OK, so yeah, was 2 days ago now, but was basically SLEEPING all day yesterday and last night except for a couple hours here and there. Sue me. >.<

SO, OMG. Where to start. THE BEGINNING, THAT'S A GOOD PLACE.

Jana, Neil, Denise, Ken, and I left Buffalo around 1:30ish, and it's about a 3 1/2 hour ride to Cleveland. I sat squished in the middle in the back between Denise and Ken. Which was fine at first, then OW. LOL We made some rest stops so we got to Cleveland at 6, doors opened at 7. We hung out at Starbucks and had a snack, then made our way to the theater.

I have to say, having my ENTIRE GROUP of friends with me, just... added BILLIONS to the experience. These are the people in my real life who mean the most to me, and to have them ALL THERE and EXPERIENCING this with me... Completely priceless, and I'm still basking in the constant LOVE and JOY of it all. I will be for a long time. :)

SO. We get into the Palace Theater, which is LOVELY, and after a bathroom stop and me buying a program (Have scanned the pics, links later), we give the usher lady our tickets to show us our seats. And she keeps leading us closer... and closer... and closer... OH MY GOD. 15TH ROW FROM THE FRONT, OMG, AND DEAD CENTER. HE WAS RIGHT LIKE, THERE. Jana said as we kept getting closer, her smile kept getting bigger. LOL

We hung out in our seats for the hour or so til the show would start, and I kept going all SQUEEING, and had to be calmed down. And mocked. ROFL They played awesome classical music in the theater, though, was so cool.

Now, sadly, we have no pics because the tickets SAID no cameras or even PHONES in the theater, so we left them in the car. We get to the theater and what happens? CAMERAS AND PHONES EVERYWHERE, NO ONE FRISKING PEOPLE AT ALL. >.< But Eddie was annoyed at the flashes, so I felt good that we were not contributing. LOL

NOW. THE SHOW. OMG. I have friends who are going, and Eddie said this'll be on DVD next year probly, so I don't want to spoil too much, but HOLY SHIT, HILARIOUS. The whole thing is about civilization and religion, basically, his two favorite topics. AND he's in full-on bloke mode, like The Riches with FLAIR. Regular loafer shoes, blue jeans (TIGHT BLUE JEANS, OMG), a white dress shirt, and a TUXEDO JACKET WITH TAILS, with red shiny lining inside. He is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.

The most hilarious things I can tell you about were improv just for us. LOL Eddie always opens his shows with some local humor, and we were seeing him in Cleveland, so he comes running out and he's like "CLEVELAND! The land where they cleaved the thing and the man came and said 'CLEAVE THIS FOR OUR LAND!' and they cleaved him and the thing and it was all land and cleaves," and he just was BABBLING, and we were ALL DYING LAUGHING. And then he's like "Cleveland, really, what's the story behind that? Is there a Mr. Cleveland? There usually is." And then people are like YES!! And he's like "There IS a Mr. Cleveland?" And he pulls out his IPHONE and proceeds to start to turn it on and look online. ROFL (For people who don't know, Cleveland is named after Grover Cleveland, one of our Presidents) So people start shouting "GROVER CLEVELAND!!" and Eddie's like "So he was a muppet." AND WE ALL DIED. And then finally he's like "OK, look, if I look this up on Wikipedia, is it interesting or boring?" And people are like "Ehhhh." and Eddie goes "OK, fuck it" and puts his Iphone back in his pocket. ROFL

