Eddie Izzard stumbled around stages aimlessly for years before he sorted out his skill set and how to play an audience. His self belief and dogged determination set him apart from doubtless scores of others you've never heard of because they gave up too soon. This film charts his glacial rise from obscurity to toast of the town and offers a bizarre media story that heretofore escaped notice on this continent. Some dirt box at a Brit TV show no one in the U.S. cares about called out Eddie as a "fraud" for saying he was using new material on his latest tour, when what he does (which had been pains-takingly spelled out for major media outlets) is start with big pieces of his old tour and introduce new material as the tour progresses. But it turned into a whole big kerfluffle and the ratings grab put Eddie on ice for a while as he tried to absorb this unjust accusation. (Many comics do the SAME EXACT material for YEARS or for the LIFE of their career. Eddie is a champion of fresh material.) "Believe" is full of clips from Izzard's shows, his childhood, and some archival footage of some of his first attempts at taking the stage. Intercut with all of these is present-day narrative of what Izzard thinks the key to his success thus far has been. The task of editing this material seems simple compared to how hard it must have been to source it all and figure out what to use where. One scene in particular casts the Pin-Drop Effect on the whole auditorium. My mascara ran. It's a great combination of self-revelation and self-promotion. Very inspiring. 10/08/09
