Right-wing comics ‘tend to be sexist and racist’

Eddie Izzard thought that style had gone away...

Right-wing comics ‘tend to be sexist and racist’, Eddie Izzard has said.

The comic and aspiring politician said he’d thought that more reactionary style of comedy might have gone away ‘but they’re still here’.

However, appearing on Talk TV, Izzard added that stand-ups tend to be more left-wing than the rest of the country, and but conceded that while ‘comedy is a good weapon to puncture pomposity, it's not a great weapon for building in politics.’

'Stand-up comedy is more left, because right-wing stand-ups tend to be sexist and racist comedians who we thought would've gone away, but they're still there,' she added.

Having recently revealed that she wants to be known as Suzy as well as Eddie, the performer said she was relaxed about what names and pronouns people use.

‘I prefer Suzy but I don’t mind Eddie,’ she said. ‘And I prefer she/her but I don’t mind he/him. That’s how I’m [going to] roll so people can choose what they want. They can’t make a mistake. They can’t go wrong with me.’

Izzard was on the right-leaning channel to talk to host Ian Collins about her solo performance of Great Expectations - saying that playing 19 different characters is ‘perfect for a trans person’

‘It's kind of perfect as trans playing Estella and Miss Havisham and Pip and Magwitch. Playing Estella, a drop-dead gorgeous young girl; having been born a boy but feeling like I would have like to have been a girl, that's an interesting place to go.’

Her version of the Charles Dickens classic – also newly adapted by the BBC – will open at London's Garrick Theatre for a six-week run on May 24.