I'm not sure if Eddie himself has ever come to this realization, because I've noticed that during the couple of times I've met him, he almost seems embarrassed to have people parrot his own lines back to him. Almost as if while he's on stage, it makes perfect sense that everyone would laugh, but I wonder if he somehow doesn't get why there is a subset of his fans who cling to his bits of "blather" and repeat them with fanatical enthusiasm......and regularity.
My theory is that both the combination of irreverence and intelligence in his humor strikes a chord within a particular kind of person who hears it. Those of us who are unmistakably of the geek persuasion, have a creative bent, and generally have little interest in making small talk about news, politics, sports (by "small talk", I do not include out-and-out debates or in-depth conversations, which is completely different), or your golf game (which is not a sport per the late-great George Carlin, and therefore must be separated from "sports", by force if necessary).
I have found, in fact, that there are Eddie fans hidden here and there amongst the population.....lying low until they receive some signal that they are in the presence of another Izzardite. Perhaps you are merely having a conversation with a friend, and happen to say, "Cake or death!" in a crowded restaurant. I have seen people stop in their tracks to turn and point and say, "EDDIE!". Just a couple of short days after I recently saw Eddie in Miami, I happened to wear my newly acquired STRIPPED baseball hat into a restaurant, and a waiter who I had seen any number of times stopped to ask me about it. I told him that Eddie had just done a couple of shows down in Miami, and then proceeded to get online (the restaurant has WiFi) and help him find tickets to another show locally or up in NYC where he's originally from.
It seems to be an odd but undeniable bond that exists between all of us who are part of this Izzardite sub-culture. It kind of reminds me of what people who owned Saturn cars were like when they were still so new to the market. I used to hear stories about how if one Saturn was broken down on the side of the road, other Saturn owners would stop to help. I have no doubt that if one had a big "CAKE OR DEATH" decal on the back of one's vehicle at the side of the road, any number of Izzardites would stop to help. Don't you think?
And this fascination with his humor does not seem to be exclusive to any one demographic.....it spans age, race, profession, and has become downright global. I can just imagine one day, a diplomat in a foreign country, attending a reception where heads of state fill the room, and happens to say in conversation "Well, I don't want to poke the badger with a spoon, but....". Overhearing this as they pass by, a Head of State whirls and says, "EDDIE!"
While we shouldn't put dear Eddie on a pedistal or anything (such an idea would quite possibly make him perish due to an acute case of British embarrassment), it's an amazing thing that his humor could become such a catalyst amongst total strangers around the world who take to this new phenomenea of "Izzard-ology".
Izzardites.....we're irreverent, we're geeky and smart, we're covered in BEEEEES!
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