Eddie

I saw Eddie Izzard on Saturday evening. He was on fine form and spent a good two and a half hours regaling us with his stream of consciousness approach to comedy. God was the big topic--God usually figures quite centrally in his shows, but this time around it was a little different. The emphasis was mostly on why God doesn't exist--he didn't speak about this with malice, but with a winsomeness and humility that I found quite refreshing. He's right of course, the God he speaks about probably doesn't exist--like some of the new atheists, his god is one that many who retain faith have also left behind. As with lots of people theodicy was a principle cause--"if God existed he would have simply flicked Hitler's head off," was a beginning point for his thesis. All of this theologizing was interspersed with his broad intersecting of everything--wikipedia, latin, history of culture, jam, the development of modern man, primordial ooze, Apple versus Pc, George Bush, Bok Choi--hilarious at times, really funny. His aim in presenting all this was to address the opportunity we all have to make the world a better place, i.e. he has faith in humanity, and even pointed to religion's possession of the golden rule as a great starting point--this of course led to some reflection on the folly of the 10 commandments--"don't covet your neighbour's ox" hard to reconcile in an ox-free environment according to Eddie. It's funny, I found nothing offensive in anything he said, actually found myself agreeing with many of his assessments of the state of all things sacred, but I couldn't help thinking that in spite of his fascination with technology and Wikipedia in particular that he perhaps should have googled 'theology' and maybe found some new thoughts about the nature of the sacred that would have excited him--or maybe not, perhaps someone like Izzard is best left as a thorn in the side of religion, a necessary thorn that keeps us honest...if we want to be.

Comments

[Cate]

Couldn't agree more - hilarious but a pretty simplistic understanding of the divine. My favorite bit was the notion of tapestry weavers being the first photo journalists. That had me on the floor.