![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/70070919-11997149-image-m-15_1682031741580-e1682365027905.jpg\")
<\/a>Barry Humphries.<\/p><\/div>\n
I was crushed when I read the very sad news over the weekend that Barry Humphries, a.k.a. Dame Edna, had died. I first read that he was ailing from hip surgery complications a couple of days before, but then, just the day after that, there was another news story saying his condition wasn\u2019t that bad. So when I looked at a news site very early Saturday morning, I literally gasped when I saw that he had passed away.<\/p>\n
Dame Edna was literally the funniest person in the world. She even surpassed Mr. X and my mother to become the #1 many years ago. (In case you\u2019re curious, the next people after my mother are Chris Rock and Jackie Mason.)<\/p>\n
First, I\u2019m going to tell you all about Dame Edna, and then I have a little story about Barry Humphries, who is the genius who created, and had been, Dame Edna for almost seventy years.<\/p>\n
I’ve been lucky enough to see Dame Edna perform in person a half dozen times, after first noticing her on talk shows in the ’90s; I could not get enough. [Note: I just found a review I did on Beverly Hills People<\/em> of one of her Los Angeles shows in 2009. That site is no more, so I can’t link to it. But it encapsulates Dame Edna and Barry Humphries so exactly that I’m including it in full at the end of this tribute, if you’d like to read it. As a bonus, you’ll see how incredibly short my reviews were back in the day!]<\/p>\n Dame Edna. Photo by Matt Jelonek.<\/p><\/div>\n I find myself quoting Dame Edna all the time ever since one of the early times I saw her. For example, (but, of course, you have to hear\u00a0her<\/em>\u00a0say all this,) in her shows, she chats with a few audience members, and one time, she asked a woman what color her living room carpet was. When the woman answered, \u201cBeige,\u201d Edna paused, made a slight face to the audience, and replied, \u201cBeige???\u201d Another pause. Then, \u201cI had forgotten all about beige!\u201d We all guffawed. And I haven’t been able to look at that tepid color ever since.<\/p>\n If you do not know who Dame Edna Everage is, please find videos of her online. Just a couple of weeks ago, Mr. X and I watched a bunch of them out of the blue. Speaking of blue, if you are ever feeling that way, I suggest watching her, and you\u2019ll cheer right up. She\u2019s just absolutely brilliant. (Here’s a glowing review I wrote of her \u201cFarewell Tour\u201d in 2015: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/theatre-dame-ednas-glorious-goodbye-the-farewell-tour<\/a>.)<\/p>\n An extremely rare Barry Humphries sighting. He came out on stage after the curtain call of Dame Edna’s last show in LA, to rapturous applause. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n So, after one of her opening nights here in Los Angeles, Mr. X and I met Barry Humphries at the after-party. As everyone knows, Dame Edna is one of the most flamboyant, outrageous people in show business. So we were shocked to discover that Mr. Humphries was just a sweet,\u00a0reserved, super low-key\u00a0man. We had a lovely conversation at the fete, during which he asked us where we live. When I told him which neighborhood it is, he told me that he loves it, once lived there himself, and that he wants to move here again. (I would have been happy for him to move into\u00a0our<\/em>\u00a0house. But only if he did so as his hilarious alter ego.) It was just such an intimate, quiet,\u00a0almost whispered conversation, with none of the hilarious quips for which Dame Edna is known. Barry may not have even realized that we knew that he was the Dame herself!<\/p>\n That convo has always stayed with me. I\u2019m actually crying writing this because his death is so sad. I hate for someone who has brought so much joy to so many leave us.<\/p>\n I\u2019m just grateful that I got to see Dame Edna perform so many times, and very often from great seats. But I even bought a \u201cstanding room only\u201d seat to see her show on Broadway, and I\u2019m far from a stand-er! That’s how much I loved her.<\/p>\n Dame Edna with a young Prince William, who obviously finds her as hilarious as the rest of the world does!<\/p><\/div>\n One time, Mr. X and I were seated in the mezzanine, and I was actually happy about it because we got to be one of her \u201clittle paups,\u201d which is what she calls people not in the orchestra, (because that means that we\u2019re \u201cpaupers\u201d if we have to sit up there.)<\/p>\n But she always refers to all<\/em> of her audience members as her \u201cpossums.\u201d I was thrilled to be one so many times. And I cherish that I caught one of the gladiolas that she throws into the audience at the end of her shows. I kept it around for weeks; I couldn\u2019t bear to get rid of it.<\/p>\n I think I\u2019ll go out and buy myself a bunch of those flowers this week, as my own tiny tribute to Edna. And Barry. (I know there was sooooo much more to Barry Humphries, but he’ll always be only Dame Edna to me.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>