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Comedian Izzard: All dressed up and going places

From Sherri Sylvester
CNN Showbiz Today Correspondent

He wears makeup, nail polish and designer clothes, but comedian Eddie Izzard would rather not be taken at face value.

"I'm a transvestite, and I feel that's a very second-millennium word, and it's just my sexuality," said the British comic, whose HBO special "Dress to Kill is nominated for three Emmys. "It has nothing to do with my comedy."

Izzard, for the record, is straight. He just likes to cross-dress.

"You can be wildly done up...extreme screaming transvestite, but I'm not screaming. I'm just vaguely shouting."

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Thirty-eight-year-old Izzard, who honed his craft as a street performer in London's Covent Garden, is a movie buff, historian, onetime Eagle Scout and product of British boarding schools, who can deliver his punch lines in fluent French.

He has been in several films, including "Velvet Goldmine," "The Avengers" and the upcoming "Shadow of the Vampire" with John Malkovich, and he travels the world with his one-man shows.

"Dress to Kill," which features Izzard in action on stage, is up for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Performance.

His approach -- he credits his dyslexia with allowing him to see the world sideways -- is an uncommon mix of pop culture, science and history.

"I think my standup is like watching CNN, and a sitcom and "The Simpsons" and a film and The History Channel and Discovery, and they all sort of merge in a bizarre way," he said.

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Eddie Izzard
HBO
"Velvet Goldmine"

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