Eddie Izzard at the Kodak

I saw Eddie Izzard at the Kodak Friday night. He was his usual hilarious self. He actually dressed like a man in jeans and a coat with tails and didn't wear any makeup.

There was this really distracting eyeball that moved around behind him and made it difficult for me to concentrate. That was not helped by the fact that the seats are only comfortable if you're a skinny midget with a large bladder. I honestly have no idea how people in the mezzanine sit through the entire Oscar broadcast without kicking the person in front of them in the head.

I ended up getting lucky that there was nobody sitting directly in front of me at the sold-out show - so somebody lost $60. But their absence allowed me to put my feet up for a few minutes when the discomfort got extreme. Officer Beefcake, who is considerably larger, was so uncomfortable I thought he was going to start kicking seats out of the way to stretch out his legs.

The show itself was a riot. What Izzard does so well is callbacks. He'll make a joke early on that he keeps finding ways to work in, whether it makes sense in context or not.

Come to think of it, only about 30% of his jokes actually make any sense, but that doesn't stop them all from being funny.

I also noticed he does callbacks to jokes from old shows so there are a few inside jokes for the die-hard fans, of which I am one. The man is so funny that he spent 15 minutes reading Wikipedia entries and still had the place in stitched. You know that old adage about making the phone book interesting? He could do it.

What I love the most is how it feels like a conversation. It seems like he barely plans anything - like he knows sort of a general idea of what he's going to say but had no idea how he's going to say it. That's exactly how I teach so I respect that. It's less "jokey" and more hilarious natural conversation.

So if you ever get a chance to see Eddie Izzard, go. And if it's at the Kodak, spring for the floor seats.