Eddie Izzard stripped for the almost 500 lucky people at Theatre Gesu Monday evening.  To be more precise the Brit comedian brought his marvellous stand-up show Stripped to the Montreal Just for Laughs festival.  It was the first of four shows, with one being done entirely in French, he will do.

I am an unapologetic Eddie Izzard fan.  Love him.  Everything about him.  Whether he is acting, running multiple marathons for charity or doing stand-up he can do no wrong in my eyes.  His style of stand-up is a mixture of stream of consciousness, Monty Pythonesque silliness and an intelligence and wit that not many possess.

He has been touring his Stripped show for roughly three years now.  It is the second time around for Montreal.  While the skeleton of the show remains intact, it has changed enough due to his skill at ad-lobbing to make it entertaining despite it being the third time I’ve seen the show.

The loose framework of the show is an examination of God and whether he exists using a run through of the history of mankind from the creation of the world up until the landing on the moon to prove that he doesn‘t exist because of the simple fact that he hasn‘t turned up…ever.  Of course, there are pit stops along the way that see Izzard covering such disjointed topics as dogs flying Apache helicopters, jam, the origin of language, beekeepers, and Wikipedia.

Taking the stage in black t-shirt, black jacket and jeans, some of the funniest parts of the show were when he wandered off where his mind took him.  Tangents are his speciality.  He just ties everything up together somehow.  Izzard’s act is one big long story.  No real “jokes” per se or punch lines.  Just a big long story filled with talking traumatized squirrels, coughing giraffes and a poetry writing giant squid.

Listening to this man you have to be impressed by the breadth of his knowledge about history, politics, language, and religion.  Though there is plenty of exaggeration for comedic value behind even the silliest of his bits there is a kernel of truth.  The man has to know plenty to make this kind of funny.  I mean I have not been to many comedy shows in which the comedian makes reference to the Battle of Thermopylae. For cripes sake, I can barely spell it never mind talk about it.

No matter your religious affiliation at the end of the show you almost begin to ascribe to atheism like Izzard.  Questions that he raises like why did God take a week to create the entire planet Earth and then populated it with only dinosaurs for 170 million years before man made his appearance really make you scratch your head.  Right after you chuckle, of course.  Makes no sense according to Izzard to worship an invisible being.

Parts of the evening included bits on the complexity of Latin, an unfortunate combatant in ancient Greece impaled on a spear, who can only advance by further skewering himself, and that “Monkey, Monkey, Monkey, Monkey, You” was the original, but rejected titled of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of the Species”.  His unique making-it-up-as-he-is-going-along ties everything together.  Lesson learned that absurd and intelligent are a great combination.

There are still two opportunities to catch Mr. Izzard in action.  He has two more nights at Theatre Gesu (July 12+13), so make sure you don’t miss one of the best stand-ups of his generation in action.