Then he started to go on a tangent about Wikipedia: "Run by Mr. and Mrs. Wikipedia, who live in a shoe, with their son Kenneth." Which is hilarious, because we're with KEN who had a dream that he was on stage with Eddie, and so in a way, he was. ROFL Anyway, then Eddie sees this THING on stage, some piece of paper and Eddie's like WTF? and he goes over and it's a business card and he starts hitting it with his toe and his voice goes all sullen and he's like "I don't. like. stuff. onmystage." LOL So he picked it up and was gonna hand it to someone off stage and then he's like "Oh! I know! I'll make a paper dart, I think that's the first thing we all learn as kids, how to make paper darts." and the whole audience is like ".... huh?" And Eddie realizes and he's like "You don't have them??" and then some of us wise up (including me) and we're all like "AIRPLANES. PAPER AIRPLANES." And he's like "Oooh, paper airplanes... see, we didn't HAVE airplanes after the 2nd World War. I think you had a couple, though." And we all DIED. So then he starts SHOWING us how to make a paper dart his way, and he's like, "First you fold the corners into a pyramid. Which you have on your DOLLAR." and this WTF look on his face. And we all DIED AGAIN. So he finished folding the paper dart out of a BUSINESS CARD, throws it into the audience and it FLEW!! HUGE CHEERS, especially from the guy who caught it.

BUT THEN. ROFL Two people arrived in 15 minutes late, and they were like, front row center so Eddie had to notice them and he just stops and looks at them, and then he's like, "RIGHT, I'll start over." And he runs off, comes back out, does a short version of the Cleveland and Wikipedia thing, then MAKES THE GUY WHO CAUGHT THE PAPER DART THROW IT BACK. AND IT LANDED ON STAGE! LOL And then he goes to throw it back and someone is like "SHOW AGAIN HOW YOU MADE IT" and Eddie's like "GEEZ, fuck, okay, show the construction." Which is hard to do cuz he's using a handheld mic and has to squish it between his arm and his side. LOL And then he threw it back to the audience where someone else caught it. ROFL

The show was fucking awesome, I have NEVER SEEN JANA DIE LAUGHING FOR THAT LONG, or Ken for that matter. :D There was no intermission and only one encore, so as a whole it was an hour and 45 minutes, which was shorter than Sexie, but every second was AWESOME.

OH OH OH And when he came out for the Encore, we got to do the WOOOING APPLAUDING THING like at the end of Dress To Kill!! Where he waves his hand and stuff! AND HE EVEN DID HIS HAND IN A HILLY MOTION AND WE DID IT GREAT. He was like "Man, Cleveland is really good at that woo thing. That's a good skill to have. CONTROLLED Woo, too. Because you know, Uncontrolled woo can be a problem." ROFLMAO I think uncontrolledwoo would be a cool LJ name. ROFL

NOW FOR THE BIG EXCITINGEST PART.

After the show, we all head out of the theater and Jana and Neil were like, "I wish Raquel could have gotten an autograph or something." and without thinking I just say "Well I've seen several bits of footage of him signing things after shows when he leaves out the back exit." All 4 of them go O____O "LET'S GO FIND IT!"

Honestly, I wasn't having much hope just because this is EDDIE IZZARD, ONE OF MY TOP 2 MEN I'M HEAD OVER HEELS FOR, and I just didn't see it being possible I'd actually MEET HIM. That'd be too much to ask for on one trip, yeah? EVIDENTLY NOT.

We eventually find the back exit which is surrounded by like, 30-40 people. And we wait. for like, 45 minutes or more, and I almost was gonna ask to LEAVE because I was cold and tired, so Denise gave me her jacket to wear. Denise was ADAMANT that we STAY and I am forever in her debt for that, I thanked her LITERALLY like a hundred times that night.

After a long wait, suddenly this security guard is like, "EVERYONE MOVE BACK 30 FEET." and we're all "Uh... what's 30 feet?" and so we all move back, but not like, a lot. ROFL And then 5 minutes later he comes out "EVERYONE MOVE BACK 40 FEET" and then suddenly EDDIE IS RIGHT THERE, AMONGST US, and he's like pointing to a bit of wall a ways down and he's like "Why don't we all go over there, yeah?" AND HE JUST WALKS WITH US, RIGHT FUCKING BY ME.

