The Wonderful Izzard of O2

Eddie Izzard is one of my favourite comedians and five of us had tickets on Saturday night to go and see his Force Majeure show at the O2.  We made a bit of an afternoon of it, drove to Greenwich and had a mooch around the market followed by some dinner at Cafe Sol.  I love Greenwich Market and since Borough Market has started to reduce in size it has meant that Greenwich has grown.

Steve was extremely happy to see his favourite coffee stand was back and immediately went to get some French Vanilla beans.

Greenwich Market has such an eclectic collection of stalls; from foods from around the world, artisan arts and crafts and vintage clothing it is possible to lose yourself (and your money) here very easily.

We had a wander and a chat and then went for some food.  I've never eaten at a Cafe Sol before and it was fine, perfectly acceptable Tex Mex with equally garish decor.

After a look at the view across the river and the newly revamped Cutty Sark post fire it was time to jump on the taxi boat (which has tripled in price, £12 for a 3 minute boat ride is extortionate) and head to the O2.

The atmosphere was electric, live tweets being broadcast to the big screen as the audience eagerly awaited Eddie's arrival.

The lights dimmed, the lasers came on and the music kicked in.  Eddie's voice came booming out from backstage and we were informed that the show would be recorded for the DVD.  I really wish it wasn't as this meant we got to sit through the entrance three times.  I'm not kidding, he came on, took the applause, gave his bows and then went straight off again.  He was very apologetic about it and the audience took it in good humour.  We then sat there for another 10 minutes while everything was re-set and he did it again!  The final time was after the interval by which point I was rather bored with the intro.

The show was good but if I am brutally honest it wasn't his best material.  I felt like some of the jokes were run into the ground and there were a few moments during his ramblings that I actually switched off completely.  There was some laugh-out-loud-belly-hurt moments though but it wasn't my favourite of his shows.  The other disadvantage of running the intro so many times was that we were running about 30 minutes late - not good for people with trains to catch and towards the end we could see people leaving while Eddie was still on stage as they had to get home.

When the show was over we made our way back to the taxi boat and strolled through the Greenwich University campus looking at all the buildings lit up against the night sky.  It is a beautiful campus, a fact taken advantage of by many film companies.  Les Miserables, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor 2, Gulliver's Travels and many more have all used the campus as a film set and it is easy to see why.

We drove back to Kent and got in at about 1am, knackered and having spent a lovely day with friends.  I was disappointed with the show but I still love Eddie!