early on, and it does seem odd to see him so disconnected from the audience. This is backed up by the laughter from the audience; I assume it is badly edited because it seems forced and out of sync with the performance – and I found it a constant distraction.

A very weak show; usually one would say "only for fans" of such a show, but in this case the opposite is true – it will hurt fans much more to see this.