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    Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens
    Unavailable
    Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens
    Unavailable
    Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens
    Audiobook14 hours

    Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

    Written by Eddie Izzard

    Narrated by Eddie Izzard

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    New York Times Bestseller

    "Izzard is one of the funniest people alive, a talented actor, a sharp cross-dresser, an experienced marathon runner, and a great writer. You will have to read this if only to find out what a jazz chicken is."
    —The Philadelphia Inquirer

    With his brand of keenly intelligent humor that ranges from world history to historical politics, sexual politics, mad ancient kings, and chickens with guns, Eddie Izzard has built an extraordinary fan base that transcends age, gender, and race. Writing with the same candor and insight evident in his comedy, he reflects on a childhood marked by the loss of his mother, boarding school, and alternative sexuality, as well as a life in comedy, film, politics, running and philanthropy.

    Honest and generous, Believe Me is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 13, 2017
    ISBN9780698411012
    Unavailable
    Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

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    Reviews for Believe Me

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard discusses growing up, losing his mother, starting his career, and more in this personal memoir. I highly recommend the audiobook version as Izzard reads it himself and drops in additional commentary as he goes. Like his stand-up, this book (particularly the audiobook) often goes off on tangents before returning to the main subject. The book sort of follows a linear path along his life although not strictly so; the tangential storylines in particular mean that the book is sometimes out of order and/or recursive. If you need a strictly straightforward detailing of a life, this may not work for you. But I found it fine, especially as I'm used to Izzard's comedic style. There were times, however, when he went a little too long on a particular subject -- often something trivial -- so I did find myself losing attention a bit here and there as the book progressed. Overall, however, this was a very interesting -- and oddly comforting -- read that I'd recommend to fans of Izzard, comedy, and/or celebrity memoirs.
    • 5/5
      One of the most intesting sections is Part 2, The Wilderness Years, and specifically, the chapter called "The Streets of London." My two favorite takeaways here are how, despite other reasonable alternatives, Eddie Izzard kept at. He says it's where he learned stamina. My other favorite moment is when he decided to try solo performing. He says that his whole life he never thought of himself as a solo performer, and then in a six month stretch he changed his mindset and made the switch. Brilliant. I think sometimes we hold on too tightly to ideas we consider lifelong goals. Things change and we change. It's good to recognize the seismic life shifts when they are right in front of you.
    • 4/5
      I love the fact that Izzard kept going off on tangents while narrating his own memoir. It was charming and delightful and like he was just sitting in the passenger seat telling me stories about his life.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this as an audiobook and it has to be said that I'm not a fan or a regular patron of audiobooks, but I highly recommend this book in the audio format. Eddie Izzard narrates, and one gets the feeling that there are lots of extras as he tends to wander and it is quite enjoyable., Anyone who is familiar with Eddie's comedy will be thoroughly entertained with the audio version of this book. Unlike Eddie's stand up comedy, this is a very personal revelation of who Eddie Izzard is and how he came to be one of the world's most successful comedians. It's touching, funny, thoughtful, and inspiring. If you like Eddie Izzard the book is a must. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Izzard, you will be a fan before 'the end.'
    • 3/5
      I was excited when I saw this one offered on First to Read because I've long been a fan of Izzard's stand-up. His memoir is written in the same stream of consciousness style as his comedy, but it doesn't work nearly as well on the page as it does on stage; in print, it's rambling and repetitive, with no clear sense of a time-line. I do wonder if it would be better listening to him read it.Despite the style, it was a fairly interesting book and Izzard isn't given to bragging or name dropping; mostly, he wrote about his family and childhood, and how his success is the result of self-confidence and a lot of hard work.
    • 4/5
      I did not know much about Eddie Izzard. In fact, the first time I was introduced to him was through his eccentric Mr. Kite singing For the Benefit of Mr. Kite in Across the Universe. He was brilliant in that role, and you could pick out his improvisations. It made him instantly likable.

