Eddie Soundtrack

No one but madcap stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard can spin comic gold out of papal history, monkeys with guns, Jesus preaching to the dinosaurs, and cafeteria food on the Death Star. Circle, taken from his stand-up tour in 2000, doesn't have the astonishingly seamless free-associative flow of Glorious or Dress to Kill, his previous specials--which is to say, he's only intermittently brilliant, instead of supernaturally nonstop brilliant. We'll take what we can get, because Izzard can slip in surprisingly stinging commentary about international politics and religion, yet his impish smile suggests that he's only pointing out the obvious. He tosses out an idea and then plays with it like a cat plays with a mouse, flipping it around, teasing it out, pouncing, and then letting it go, only to sneak back up on it just when you'd forgetten it was there. Cheeky, subversive, and very, very funny. --Bret Fetzer