Eddie Izzard’s Supermarket on the Moon

As a transgenderist, day one is hell.

The Observer, May 2001

Eddie Izzard’s fashion sense has always been an exciting area for discussion, but on his official website not everyone is impressed with the way things are going. ‘Lately, Eddie’s wardrobe can be described as black,’ writes someone called Squeaky. ‘Black T-shirt, black jeans, black shoes.’ ‘Hi Squeaky,’ writes Teri. ‘Hubby and I were discussing this in passing last night… I wonder if it is just ease of packing that has him in the same outfit… Or the “bloke” mode he is currently in. He does look good in it… But I would prefer some more flair… He is TV, for God’s sake. Hugs to all!’ ‘Allo Teri!’ writes another fan. ‘I think he is convinced that black is slenderising and I’m afraid he’s caught that Hollywood thin disease. His bloke look is to convince casting directors that he can be cast in any male role and not be stuck in the weirdo transvestite ghetto, a very small ghetto indeed! I just wish he’d put on a touch of mascara though, for telly, to make his eyes show more. But that’s just a female thing…’

His fans are right: the clothes are very dark, he does look good in them. On this showery morning in mid-May he is wearing his dark leather jacket and trousers at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket, smoking a cigarette, explaining how he lost weight by watching his carbohydrates, reciting Monty Python, answering personal questions with habitual frankness.

We are sitting, quite reasonably, in the dress circle, talking about the thing Eddie Izzard is most famous for, apart from occasionally being the funniest man in Britain. It may be that he is quite sick of discussing his transvestism, or as he mostly calls it these days, his transgenderism, but he displays no sign of this. In fact, he talks better about transvestism than anything else, and recently he has found more reason to discuss it than usual. Last month he visited the Argentine embassy in London to demand what he has for a long time called ‘equal clothing rights’. ‘I stood on Argentine territory at the foot of their embassy and said, “I’m a transvestite, I’m on your property, so arrest me and beat the shit out of me like you did with your other transvestites!” Well, I don’t know if I quite said that, but that was the main message…’

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