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Eddie Izzard is the comedy & movie legend from Bexhill. Here he talks bi-lingual swears, bees, badgers & the Hollywood Bowl with Victoria Nangle before heading off to the outdoor comedy festival Laughs In The Park. Phew!

Victoria Nangle: Hello Eddie. Are you in France at the moment?
Eddie Izzard: I am, I’m in Paris‚ someone’s got to be. I’m doing my gigs in France, did you know that?

VN: I did because I saw that you’re going to be doing your gigs in English and in French in Montreal…
EI: Yes, there’s going to be one day where I’m going to start off with the English show‚ I think its eight o’clock the English show and then ten o’clock doing the French show.

VN: Do you ever flit between the two and sometimes there’s an English catchphrase that comes out in a French show?
EI: No, sometimes people come up with this word ‘Frainglais’ but I wanna just stay off that because it sounds like you just can’t do it. I’ve been quite persistent in getting French for everything.

VN: Not even by accident?
EI: Oh, well that will be the first time, but we will see… I probably will be more confused in the English, actually I don’t know. I’ve talked English for so long that, like when I’m talking to you now, I don’t sort of have a problem where I go “ooh‚ how do you say ‚’cat’?”. Sometimes you do forget the words, forget the word for something, but I have said ‘abso-f***ing-lument’, and the French just love that! [laughs] That’s just it‚ ‘abso-f***ing-lument’. It’s the only power, if you’ve got ‘f***ing’ in the middle of a French word they dig it a whole bunch. Read the rest of this article »

A sparse crowd, a fact not helped by a plane crashing 300 yards from the venue, witnessed Messer’s Ray Peacock & Ed Gamble somewhat ram-shackled performance of surreal and off the wall flights of fancy. At points it smacked the collective funny bone roundly, at other times missing the mark so wildly it only served to amuse themselves.  The evening was finished off by the eloquent, erudite and sharp Steve Hall. Essentially a love story about his wife interspersed with tales of his dad, the odd pun and a smattering of good old fashioned smut. Smart stuff nonetheless.

Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham, 4 July
Rating:
Lee Stevens

The Garden Gadabout is basically lots of Garden Open Houses. With over 70 private gardens open over two weekends, it was a chance to see some of the most incredible gardens across the city. People opened up their gardens for the public to take in, all in the name of raising money for the Sussex Beacon – so you paid an entrance fee to each garden and all the money went directly to charity. The gardens on show were each completely unique, with wildlife gardens, sculpted gardens, colourful gardens… but each one was like entering into some part of the wilderness, or into a parallel universe! They were beautiful. And to top off a beautiful day, there was also lots of yummy cakes and tea available… Utter perfection.

Various gardens across Brighton, 3 July
Rating:
Laura Hayward

Absurd, fanstastical, silly and splendid. Lucha Future, claiming to be the future of luchadores (sometimes known as Mexican wrestling), is all of these things and so much more besides. Featuring 15 luchadores and mixing up a grudge match with several tag bouts, all with clearly defined goodies and baddies squaring up, these were elaborately staged stunt grapples, with eye-catching outfits and chest-puffing personas. Appealing to fans and novices alike, the future aspect allowed our master of ceremonies to explain the simple rules and how these worked with an audience of limited attention spans and an impatience for results. We were that audience and we were not disappointed.

Dropping into Spanish at times, the audiences cajoled and rallied our chosen favourites and booed the villains of the piece, more vehemently than any pantomime at Christmas time. The performers, for the most part masked, were incredible in the way they threw each other around, foxed blows and demonstrated feats of acrobatics that prompted applause and simply loud catcalls of appreciation. A particular favourite with the braying crowd was the feminine Cassandro, previously known as Mr Romano (UWA World Lightweight Champion) who lauded part of the final triple tag bout. Blue Demon Jr (WWA World Welterweight Title to name just one of his six accolades) was also spectacular, with his peacock plumage dazzling the audience upon his arrival, but to be fair they all put on a fabulous show.

Rather incongruous was the musical interlude that opened the show and then returned midway through the second half – Bostich & Fussible. Mixing Norteno and electronic dance – and clearing co-ordinating their sound on stage via a pair of iPads and using musicians in the form of a guitarist and an accordionist – was intriguing and helped to build up the tension and feeling of otherness at the start, but slowed down the momentum upon their second arrival. It was an interesting blend, but with our attention spans already shortened and being satisfied at such a length it felt like they and us were being short changed by their second performance.

Concret Hall, Brighton Dome, 1 July
Rating:
Victoria Nangle