Barry Humphries' most memorable moments | 60 Minutes Australia

hello possums yes it's me Damien aren't I looking gorgeous Barry Humphries introduced the world to many brilliant and Unforgettable characters I thought what if Joan is wearing an identical frock well and in doing so his greatest reward it's inspired by marvelous marvelous painting was to make people laugh he succeeded Way Beyond anyone's expectations it's been a fairy tale story person and even his own for services to entertainment Dame Edna Everett Barry Humphrey's remarkable career spanned an incredible 70 years with his death at 89 most degree we've lost an icon [Music] then down below with you but to soften the sadness [Music] will always be remembered a whistle and smack of a graddy sometimes the thrilling tinkle of a contact lens you will feel a spooky sense of power as you oscillate Australia's favorite fly you'll get a floral High when the petals fly and you wave Full House Yes sold out sold out isn't it funny I get nervous just like a just like a beginner I have my vulnerability ladies and gentlemen laughter is a marvelous thing for the laugher and the person who induces the laugh it's therapeutic it's like a fire going up a chimney whoosh and just something I said did that longevity in the fickle world of show business is as difficult as it is rare are we really really right but Barry Humphries made it look easy do you ever look at your career and think how on Earth did this happen because we think that Jonathan that achievement alone deserves Applause but it didn't happen through luck all South Korea he wasn't just a funny man or woman he was also a master of marketing Barry sure knew how to sell himself interviewed him never knew what we were going to get but I can assure you Barry never let us down I've drawn attention to myself over all these years in heavy disguise I just think there's another story as another character and that is the real character the real Barry Humphries has always been one of a kind it was something his parents worked out soon after his birth in Melbourne in 1934. foreign and I think that was bad I didn't have anything outside myself to care for but you had siblings I had I took no interest in them I did have two brothers and a sister but otherwise I was an only child okay so I was given everything I even vaguely wanted that's turned me into a nightmare a nightmare [Music] I wasn't quite certain about my place in the world and I have that in common I suppose with most people my mother had an unfortunate turn of phrase she said sometimes rather loudly and in dinner parties we don't know where Barry came from and I think that was a real View I did appear like a sort of cuckoo in the nest did you use humor as a way of dealing with being different if you know I use humor because it came down to me naturally I always liked the thought that there were people in the world devoted to making others laugh how wonderful to make a whole audience laugh but did you feel different I always did feel different and that was based on what you were looking at I felt yes and when my mother said we don't know where Barry came from I was relieved because it explained that I came from somewhere else I will say she had a habit of saying if I did a performance of any kind you know saying a little song or recited a little poem for the amusement of the aunties of which there were many she would say don't look at Barry he's drawing attention to himself growing up in the suburbs Barry's house proud parents hoped their son would be an architect [Music] it's a very nice one so now I'm sure it's a nice home in the character of Edna I still Express an interest in the houses that members of my audience live in she's a bit like a kind of crazed real estate agent what sort of a home do you have there darling it had Warden home oh how beautiful is yours Edwardian isn't it just a comfortable home that's lovely mine's Boggle Imagining the homes Edna might have designed if Barry had pursued architecture as his parents wanted instead he studied law although that didn't work out either I'd be pretty boring I think there's an old lawyer I would be retired I'd have a wine collection probably a collection of Georgian silver say that Edna interrupted my academic career thank goodness excuse I thank goodness indeed representing Crooks gave way to Comedy and in the mid-1950s an unlikely star was born a very Suburban housewife ladies and gentlemen Mrs Norm average I won't know if any of you have been to a slide evening before Edna was an early creation and there were a lot of people like Edna and I think still and she and hearts of your mum or your mother oh yes you would say if you're creating a character a Liz you draw upon a whole lot of people that you know Barry's mother Louisa was both a source of inspiration and his toughest critic one morning I came down for breakfast and I'd done a new show the night before this is in the 50s and I said oh look I got a wonderful review in the Sun and she said the age didn't like you Barry and then she and on another occasion she said there's one thing you have to learn Barry not everybody likes you but of course we performers like to be liked by everybody and I've come to the conclusion that if if there is someone who doesn't like me I wouldn't like them anyway my husband is a very very keeps a very low profile with regard to his illness as a matter perfect he own he never mentioned his prostate and when he does he only mentions it in passing the only time he ever feels it from very average Beginnings in his life and character quickly evolved that ordinary man e mayonnaise is excellent for your hair if you rub it well into the scalp at bedtime because you wake up like a tossed salad but it doesn't