A review by wakenda
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard

4.0

Listening to this audiobook is sort of like listening to Eddie Izzard do extra rambly stand up about his life for fourteen hours while simultaneously feeling like a personal conversation (with a huge chunk of that being “extra footnotes,” which are like a real time dvd commentary track of his thoughts and clarifications and extra stories and real time googling of facts while recording the audiobook, all good stuff. His improv skills shine through here). I love Eddie Izzard and his life is pretty fascinating, and if you like Eddie Izzard too, you’ll probably like this book. It’s funny, but kind-funny, never ever mean-funny. And hearing him talk about his sexuality is definitely interesting (he considers himself transgender now, but came of an age when transvestite was more common, so uses that too, and thinks of himself as having both boy mode and girl mode, but is only interested in women). One of the most memorable takeaways is that he says walking out of the house in a dress and heels for the first time was the hardest thing he’s ever done, harder even than running 27 marathons in 27 days, which he also did. I’ve always liked his comedy, but I have so much respect for his life and worldview now as well.