Inside the silly mind of Eddie Izzard

He has taken his “Force Majeure” tour to 27 countries — one more than his closest competition for the title.

“I’m claiming it’s a world record for comedy ... until people tell me otherwise,” the British comedian/actor said during a phone call from France last month.

He now wants to unseat the rock-and-roll world record, which he thinks is 51 countries. But there’s not much time: In five years, Izzard said he will put his entertainment career on hold to run for London mayor.

It’s not an entirely original idea, he concedes: Arnold Schwarzenegger served two terms as California’s governor and successfully returned to his acting career. And American comedian Al Franken is serving his second term in the United States Senate.

He checked the U.S. off his list decades ago, but now he’s going state by state and city by city, including Tucson.

“I’ve never been to Tucson but Tucson has been in my brain because of Western films,” he said. “There seems to be something wild westy happening in Tucson, which I’m sure Tucson isn’t that anymore. There are parts of America that live in me as a mention in a film, as a scene in a film.”

The 53-year-old standup and star of movies including “Ocean’s Twelve,” “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Valkyrie” is going on a double date with Tucson: Two shows, two nights, 48 hours to find that wild westy thing.

So what can we expect from Izzard’s show?

“It’s called ‘Force Majeure,’ which means major force. Literally it’s in every English-speaking contract going. They call it act of God or force of nature; I call it force of nature because I don’t believe in God,” he explained. “I think we have to be our own forces of nature to get through this world and to push back against the forces of greed and self-involvement, which exist in politics and these huge businesses.”

Drawing on his early influences — Monte Python, Steve Martin and Richard Pryor — he performs material that’s intelligent, yet silly.

“It goes from human sacrifice to Darth Vader fighting God over spaghetti carbonara to squirrels with guns, moles digging for gold,” Izzard said. “Also some medieval kings. Loads of weird stuff in there.”

Some of us will get it; some of us will be entirely lost.

“I’ve found that mainstream audiences will not swing with my stuff. They will get a little confused by my stuff,” Izzard said. “But the switched-on people, the students, people who would have been students, that audience just gets it because I’m playing around with logic. It’s intelligent but very silly.”