      Believe Me is a rambling autobiography that runs the gamut of ideas and subjects rolling around Izzard's mind. But this is what makes the book so endearing. You feel as if you are sitting across from him, having a conversation. And within that conversation are many interesting tidbits that make up his journey, one with its share of pain and triumph.
    • 5/5
      Purchased along with the ticket to see him reading in Boston, Izzard covered a *lot* of the book and showed all the pictures so reading it was a bit redundant. It's very conversational and self deprecating and shows all the hard work that went into his rise. His mother's death threads through all of it in a heart breaking way. He talks a fair amount about his journey to express his feminine aspects, talking about calling himself a transvestite through adopting the term transgender as it came into use (he prefers male pronouns). He described his street performances so well they stressed me out as he talked of his struggles to capture attention.
    • 5/5
      I strongly recommend also listening to the audiobook of this book, as Izzard adds so many extra footnotes and explanations that there is a whole additional layer of insight provided in the audiobook that is not included in the print version.
    • 5/5
      This is a great autobiography! I have been an Eddie Izzard fan for many years and the book was a perfect companion to the Believe documentary. What an amazing person who has done unbelievable things for charity.
    • 5/5
      I think 40% of this audiobook was footnotes of the conversational variety, which made the book chatty and entertaining (if chatty is your thing). I love Eddie Izzard, so this was going to get at least 4 stars unless he really screwed it up, but he was wonderful.
    • 4/5
      I have read a lot of celeb autobiographies over the years and I was pleasantly surprised to find this wasn't the typical fluff piece. The book definitely has humorous stories throughout but for me the real strengths of the book are when Eddie writes about the death of his mother and deciding to live life openly as a transgender person. I couldn't help but tear up when he wrote about learning that his mother used to call him Edward. Given his strong work ethic, it is obvious that he put a lot of time and effort to be as openly candid as possible in the hopes of inspiring others.Thank you First To Read for sending me a free advanced digital copy of this book! I knew very little about Eddie prior to reading this book but I walked away with genuine respect for him as an entertainer and as a human being.
    • 5/5
      Let me start by saying I knew almost nothing about Eddie Izzard when I started reading this. I just knew him as that one "transgender comedian", but I don't know if I have ever watched any of his comedy. Anyway, he sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try.What amazing person and what a fun book to do on audio. I love how he relates the stories of his childhood, I love his endless enthusiasm and I LOVED the "footnotes". I feel like I just got done hanging out with Eddie for the last month or so while I listed to this book and now I feel like I'll miss him.
    • 4/5
      The audiobook version of Eddie Izzard's "Believe Me" feels as if you are sitting across the table from the author as he tells you his life story, a one-on-one conversation that goes on for over fourteen hours. Izzard's tone remains conversational throughout the book, and it never feels like the author is reading from a prepared text. That tone is helped along by Izzard's infinite footnotes to the audiobook version that often turn out to be even more interesting and informative than what is contained in the printed version of "Believe Me." Those have the feel of Izzard just letting his mind lead him wherever it wants to lead him - you never know where he is headed or what he might say until it's over.Bottom Line: This one is both fun and informative. I came away with a much better understanding of Eddie Izzard, the man, than I expected too come away with. I have admired and enjoyed his work for a long, long time, and this ups my appreciation of all of that another notch higher. I didn't think that was possible.
    • 4/5
      Thank you to Penguin First to Read for the opportunity to read this book in advance.I was initially wavering between giving this a full four or full five stars, but having thought about it overnight, I think I’m going to go with a four, maybe even rounded up from a 3.5. Not that important. Anyway.I want to start off by saying that I really like Eddie Izzard and his book didn’t change the fact that I like him and I very much enjoy his humor. Eddie Izzard is very funny. He often had me literally laughing out loud. I loved that he wrote in a stream-of-consciousness style, like we were in his mind as the words hit the pages.He is also very smart. I think he tries to play himself down like he isn’t smart, but he doesn’t do a great job of that. I sort of mean that he came off a bit cocky, but not overly so. I think he tried to be humble, but to me, it didn’t seem genuine. I’ll explain.Eddie took a very long and winding road on the path to stardom and comedy legend. He worked incredibly hard to get where he is, and he deserves every accolade he gets. He had a very rough