The above video comes form Eddie Izzard’s “Dress to Kill” DVD. The first time I watched this routine was in my high school years sitting with a few friends, including my then-girlfriend. At this time I was still a bit early into my crossdressing habits, but I had long been confused by that point as to how sexuality delineated from my behavior. After all, I liked girls, but I also liked wearing girl’s clothing — so clearly there must’ve been something wrong with me… right?
It was with great anxiety I started watching this video as my friend introduced the act by saying “He’s funny and he tells jokes while wearing women’s clothes”. In fact, before watching, I thought a great deal of the humor would be played ON Izzard, somehow pointing and laughing at the ridiculousness of himself being dressed as a woman — and I would subsequently sit and laugh awkwardly about it.
It was barely 1 miute into the video and I absolutely fell in love with Eddie Izzard’s wisdom — conveyed through comedy, of course.
To my surprise, he came out straight and cleared the air not only about his own crossdressing habits, but also the sexuality involved. Hell, I shared a great deal with Izzard — I too loved outdoors activities (“running, jumping, climbing trees”), I too wanted to be in the military as a child, I too was worried about being conflated with all sorts of “weirdo” transvestites, I too fancied girls, I too was terribly afraid of my habits being discovered on the school yard. Holy shit… so much became clear to me, and I wasn’t laughing AT Izzard…. dear god… I am laughing WITH him… and the laughter came from deep within my heart as I knew full well that I understood EXACTLY what he was saying.
Everything Izzard said rang loud and clear for me. I started to imagine that “Hey… maybe there ISN’T anything wrong with me. Maybe this is natural. Maybe this is just WHO I AM.” — and he conveyed all these ideas with such candor, wit, aplomb, and clear-cut confidence that I suddenly had a sense of a distant, kindred spirit who had undergone the same EXACT confusion as I had.
I hope future generations of crossdressers — of all kinds — find Eddie Izzard somewhere in their journey. There are many great writers, paragons, and moguls of transvestism, but few I have found to have the same remedial effect on my heart as the first time I saw this act.
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