Eddie motioned us to like, semi-circle around him with a bit of buffer space, and Jana pushed me forward and Ken followed, so that KEN AND I WERE AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE CROWD DEAD CENTER IN FRONT OF EDDIE IZZARD. ME AND EDDIE, RIGHT THERE, OH MY FUCKING GOD. During the first couple questions, I had to reach behind me and GRAB Denise's hand TIGHT to ground myself and keep myself from FANGIRLING, OMG. So much love for Denise that night, I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without her. ♥

Some young guy was standing next to him holding an amplifier so Eddie could use a mic so we could all hear him. ♥ He's like, "No signing, if I sign, we'll be here for EVER." which is true so he said he'd take questions for 15 minutes, which ended up being 20 LOL

SO I WAS LIKE "OMG AAAHHH I HAVE NO QUESTION!!! I HAVE NO QUESTIONNNNNSSS, I KNOW EVERYTHINGGGG" AND THEN, someone asked him when THIS tour would be on DVD, and Eddie said he'd film it next year, so around then. OMG, side note, whenever anyone asked a question, he TALKED TO THEM, you know what I mean? COMPLETE PERSONAL ATTENTION and EYE CONTACT and everything. Except when staring off in space to focus and figure out an answer. LOL

ANYWAY, So thanks to that person asking that question, I FINALLY HAD ONE. So I raised my hand and he called on me next (!!!!) and I asked about Sexie, cuz that's been like 5 years now, it's still not on DVD for America, and he was all apologetic and sheepish and explained they're doing a documentary to bundle with it, and that's still being done, so it's in the works and will be out. And I told him I saw him do it in Toronto and he was WONDERFUL and I've just been wondering what was going on. LOL And he APOLOGIZED TO ME! He was like "You can buy the European one and it'll play, I think?" LOL

CONVERSATION WITH EDDIE IZZARD, FTW, OH MY GOD. Like I said, eye contact and everything, holy shit. AND HE IS SO FUCKING HANDSOME IN PERSON, you have NO IDEA. Just the same BUT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL.

Um... so the rest of it... More questions, nothing that big, his tour bus drove up at one point and someone was like "CAN YOU TURN IT OFF, IT'S TOO LOUD" and he turned to the guy with the amp, and he pulled out his iphone and called the driver to turn off the bus. ROFL Eddie was like "5 years ago, that woulda been impossible. It'd have taken a tin can and string and everything" LOL

Some Anthropologist girl asked him if professional people like historians or archaeologists ever tell him he's wrong, and Eddie's like "Not really, though I'm open when people do, why, was I wrong?" And she's like "Ehhh, kinda?" and then he put her on the spot to explain how and why and he wanted dates, in a NICE WANTING TO LEARN way, not in a demanding way, he was so cute!! But the crowd was heckling the girl, and she was floundering and nervous and just wanted to move on to the next person, I felt so bad for her.

OMG, was annoyed at one lady. At the end, when he said goodbye, some lady behind me was so pretentious and yelled out "Would you like to pop off to the pub for a drink?" I was like OMG, WTF. First of all, he's not gonna be appreciative of some AMERICAN trying to be British to him. Second of all, RIGHT, LIKE HE'S GONNA BE ALL "OH SURE, LET'S GO HAVE A BEER." He didn't even turn around, I was glad. LOL SHE WAS TRYING TO MARY SUE HERSELF. ROFL

The only disappointment I had was I didn't get to shake his hand like a couple people did, but I think actual physical contact might have KILLED ME DEAD, so it's probly for the best.

The ride home was amazingly fun, we were all hyped up from the show and MEETING EDDIE, OMG. And we found an awesome radio station and we just joked and talked all the way home, which we got to at 4:30 AM. LOL

BEST. NIGHT. EVER. *FLOPS*

Here are the links to the pics I scanned from my program. My scanner is SHITE, so I had to clean them up a bit, so they're not the BEST, but better than nothing, eh?

The Photobucket album

ENJOY.