Dame Edna Thanks Joan Rivers During Finale Tour

dame edna thanks joan rivers

Barry Humphries has been performing as Dame Edna since 1955. Now Humphries says it’s time to put away the sequined gowns, purple wigs, make-up and cat-eyed glasses. Humphries has been on “Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour” for two years now. The tour has finally reached America. It started in his native Australia and then went through England before arriving in the States.

Barry Humphries who’s now 80, talked to the LA Times about why he’s retiring his most famous and outrageous character. He said, “I must say that I can’t keep up touring. I have got to a point in my life, I confess this to you and your many readers shamelessly, when very occasionally I have to get up in the middle of the night, wander around, occasionally visit the bathroom. And in strange hotels, you crash into walls, you trip over suitcases — it can’t go on.” His semi-retirement plans include painting and different writing projects.

Barry Humphries credits Joan Rivers for much of his success. Joan had seen his show on a night when it bombed. He said, “Joan came and liked it. I rang her and asked her what she thought I should do next, and she told me to come to America. She gave me the name of a theater manager in San Francisco, and I got a two-week engagement that ran for months and transferred to Broadway. I won the Tony, and I have only Joan Rivers to thank. She was a most generous woman. She’s greatly missed, and I’m rather angry about her death.”

Dame Edna has also gotten Barry Humphries two BAFTA nominations, a British Comedy Awards lifetime achievement honor and Queen Elizabeth II knighted him a Commander of the British Empire which could make him the world’s only “Sir Dame”.

For tickets and information on “Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour” in America, go to DameEdnaFarewell.com

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