The cleverest people in Memphis showed up at the Orpheum to see cult fave Eddie Izzard. On his longest running tour so far, he joked that he went for a run this morning, and "just now stopped sweating." He must have done a lot of sweating tonight; his performance was wildly energetic, and all done under an extremely roast-y looking spotlight; correction, spotlights. Plus he looked great in black pointy shoes, jeans, black tee and a maybe its suede, maybe leather, maybe denim coat with tails. And a red lining.

Izzard took us through 4 billion years of life on earth; from dinosaurs singing All Things Bright and Beautiful through Moses and the burning bush's cousin. There were hints and throw-backs to his previous shows, and die-hard fans recognized the veiled 'cake or death' reference.

Highlights:

His shameless plug for The Riches

Impersonating an appendix longing for some grass

Imitating a cow with its four stomachs and in constant regurgitation pain

The Greeks struggling through their awkward Latin language

It took about five minutes to get into his rhythm of his performance, and with an exuberant audience some lines were difficult to hear. But now that I'm away from the 48 trillion people crammed into the Orpheum, including incredibly shrill clapping (that's right: shrill clapping) and shrieky laughter, I can better appreciate the amazing performance. But I'll still enjoy sitting in my AC'ed living room watching the DVD more.