AS a teenager, comedian Eddie Izzard served ice cream and tea to visitors at the De La Warr Pavilion.

It was a part-time job that gave him a glimpse of the kinds of locations he would eventually fill with laughter, but one that he was not very good at.

“I made teas very badly,” laughs Izzard, who moved to Sussex from Wales at the age of seven. “The first time I made one, the guy came back and said: ‘That’s not tea’ and gave it back. He should have just told me how to make it, I didn’t know how.”

The reason for the the late notice of Sunday’s gig at the De La Warr, is, he says, because he can never plan too far ahead; next week he’s shooting off to appear as Edward VII to Judi Dench’s Queen Victoria in the new film Victoria and Abdul.

“So that’s all I’ve got going on,” he says, with exaggerated modesty.

Since the ice-cream vendor days Izzard has become one of the most well-known comics in the UK, thanks to his stream-of-consciousness approach that is by turns surreal and rooted in current affairs, and sometimes both simultaneously.

On an aesthetic level, he is instantly recognisable on the scene because of his cross-dressing.

He has spent much of the last three years traversing the world on his Force Majeure tour, and refers back to his travel experiences often in his current shows (he has performed whole sets in French and German).

Ever the energetic presence, Izzard ran 27 marathons in as many days in South Africa earlier this year for Sport Relief.

“I was planning to be in the forces when I was a kid,” he says, “and I think the marathon thing was a bit like being in an operation; you go out there, you work your backside off, regroup and carry on.”

Shortly after taking the fight to poverty in this quest, he was a persistent voice in the Remain campaign around the EU referendum. Izzard needs no prompting today to give his vision of a united Europe.

“We’ve got to say ‘I’m proud of my country, but can we learn from other countries?’ That’s got to be the way forward for humanity. Anything less is not good enough.”

Rather dramatically, he adds: “Europe has to work for the world to work. If the continents can’t work together then this world will not make it through the next century.”

This level of political involvement is the least you would expect from a man who is aiming to run for government office in 2020, either as Mayor of London, an MEP or MP.

“Yes, yes, 2020,” he says, and such is the intent in his voice you can almost imagine him banging a fist on the table. “I am doing well, but I want everyone to do well. I want people to be aspirational. I want places like Bexhill to be vibrant towns.”

Back to Bexhill. As an honorary patron of the De La Warr, Izzard is clued up on the history of the pavilion as well as Bexhill itself. He is mildly dismayed that it has become, in his words, a “retirement town.”

“Bexhill was designed as an active town, with a mix of young and old, like Brighton. The guy who initiated the building of the pavilion, the 9th Earl De La Warr (Herbrand Sackville) wanted to inject a vibrant, young feel to it. Now it has become an old, closed-down place and I don’t like that.”

Not that he is defeatist about the situation - his gig on Sunday is part of a general sense of duty on Izzard’s part to make sure the De La Warr continues to host diverse, dynamic performers.

Like when he speaks about his plans to be a politician, it is Izzard’s determination and passion that comes through in this regard.

“We have to keep putting interesting things on in Bexhill. We have to fight for it.”

Eddie Izzard De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sunday, August 28 8pm, £20, call 01424 229111