Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard
Written by Kristy Dolson.
October is my favorite month of the year. The weather is perfect; in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving and Halloween, and the hectic schedules of September slow down to a more comfortable pace. But I have another, more personal, reason for loving the tenth month of the year. In Canada and the USA, it is LGBT History Month. Both countries adopted it in honor of October 11th being National Coming Out Day. And here in South Korea, pride and queer culture festivals have started taking place across the country. I was so happy and proud to attend Gwangju’s first-ever Queer Culture Festival last October. And while Incheon’s 2018 QC Festival was marked by protests and violence, the 2019 one reversed that experience with staggering attendance and a peaceful pride march. This demonstrates the endurance and commitment that the people of South Korea have for improving their country.
In keeping with that spirit, I bring you Eddie Izzard’s memoir this month. Izzard is a long-time British comedian and actor who came out as Trans* in the mid-80s and has been using his stand-up comedy fame to promote LGBT visibility and human rights awareness around the world. He now plans to stand for Parliament in 2020 with the hope of making his country and the world better for everyone. His book is a reflection of endurance and belief in oneself with an optimistic gaze towards the future. Despite Izzard’s lampooning of religious figures – a staple of his shows – he does believe strongly in humanity. And in this book, he warns that if we humans can’t get together and make it work this century, for all 7.5 billion of us, then it could very well be the end. Despite this bleak warning, he maintains hope for the future because he has to: Despair tears us down, hope lifts us up.
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens is written in the first-person, using a very intimate and conversational tone reminiscent of his stand-up. Izzard dispenses wisdom and advice from his long years of personal and professional struggle. Since his childhood, he really wanted to get into dramatic acting. Somewhere along the way, he got into comedy and decided to follow that path instead. Mostly, he failed. His first three performance attempts at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival met with failure. Undeterred, he became a somewhat good street performer, before getting onto the London stand-up circuit. Once he achieved success there, he told his agent he wanted to get out, go on tour, and try bigger things. This was a big risk. But he’d realized that to be creative and successful, you have to take risks and you have to endure – and learn from – the failures.
Now Izzard tours the world, performing his comedy in English, French, German, and Spanish. He has said in multiple interviews that people are the same everywhere, no matter what language they speak. He aspires to learn more languages so that he can reach more people, and he encourages young people to take up the challenge as well. His knowledge of other languages and cultures, combined with his comedic wit and endurance, will serve him well in the next step on his journey. With individuals like Eddie Izzard taking the initiative to make the world a better place, I have hope that humanity will survive through the 21st century. Moreover, with young people’s commitment to change, we’ll thrive in a future that accepts and celebrates everyone, everywhere.
The Author
Kristy Dolson lived in South Korea for five years before taking a year off to travel, read, and spend time with her family in Canada and Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Education and now lives in Yeosu, where she splits her time between teaching at the new Jeollanamdo International Education Institute and reading as much as she can. (Photo by Cheyenne Taylor)