childhood, of which you find out right away. No child should outlive a parent at such an innocent and young age. There is no question that Eddie suffered greatly in a most cruel and unfair way.It is this tragic loss of his mother and the consequent loss of his youth that I believe sets him up for writing in a way that, as I mentioned before, doesn’t seem humble. There was a lot of “that is a very hard thing to do” and “that is not an easy thing to do” said throughout about the tasks he undertook. And it wasn’t necessarily that he was blaming anybody or anything for trekking the long route to Hollywood and beyond, but a lot of the time when he was explaining why he went down a certain path, he would make sure the reader knew that what he did wasn’t easy. It was a hard thing to do. Very hard. It was like a fallback plan in case he didn’t achieve what he wanted to do. If he didn’t make it, it’s okay, it was a very hard thing to do. But be it stand-up comedy, surviving through boarding school and the loss of a parent, acting, flying, running…Eddie succeeds at it all. So by telling me over and over that what he did was hard (he literally uses the word ‘hard’ and very few other variants), feels like one inch away from saying “Look how wonderful I am,” “Look what I’ve achieved and look how hard I worked for it. I am bloody wonderful.” And he is wonderful! But I know it was hard. I don’t have to keep being told your journey and your tasks in life were hard. Show me, don’t keep telling me.So, that bothered me, but it doesn’t alter my view on Eddie, which I believe is a great thing.There were some quite dull parts for me, those mainly being the ins and outs of the comedy circuit and the ins and outs of learning to be a pilot. Very detailed and very uninteresting, but that’s purely a personal thing. If you like those two topics, you will probably really enjoy those parts.I’d like to reiterate that Eddie is very funny and very smart, and that I enjoyed reading about his life, from childhood to adulthood. I’d recommend this if you’re a fan of comedy and/or a fan of Eddie’s. Definitely worth the time.
    • 3/5
      I'm not a big fan of memoirs or autobiographies. For the most part, I don't really care about anyone else's childhood memories, but this book is a memoir by one of my favorite comedians, so I had hopes for it. Unfortunately I didn't love it. Mr. Izzard has had a really interesting life and I admire his sincerity and willingness to share, but this book just isn't edited very well. I'm sure the author thinks that it is organized, but it isn't. His rambling works very well in his comedy act, but not in this book.The book covers his childhood, in which the most profound event was the death of his mother from cancer when he was six. "I loved that time—before Mum died. Everything after it was different, and not as good, as if it all happened in a different color." After her death he and his older brother were sent to boarding schools, but he maintained a close relationship with his father. Eddie describes himself, in both the book and his shows, as an "action transvestite" with a wish to express his feminine side. However, most often he refers to himself now as transgender, and about 20% of the book deals with how he handled being transgender and coming out to his family, friends and audiences. That part of the book might be of help to other transgender people, but mostly I think this book is for his fans.If you are familiar with Eddie Izzard's work you can hear his voice in your head as you read the book and some of it is amusing, but I don't know what anyone unfamiliar with him would make of this book. The book didn't need to be funny, but it shouldn't have been dull and repetitive. There were footnotes on almost every page which were distracting and awkward and mostly unnecessary. Unfortunately, I found much of the book boring, like the part about teaching himself to play the piano. He also has a tendency to treat readers like we are really dumb and explains too much, in footnotes or parentheticals, when the meaning of a term is perfectly clear from the context . The parts of the book that I liked best were those about his career. He's a standup comedian, actor, pilot and activist who ran 27 marathons in 27 days (including 2 marathons on a single day) for charity. He has a very positive outlook and his message in general is "do more than you think you can do". I'm sure I'd like him very much if I met him and I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy the book more. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      A stand-up comic, actor, writer, and political activist, Edward John “Eddie” Izzard reviews his personal experiences, professional life, and evolving sexuality. Through his writings, we learn about the self-discipline his has to train and run marathons to create awareness on issues dear to his heart and raise funds for charity. His use of comedy to deal with tragic incidents, consequences, and biases he faced as a transgender role model is clearly illustrated. There are footnotes scattered throughout. The collection of mostly colored pictures highlights key people and events in his life. It is a well-written memoir.Goodreads Giveaway randomly chose me to receive this book. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.