I was just starting to delve into revision and I was already deep in study-depression. That quite temporary but painful affliction. I can’t really explain why the exams affected me so badly this time round. All I know was that I wasn’t my usual self; attempting to crack jokes to cheer everyone else up around me. It was like those 2… maybe 3 days of the week that I usually go crazy trying to write an essay. I shut myself off, get a bit moany, and don’t really see anyone. Yeah, it was like that. Times a million (and that doesn’t feel like a london girl’s exaggeration.)
However, before you think this is another work related blog post, I would like to say it isn’t…. Around the third paragraph of this entry the title will start to make sense. So, back to the picture of finding myself deep in gloom and with the potential for it to stretch on forever without a break …
My friend Charlotte alerted me to the fact that Eddie Izzard… yes THE Eddie Izzard was coming to Cambridge! What was this all about?? An impromptu gig? A marathon? A transvestite Convention? Erm, no, nope and nadda… It was actually to support the local Labour MP candidate Daniel Zeichner, in the run up to the May 2010 elections.
This may all seem slightly random… after all Eddie doesn’t politics does he? He just rips on politicians… Maybe so but Eddie Izzard has said loud and clear for quite a while now that after all the shows (and the marathons) he would like to settle down.. to erm, become an MP for England (!!). Personally I would quite enjoy that; the image of him kitted out in his full Executive Transvestite gear addressing the speaker of the House of Commons… would certainly shake British politics up a bit! Well before dream becomes an unlikely reality, Eddie Izzard was set to make a flying visit to the park behind Christ’s. Apparently he was invited to speak alongside Zeichner by the Cambridge Labour society. It seems that someone has good taste.
Charlotte, Aimee and I gathered on a rather cold day and waited around in the park not quite sure where the gathering would take place. The email wasn’t very specific, it sounded like the labour kids didn’t want the park to be descended upon by hundreds of Izzard fans… well a few slipped through the net. Aimee gave up on the mission early, retiring, citing the cold and revision as more pressing. Frankly Mr Shankly, I had given up for the day. And I was to be rewarded for this patience. Eventually we saw a few rather lacklustre Labour supporters milling about handing out stickers, then a few photographers, and a small camera crew… it really heated up when the cars with the blacked-out windows arrived. Cause those ALWAYS contain someone important right?!
Mr. Izzard stepped out alongside did Mr. Zeichner. Both were hardly swamped, the studious Labour society kids wanting to maintain some sort of composure and appear slightly professional. Zeichner was given the chance to speak, and so was Izzard. Zeichner used his soap-box moment to prove he was the best candidate for the job; he said a great deal about supporting Cambridge, and helping the city to continue to grow etc. (Politics, in other words.) Izzard stepped forward, and in a rather less personal address he endorsed the Labour Party, he still believes in them, and rather frankly said they didn’t do a bad job really, did they? Hard to argue with a man like him but he was yet to convince me that Zeichner had earned my vote. (Sadly for him, when election day rolled around Cambridge remained a Lib Dem stronghold.)
After the political spin-doctoring came the interesting part. The media of course descended like vultures to ask Eddie about his Marathon running, and attempted to interview him through the local BBC station, and it all seemed like the true fans would never get a chance to speak to him. He was then pulled aside by his manager and told he had to catch a train in 15… I never thought I’d have the courage to speak to him. But after some encouragement from Charlotte I thought now or never.
I approached him (which had the potential to shatter all my naive ideas about him) and shook his hand, congratulating him on the great show he preformed at the O2 in December. He thanked me and seemed quite open, so I thought I’d be cheeky and ask: Why no dresses for stripped? He was too quick for me and responded that he tries to space it out, every other show. So I said: Why no make-up today? But again he was quick to placate me, he let me know there’s always a secret stash of mascara in his car, for those make-up related emergencies. He went on to speak to Charlotte about Swansea, where his mother is from, and the trials of running a huge number of marathons in a very small number of days. Eddie Izzard is a god it seems. Or maybe one of those rare, but really nice and hugely talented mere mortals?
Whatever he is, I am certain of one thing: There are no flies on eddie …. just bees.
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