Wide-Roaming Comedy

Eddie Izzard already squelched any "too smart for Vegas" garbage in late April.

It was then that a second show was added for today at the Palms, after Izzard's first announced date on Saturday sold out. The British comedian fits many definitions of a cult hero. But thanks to HBO, it's a big cult.

"I just went all through the Bible Belt (on tour)," says Izzard, who first captivated HBO audiences 10 years ago with brainy, wide-roaming comedy that covered the span of history -- delivered incidentally in drag. "I don't think I'm particularly the Bible Belt's mainstream choice of show, but if you can bring your own audience (and) attract an alternative mind set, then it's cool."

Nonetheless, he does recall "strange noises coming out of the audience" at various U.S. stops. So in Las Vegas, advance sales can only be good. "If I get the people who go" -- he switches to an aggressive American accent -- " 'Hey, let's check this guy out!,' they'll want to kill me probably," he says with a chuckle.

Izzard notes there aren't many British stand-up comics, and wonders if the abundance of Canadian comedy stars might not be coincidental to them having "grown up with an American sensibility, but they are slightly outside America."

Fans might expect Izzard, 46, to return to Las Vegas with unique insights drawn from his first appearance at The Comedy Festival last November. But don't get too excited.

"It won't be a big chunk of the show. It's my built-in laziness thing," he explains. "I don't want to keep changing it as I go along."

Instead, the "Stripped" tour touches down on "evolution, the Stone Age, religion, sexuality, banjos, giraffes, Noah -- just stuff everyone can sort of tap into, as opposed to being specific about Vegas."

Anyone familiar with his style can tell you he's not joking about the topics. The self-described "child of (Monty) Python" sails through ambitiously silly takes on heady topics such as World War II, frequently interrupting himself with detours down side roads that shift away and back as quickly as a dream.

"It suddenly hit me like a massive smack in the head with a fish that no one was doing history," Izzard says of his early inspiration. Mining history "with a surreal bent" also fit right in with his Python obsession. "I essentially took my comic roots and my comic instruction from Python. I made a stand-up, verbal one-man version of that."

No U.S. comic rushed in to copy him, just as few others are in a rush to translate their routines into French. "I also want to do them in German and Russian," Izzard says. "Maybe it's just me. I've got a stupid, crazy brain that keeps saying, 'Hey, let's go and do this.' "

Izzard's brain wants to do so much, he put the stand-up act on hold for a few years to pursue acting. "If you get too well known for comedy, it gets in the way of drama. So I actively hold my comedy back," he says.

The move paid off with a starring role in "The Riches," the dark comedy on FX about a family of grifters who assume the identities of the wealthy Louisiana couple they accidentally kill in an auto accident.

Izzard says he now has separate agents for his stand-up tours and for his TV and film work. "I had this strange, weird idea to do both at the same time, so I got separate management for each one."

He has avoided the obvious path of developing a film or sitcom around his stand-up stage persona. And only two of his movie credits are the kind of stock comedies many stage comics do for a paycheck: "Mystery Men" and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend."

"I'm annoying to agents. Maybe a little intriguing, but also annoying," he says. "But it's my life, so I'm going to do it that way. ... I've got this far with my own weird strategy."

After all, he notes, "Transvestites shouldn't have careers."

Yes, he really is a cross-dresser, but always has to point out he's a straight one: "Kind of like Carrie-Anne Moss in 'The Matrix,' having fights in the street wearing makeup."

He decided to put it right on the table with the breakthrough HBO special, "Dress to Kill," in 1998. "I didn't want to land in boy mode, get established, come back a year later in girl mode, and confuse the (expletive) out of everyone. So I thought, 'I'll do it all in one go.' "

He has been dressing male for this "Stripped" tour. When hecklers yell up, "Where's the drag?" he answers, "Don't oppress me, you Nazi."

"No one will ever pressure me ever to wear anything at any time," he says.

Not even in Vegas? Wouldn't he feel the least bit of temptation to step it up in the land of Cher and "An Evening of La Cage"?

It's jokingly suggested, but Izzard again patiently explains, "That's more of a gay transvestite neck of the woods.

"Vegas might be about clothes, but I'm not about clothes. I'm about the ideas and talking and the speed of the mind."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.