The lights drop at New York City Center, Tom Jones comes up loud, and the big screen at the back of the stage fills with images that end in a rush through what looks like a science-fiction wormhole. It is a neat bit of staging: by the time the tunnel ends, you understand you are about to spend the evening inside Eddie Izzard’s head.
Izzard wanders on almost casually, in black high-heeled boots and a black skirt slit up the side, to a roar from a crowd that looked, from my seat, like a mainstream Saturday-night audience. Within a minute she is pointing out her new figure (silicone, she admits) and spinning it into a bit about what she will say to the next waiter who hands her a cup of tea and calls her “sir.” I will leave the punchline to her; it is ruder, and funnier, in her mouth.
The Executive Transvestite
Izzard is an unusual figure in show business. She has played men on stage and on film, Shadow of the Vampire among them, while building a stand-up career in skirts and heels and calling herself an “Executive Transvestite.” Sexie follows Dressed To Kill, the show that made her name with American audiences, and the new one is drawing strong reviews.
The dresses are not a gimmick. As she told interviewer Gina Lance, people back home in Britain already knew; she rode the Tube in dresses as a matter of course.
How the act works
Comparisons to Robin Williams come easily, since few comics think faster, but Izzard’s rhythm is her own. She does not tell jokes so much as wander through them, drifting from one idea to the next in what feels like conversation. When a thought runs dry she bounces on the spot, arms working, as if too much coffee (or an urgent need for the restroom) were pushing the next idea out. It never takes long to arrive.
Nothing is off limits: science fiction, politics, history, everyday absurdities and, above all, the Royal Family. Her fellow Britons get it as hard as anyone.
A note on the wardrobe
My one complaint is cosmetic. For a performer chipping away at so many assumptions, Izzard reinforces one: that straight cross-dressers cannot dress. The blue-and-red military-style jacket over a black skirt and boots had me silently pleading for a costume change, especially since the press photo shows a much sharper biker look. I am joking. Mostly.
Why it matters
Under the silliness, Sexie makes a serious point: who you are counts for more than what you wear. It is sharp thinking dressed up as nonsense. And as more audiences get to know Izzard as a person, the reaction to a man in a dress is shifting from Anthony Perkins in Psycho to “oh, like that funny English comedian.” That is a real change, and Izzard deserves much of the credit.
Eddie Izzard has since said she uses she/her pronouns. This review was revised in 2026 to reflect that.
