Skin to Win, or: Shut The Hell Up!
January 18, 2008 at 11:11 am in Entertainment
Last night I was lucky enough to attend Eddie Izzard’s “Work in Progress” gig at the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega. It was the first time I’d ever seen Eddie in person–at least, on stage. Last year, in a failed attempt to get into a Cinespia screening at Hollywood Forever, I caught a glimpse of him being surreptitiously ushered through gates which had already been locked. For what it’s worth, I’d arrived to queue up at 7:30pm: Much, much too late.
In any case, last night I got to see Eddie perform, finally, after years of sold out tickets and missed opportunities, and man alive–was it a blast. Izzard has got it all: lightning speed synapses, an absurd but wonderfully relatable perception of the world, and the rare ability to be both physically and verbally hilarious.
Unfortunately he’s also got…
…at least one fan who doesn’t know when to shut the hell up. The gravelly-voiced big (ahem) guy who was seated in front of me with his crew of chatty friends (like attracts like, so they say), seemed to be under the impression that it was actually his show, not Eddie’s. When Izzard appeared on stage, welcomed by a burst of frenzied applause, gravelly-voiced man shouted out, “Skin to win!” Apparently, he wanted Eddie to, um, engage in some kind of wet t-shirt performance. He also shouted, “Take it off!” He continued to shout these phrases throughout the majority of the show. Perhaps he had accidentally wandered into the Coronet, instead of the Star Strip across the way. More likely, though, he was simply some wannabe-comic goober whose mother forgot to teach him appropriate public behavior, and who overcompensates for his insecurities (ahem) by trying too hard to be funny.
No worries, though. Seeing as how Izzard is a fucking GENIUS, he made it work to his benefit, and ultimately found a brilliant way to mock this man whilst gently (and hysterically) telling him to “shut the fuck up.”
All in all, it was a killer show, though I would have preferred less audience involvement. Ahem.
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