Comedian, actor and writer Eddie Izzard has announced that he will attempt to run (on a treadmill) 31 marathons, each followed by a standup show, in 31 days in different virtual cities from across Europe and around the world. Called ‘A Run For Hope’, the campaign will take place through January 2021 and aims to raise money for charities that “Make Humanity Great”.
Both the running and the gigs—all “Best Of” career retrospective sets—will be live-streamed, and fans are encouraged to join in. They can do so by buying tickets to the shows or donating to the campaign, but they’re also invited to join Eddie on his runs via Zoom, perform small acts of kindness or by engaging in activism, community-building and politics.
This isn’t the first time Izzard has run a ridiculous number of consecutive marathons—that was in 2009, repeated in 2016 and 2020—but he’s never tried to perform comedy after the run before. Izzard has a long and consistent history of political activism, even announcing last month that he wanted to become a Labour MP in the next UK election.
“‘Make Humanity Great Again’ stands for unity, the sharing of beliefs and the power of human beings uniting across the continents and around the world,” Izzard wrote in a statement on his website. “As a campaign it seeks to promote a fair chance in life for all, particularly those who experience disadvantage and discrimination. It speaks to people who believe there is more goodwill than ill-will in the world, who believe in the positive qualities of humanity and in the Golden Rule – to treat other people the way you would like to be treated yourself.”
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