Eddie Izzard - Being Bilingual

This video is of Eddie Izzard during his DVD recording of Dress to Kill, filmed at the Stage Door Theater in San Francisco, California. Izzard is an Emmy Award winning stand up comedian and actor. His notable comedic stand-up work includes Live at the Ambassadors, Definite Article, and Dress to Kill. He has influenced the works of Harry Hill, Dara O'Brien, and Demetri Martin. Born in Yemen to British parents and raised in British society, Izzard's performances target religion, pop culture, language, and world history due to his worldly influence. Throughout this video, Izzard talks about the petty differences in pronunciation between UK English and US English and describes the two countries as being seprated by a common language. He gradually moves on to examine the need for Europe to become bilingual because of business, noting that misunderstandings because of the language barrier can lead to loss of business. Izzard's anecdotes of how English speakers are less willing to become bilingual is suggesting to the audience that English speakers hold a certain air of elitism which holds them back from truly becoming a "melting pot" which should come naturally because of the 200 languages spoken on the same continent. This piece is insightful in that it pokes fun at the ridgidity of European socieities from a European's point of view. The point of this piece is to educate as well as make one wonder what we must do for the future. The audience this bit is meant for is the whole of Europe and English speakers to blatantly point out the issues they are not willing to deal with. Because this is meant to emphasize the unspoken truths of a European mentality, the audience would most likely be offended but come to recognize that it is a simple solution that must come to fruition.

Eddie Izzard. Dress to Kill. Dir. Lawrence Jordan. Stage Door Theater. WEA Corp, 1998. DVD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzDbNFDdP4