Believe Me
A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
by Eddie Izzard
Reading Profile
Should I read this?
Izzard writes in the cadence of a stand-up set: conversational, wry, and anecdote-rich. What works best is lively backstage color — childhood scenes, early street performances, and tour stories that capture what life onstage feels like. The main limitation is uneven focus: chapters can loop on similar punchlines and lean toward anecdote over reflection, so readers seeking a disciplined chronology or probing psychological insight will feel shortchanged.
Read this if...
- •a stand-up comedian planning a short multi-city club run (think 6–10 dates in 50–200-seat venues) who wants a practical, morale-aware sense of touring life — useful now while you're mapping set pacing, nightly adjustments, and travel logistics without a big crew.
- •a mid-career theater actor crafting a 45–60 minute one-person show for a festival or fringe run who needs concrete examples of turning private memories into stage rhythms and vocal beats — helpful now during rehearsal when you’re shaping pacing and punch placement.
- •a product engineer who commutes ~45 minutes each way on public transit and prefers episodic, voice-driven chapters to finish between stops — fits now because the book’s short riffs can be picked up and put down across commutes without losing the thread.
Skip this if...
- •you'll likely put it down when repeated anecdotal riffs pile up without new insight — the midsection tends to repeat tonal material and can feel stalled.
- •annoying if you prefer strict chronology or tidy, thematic argumentation — the narrative hops around by show and memory rather than a measured timeline.
- •avoid if you want rigorous self-critique or psychological depth — the book favors charming recollection and stage stories over deep inward analysis.
Critically acclaimed, awardwinning British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard details his childhood, his first performances on the streets of London, his ascent to worldwide success on stage and screen, and his comedy shows which have won over audiences around the world.Over the course of a thirtyyear career, Eddie Izzard has proven himself to be a ...
Before You Buy
Reading Specifications
Difficulty:hard
Audience Fit
- a stand-up comedian planning a short multi-city club run (think 6–10 dates in 50–200-seat venues) who wants a practical, morale-aware sense of touring life — useful now while you're mapping set pacing, nightly adjustments, and travel logistics without a big crew.
- a mid-career theater actor crafting a 45–60 minute one-person show for a festival or fringe run who needs concrete examples of turning private memories into stage rhythms and vocal beats — helpful now during rehearsal when you’re shaping pacing and punch placement.
- a product engineer who commutes ~45 minutes each way on public transit and prefers episodic, voice-driven chapters to finish between stops — fits now because the book’s short riffs can be picked up and put down across commutes without losing the thread.
- you'll likely put it down when repeated anecdotal riffs pile up without new insight — the midsection tends to repeat tonal material and can feel stalled.
- annoying if you prefer strict chronology or tidy, thematic argumentation — the narrative hops around by show and memory rather than a measured timeline.
- avoid if you want rigorous self-critique or psychological depth — the book favors charming recollection and stage stories over deep inward analysis.
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Why recommended
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Fiction, and Nonfiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Bill Gates
Co-founder of Microsoft; co-chair of the Gates Foundation
“If you have seen Eddie’s stuff and you like it I promise you’ll love this book.”
Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen. Recommended by 10 sources.
“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
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How recommendation signals are reviewed
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.