About 10 years ago, the Irish comedy trio, Mr Trellis, went off to the Edinburgh Festival and came back telling wondrous tales of a new English comic called Eddie Izzard who, they enthused, was "the best comic they had ever seen". A few weeks later they got him over to play his first Dublin gig in the Comedy Cellar and we were all converted. Since than, Izzard has gone on to become a major international star but he's never forgotten the reception he gets from Irish audiences and he always goes out of his way to transport his unwieldy stage set over the sea to come and see us.
As important to the 1990s as Billy Connolly was to the 1970s, Izzard is a star, and it's worth remembering that as a heterosexual transvestite he has done a lot to highlight an area of life not usually talked about. His shows at the Shelbourne Hall in the RDS next week on Friday and Saturday alongside the Belfast date in The King's Hall on Sunday, November 28th, are Do Not Miss events. And the good news is that nurses, students and unwaged will get in for £5, on production of ID.
It's also well worth going to the CRC Comedy Night at the Olympia Theatre next Thursday: : Barry Murphy, Ian MacPherson, Mark Doherty and the Apres Match team will be there to entertain you as well as at least one major international comedy star who can't be named for various promotional reasons (I wonder who's in town that week). All the money raised on the door goes to the Central Remedial Clinic.
