Eddie Izzard plays Indy in rare form

Traffic stretched for miles when Eddie Izzard’s Force Majeure World Tour made a stop at the Old National Center in Indianapolis. Dawning the stage in his usual and expected regalia of make-up and finely painted nails, Eddie Izzard was just as impressive as expected. Izzard is backlit when he steps on to the stage, and only his silhouette is visible while striking a series of dramatic poses. With over 25 years of experience doing stand-up comedy, Izzard is well known by his audience. So much so, in fact, that even his shadow is funny. The second his outline is visible, laughter fills the auditorium. Few would deny his talent on the stage, the man knows how to capture an audience. Covering a broad range of touchy topics such as politics, religion, LGBT rights he also covered historic points, linguistic oddities and even mythology. Even with such a lengthy list of topics, he still managed to tie everything together making the audience feel like they were listening to one long inside joke — that they were in on. His aptitude for connecting to the audience is distinct, but what struck me was his skill with rambling. Izzards ability to segway from one topic to another, slip in and out of minor tirades, and slip back into the original topic while not only tying them together, but managing to make it funny is comedic brilliance. A common topic Izzard covers is oddities in the English language. This time, however, he went into oddities in not only English but French and German as well. Izzard has been well known for his ambition, but the audience was not expecting to hear that he has been simultaneously learning French and German in order to continue his Force Majeure Tour in other countries. Further evidence of his talent is that at one point he slipped into speaking French — and the audience kept laughing. After several minutes he stopped to ask us if anyone actually realized that was French. The combination of his intellect, wit and commanding presence make him an act well worth seeing. -Natasha Gilreath