With all the tragicomedy in Toronto civic politics these days, you might be thinking the last thing a major city needs is an actual comedian running the show. But Eddie Izzard, Britain’s lovable cross-dressing jester, is determined. He’s running in the 2020 election for mayor of London. Or maybe member of Parliament. He’ll figure that out later. But on the larger point, the funnyman is serious.

“I don’t say I hate politicians,” he says over the phone from Toronto, where he is performing on his Force Majeure tour, which comes to Vancouver on Monday and Tuesday (December 2 and 3). “I think we’ve got to have politicians. There’s a lot of politicians trying to do some good stuff. So I’m trying to put a practical thing on it and see what I can practically do to try and help.”

His countryman and fellow comic with a political bent, the former sex addict Russell Brand, recently came out in favour of abstaining from the ballot box.

“I know Russell’s into that,” says Izzard. “And it’s good for him to have his say. I’m saying do vote. I’m trying to be practical on the thing. I don’t feel we get anywhere by everyone not voting. And I don’t feel all politicians are all trying to do terrible things.
I don’t think all businessmen are trying to do terrible things. So I’m trying to encourage ethical business and ethical politics. And trying not to smoke crack.”

Listen to enough Izzard, on the stage or over the phone, and his famous surreal ramblings might lead you to wonder if he’s not on something. But that’s just the way his comedic mind works. He covers topics as diverse as Greek mythology, chaos theory, and Star Wars. The universal subject matter allows him to play all over the world, whether in China, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, or anywhere else in between.

“The big thing is I know that comedy is international and not national,” he explains. “That’s my big theory. And I think I’ve proved this correct. The mainstream Canadian comedy will talk about Rob Ford, will talk about the mayors of Montreal and what’s going on politically and with the sports stars. The mainstream British and American would do the equivalent. But the alternatives like us will talk about dinosaurs and God and squirrels with guns and helicopters that can play banjo or whatever it is.”

Puff, puff?

Not at all. The elevated absurdity is in the grand tradition of his forebears, Monty Python. He talks about his passions, history being chief among them, but turns them on their ear. He doesn’t care if others don’t share his interests; they’ll come along for the tangent-filled ride just to experience where his eccentric mind takes them.

“Assume the intelligence of the audience and the bright ones, or anyone who’s autodidactic or been to university or whatever, and they like this kind of stuff and they’re progressive in politics, they will dig it,” he says. “And they’ll say, ‘Freddy, you gotta come! Siobhan, you’ll love this!’ And they drag others to it. And that’s how it works. Whereas right-wing extremists are going to go, ‘That guy’s a liberal and he likes people; we like killing people. Let’s not go to that show. Let’s go to the I Want to Kill People show.’ ”

The 51-year-old is still actively learning. He’s performed standup in French. In the new year, he’ll scale down and hit 100- and 200-seat rooms in Germany, where he’ll make jokes in the local language. After that, he plans to continue with Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. It’s not like he grew up speaking anything other than the Queen’s English, unlike, say, Montreal comic Sugar Sammy, who performs in English, French, and Punjabi, all fluently.

“Some people are bilingual and trilingual, and that’s good to a certain extent,” he says, perhaps rationalizing. “But it’s even better if people hack their way into a language and not be a natural speaker, because then you can really feel the sweat and you can feel the journey they’ve taken.”

Despite the French title of his current tour, the unilingual need not be alarmed. Izzard will be entertaining in English at the Orpheum. You may not understand everything he says, but it will be English. Best to catch him now, before his mayoral duties keep him busy in council meetings. Or on crack.