Eddie Izzard’s entrance last night was greeted with the kind of orgasmic applause usually reserved for new US Presidents.
The response was understandable. After an extended sabbatical making endless minor film appearances plus TV drama The Riches he is back doing what he does best. And even though this intermittently captivating show is not quite Izzard at his peak, it is still good to have him back.
Stripped finds the self-styled action transvestite — currently in trousers mode — taking on heavyweight themes. Evolution, God and the fact that cake mix tastes better raw than cooked. "I just thought I’d talk about everything," he explains. Frankly he has bitten off more than he can chew. After a scintillating section on dinosaurs, he barely had time to scratch the surface of Stone Age man, the Romans and the Bible.
Despite having already toured America, Stripped still felt as if it was evolving itself, as Izzard made mock-notes when jokes fell flat.
Elsewhere, he appeared distracted, at one point excitably digressing to demonstrate the light sabre application on his iPhone. Fun, though not what some fans had paid £60 to see.
Things were decidedly stop-start but whenever he hit his stride proceedings raced along at a terrific lick. His Wikipedia obsession has spawned plenty of pithy lines about useless web knowledge ("cats are made out of... cats") and he conjured up beautifully absurd running gags about squids writing with their own ink and chickens playing jazz with trumpets strapped to their beaks.
His trademark delivery, hyperactive yet hesitant, made even the more obscure routines sound comical. When he embarked on a section largely in Latin, one did not need to be a classical scholar to find his ruminations on complex grammar funny.
Another smart riff debunked the Noah’s Ark story by suggesting that even if every animal was on board, by day two only well-fed lions and tigers would be left.
Luminaries including Sir Peter Hall, Dame Judi Dench and Zoe Wanamaker were present and it is easy to see why Izzard attracts a top-drawer crowd. He is a compelling clown who goes to places others can only dream about. Stripped is so ludicrously ambitious it can never hope to fulfill its remit but it is more fun seeing Izzard fail than seeing lesser comedians succeed.
Until 23 December (0870 040 0081, www.nimaxtheatres.com/eddie.asp).
Eddie Izzard: Stripped
Lyric Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7ES
