Robert Gorelangton

Ta-ra, Dame Edna — Barry Humphries bids goodbye to his chattier half

<em>Robert Gore-Langton</em> talks to Barry Humphries, alter ego of the gigastar Dame Edna

Credit: Dan Williams

Dame Edna is hanging up her tiara. From now on the ‘failed comedian’, as Edna calls her alter ego Barry Humphries, will have to make do without her. Her current tour includes a run at the London Palladium but after she’s graced the provinces, it’s adios, possums. Her last ever live show is currently bringing (I paraphrase her website) a spooky old resilience to people’s lives through laughter, prayer and a life-enhancing enzyme called Vitamin E —  that’s E for Edna.

The truth is, Barry can’t face touring any more. He is 79 and sick to the back teeth of trendy hotels with their moody lighting and minimalist nonsense. The last straw came when he was unable to turn off the bedside phone’s flashing message light and was obliged to drape his pants over the blinking thing. The current farewell show (directed by Simon Phillips, an Aussie big shot) is, by his standards, mega-budget, he tells me in a boutique Soho hotel suite of precisely the sort that has driven him to retire. We sit over tea and talk about his swansong, which he describes in his trademark tones of droll mockery.

‘The show’s set is suburban back garden where it all began. Generic is the word. I’ve got a good group of dancers, the Ednaettes and a Balinese pianist who operates what are now called “keyboards”. It’s in two acts and it comes down in time for you to get the car, get home and pay the babysitter. I used, like a lot of musical hall comics, to go on and on, but I have stopped doing that because I have found people are happier if the curtain comes down at 10.30. When I saw Ken Dodd [whose shows are up to five hours long], the entire elderly audience must have been wearing Depends.’

Depends are the incontinence pants of choice among Australian senior citizens.

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