THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DAME ...

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Barry Humphries, best known for His Drag Persona Dame Edna Everage, died at the age of 89, ending an era in drag performance.

In the late 50’s, Australian comedian Barry Humphries (who wasn’t gay, it must be noted) created the character Edna Everage whilst touring with a the Union Reparatory Theatre Company. Edna was created as part of the entertainment for his fellow actors during commutes between country towns, but over time Dame Edna, as she came to be known, would become one of the most famous entertainment personalities worldwide.

In a career that spanned 60 years, “Mrs Norm Everage” evolved from an average Melbourne housewife to the flamboyant Dame Edna that many of us came to love, with his sharp, cutting wit and over-the-top costumes.

Who doesn’t remember the Dame Edna with her outlandish diamanté-ed cats-eye spectacles, lavender-coloured hair, “wisteria” she called it, and her boisterous “hello possums” opening line at every show and hurling gladioli (gladdies) in to the audience at the end.

The character was born Edna May Beazley, but by the 1970’s had grown so huge that Humphries decided she would be a dame. The character evolved from “Housewife and Superstar”, to “Megastar” and finally “Gigastar”, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, became increasingly well-known internationally with her television and stage appearances. Her character mixed with the rich and famous, claiming to audiences that she was a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth II and advisor to many of the world’s heads of state.

Humphries who claimed he was her “manager”, created an entire persona around the eccentric Dame. She was married, had three children, Bruce, Kenny, and Valmai. Kenny her youngest a fashion designer who designed all her fabulous and not so fabulous gowns, and lived with his “friend” Clifford - she often referred to them as always looking for “Miss right”. Valmai had shoplifting issues and appeared on later shows, clearly a lesbian. Her mother, she claimed was in a “maximum-security twilight home for the permanently bewildered”. With the assistance of her bridesmaid Madge, who never spoke on stage, Dame Edna became a household name all over the world.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on Twitter: “For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone. But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry. A great wit, satirist, writer, and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift.”

Local satirist and comedian, Pieter Dirk Uys, best known for his role as Evita Bezuidenhout, told Cape Talk in an interview that he “was ‘hugely’ inspired by Humphries, his sense of humour and his ability to make fun of people in a loving way, which is very unlike Evita”.

The New York Times referred to Edna after Humphries passing as “A stiletto-heeled, stiletto-tongued persona who might well have been the spawn of a ménage à quatre involving Oscar Wilde, Salvador Dalí, Auntie Mame and Miss Piggy, Dame Edna was not so much a character as a cultural phenomenon, a force of nature trafficking in wicked, sequined commentary on the nature of fame.”

The drag artist had her own mock celebrity broadcast talk show on NBC in the early 1990’s called “Dame Edna’s Hollywood.” Humphries was also a mainstay on actual talk shows as well. Humphries won a special Tony Award for his 199 one-person show “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.”

Advocate magazine noted in their obituary that “Humphries was also a controversial figure. In 2003 in an advice column for Vanity Fair, he replied to a reader’s question about learning Spanish with, “Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to?” Edna added, “The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you’re American, try English.”

An outraged Selma Hayek led a backlash against the racist comments.

Never one to mince his words, Humphries continued to speak against what he perceived as the problems with “political correctness.” Calling it a “new puritanism” and in an interview with the British Telegraph newspaper in 2016, described trans women as “mutilated men.” And Caitlyn Jenner as a “publicity-seeking ratbag.” He later also described being transgender as a “fashion.”

In an interview with CNN, the comedian said his comments had been taken out of context. He explained, “I don’t know anything about politics. But the far left is so conservative, paradoxically, inflexible, doctrinaire and humourless,” Humphries continued. “You can’t describe the world as it is anymore. You get jumped on. I’m happy to say I do. I give offense therefore I am. Not too much offense, though.” – however, an Australian award named in his honour, was renamed after these transphobic comments.

Love her or hate her, Dame Edna Everage gained both fame and notoriety with her sharp wit, and at time acerbic judgements –she made us laugh with her on stage antics, her shrill, tone-deaf singing and her gasp-out-loud comments. She rose from virtual obscurity as a plain, ordinary Australian housewife to international celebrity, one of the world’s most famous drag performers – Dame Edna, rest in peace, you will not be forgotten.

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