Dame Edna Everage (1934-2023)

Barry Humphries, an Australian comedian who cross-dressed his way to flamboyant fame and fortune as Dame Edna Everage, a lovable, raunchy, barbed-tongued hostess beginning in Melbourne in 1955, died on April 22. He (and she) were 89. [Photo above of Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage in a publicity still]

Humphries was among the wittiest comedians who specialized in the warm and polite put-down. He also was perhaps one of the world's best improv comedians who could come up with an endearing, improvised story and punch line faster than most on the fly. Through his eccentric-dressing character, Dame Edna, he perfected this style of humor over the decades to become a star in England in the late 1980s and then in the U.S. in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was worth catching for her fashionable eyeglass frames alone.

I recall taking my 5-year-old daughter in 2004 to see Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance on Broadway and watching with delight as she fully understood the sophisticated humor and mischief. At the end, Dame Edna tossed about 20 pounds of gladioli out into the audience until virtually everyone in the orchestra and beyond was holding them like spears. It was all part of the British fun.

I first came across this brand of salty, outlandish humor in London in the late 1960s, when my father took me at 11 to the Palladium to see English Music Hall comedy. My father had been in the Navy and stationed in England during World War II just before D-Day. Like my daughter, I couldn't get enough of the humor.

Here are seven clips of Dame Edna. If you're unfamiliar, you will become a fast fan...

Here's a half hour of clips...

Here's Joan Rivers on the U.K. TV show, The Dame Edna Experience, in 1987. Note how the two styles of humor fight for dominance—Joan's bawdy, rehearsed street bits and Edna's more advanced brand of humor and quick improv ("Have you thought of washing them by hand?"). I'm not sure Edna quite got any of Joan's lines...

Here's Dame Edna with Boris Johnson early in his career...

Here's Dame Edna on Hallmark's Home & Family...

Here's Dame Edna with Piers Morgan during the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Watch for Piers's warning and Dame's graceful recovery...

Here's Dame Edna with Lauren Bacall...

And here's Dame Edna with Liza Minnelli in 1989...