Eddie Izzard calls himself a “radical moderate” — radical in approach, moderate in message. The British comedian and actor cheerfully defies cultural norms in many ways, from running in more than 80 charity marathons to cross-dressing. Then, having captured people’s attention, he eschews extremism to advocate cross-cultural understanding and tolerance.
Whether that combination will prove politically effective will be tested soon enough: Sometime after 2020, Izzard plans to “do an Al Franken” and run for Parliament in the U.K. His platform is a humanist one: “We’ve got to learn to live together and work together in some shape or form.”
But for now, Izzard is acting (he has a featured role in the current film Victoria & Abdul, opposite Judi Dench), writing (his memoir, Believe Me, is a best seller, and his first screenplay will be produced next year), and touring to, among other places, the Granada Theatre, where he will talk about his life and work on Thursday, October 19, at 8 p.m. He touched upon all these pursuits in a recent interview with the Santa Barbara Independent.