tour de force on stage understanding standing there one day at the kitchen sink in moonee ponds I was risked in gray water peas and mutton fat slowly in it and on our screens well people look at me in a funny way a sort of hungry way I think I'd be a silly woman to deny that I'm a very attractive woman I mean people find me tremendously attractive what what kind of things do you have to do to sort of repel borders so to speak I think it's just my dignity I think up to a point you know people realize they can go there that far and no further really I'd like you to bear that in mind [Applause] Each Other's Love no one was safe from her rapid fire insults your mind's made was a pioneer of new Zeal feminism She was That's why it never took off and burned her brother neighbors did it [Music] in fact Edna was so formidable it was easy to forget there was a man behind the mask station between two people one of whom is a lot more interesting than the other that's all who are you I'm Lee I mean you remind me of myself that's what I'm talking to I used to try to make my own clothes I only say that look today might have tried to put your makeup on in the card in the 1960s there was only one place for young entertainers London it's where Barry Humphries found a new home but there was a whole lot of Australia he refused to leave behind glad to know you Barry McKenzie's a name but mostly mates call me better the film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie starred Barry Crocker but it was his aunt Edna who stole the show but very seriously I promised my other trip to the Old Country ever since my husband normally don't stick your head up a dead Bear's bum racist sexist xenophobic and homophobic the critics cringed but still the movie was a hit especially for Barry Humphries I'm taking you back a few years later came the sequel Barry McKenzie holds his own remarkably as a reflection of her growing popularity the then prime minister Goff wicklam and his wife Margaret appeared in the film to bestow Edna with a title that would cement her place in history Edna everage would now be known as Dame Edna [Applause] with the new title Dame Edna's Legend grew and so did her ego the housewife from Mooney ponds couldn't be stopped they saw me as a star but you see me as a neighbor don't you possums admittedly a neighbor with a much nicer house than yours Edna you are my role model oh you darling did you feel I had a wonderful talent I did I really did I knew there was something there he are adorable she was presented with her very own key to the city of Melbourne ladies and gentlemen David refridge Edna had arrived she was now Australia's biggest cultural export and much more Queen was sold out stage Productions in Britain and Australia her own television specials the night the cameras are going to be poking and probing a little part of me that have never been poked and regular appearances on TV talk shows [Applause] the sensational day manner ever is Edna perfected her stiletto sharp wit well have you ever been to Greece seen an icon horrible I've got cracks all over their face oh I'm sorry she loved toying with her interviewers that's fabulous to see you Dave it's lovely to see you Jonathan and it's a privilege to have you on my shirt and dazzling audiences with her spectacular fashion and I dish tonight look at my Saucy hemline [Music] when she puts the glasses on not the stockings glasses the glasses make the character I call them my face Furniture my glasses I have specially made and I have a pair of glasses for every [ __ ] I own ladies I'm lucky I have I spoiled and yet not spoiled in a spooky way thinking of marketing these glasses it's a special range of day Medina products like I Market the perfume it's called menopause but for all the laughter and always at the expense of others there was one line and crossed Dame edner was her own woman and certainly not a figment of someone's imagination many press reports that I've read in preparing for this interview describe you as a character created by Barry Humphries I knew this was coming as I saw the camera creeping closer as I see you looking down at your little scribbled notes I knew that's coming up I can handle that if they think Barry Humphries and I are the same person let them talk to my gynecologist he does nothing he's not here so there's a that he tragic pleased with the fact that people believe in Edna's reality I do so why shouldn't they I think that the there should be no glimpse of the actor behind the mask of the performance is she funny than Barry Humphries I think much fun yeah and I think that she's got really an abnormal amount of adrenaline in fact it I found it quite exhausting just to be in her company all right we're in the town hall you know the Lord mayor has always wanted to show me his enormous organ isn't it magnificent how old is the enormous orbit well it goes back to the 1890s it stretches way back [Music] while Edna always believed she was a model of refinement and respectability she reluctantly had to share the spotlight with an unpleasant other Humphreys created a new character the very distinct and distasteful sir Liz Patterson whose view of the world was very different to witness it used to be double Tequilas that could prize off the pants of the Sheilas but now they won't have it away no way for less than a large he's not a type I like he's common I know you're all looking at my penis aren't you and there she is ladies and gentlemen Harvey weinston is a beginner compared with les Patterson but less Patterson is the acceptable face of inappropriate Behavior accomplish there's a bloke who's keenly watched and widely read who always hits the nail on their head inappropriate doesn't begin to describe sir Liz Patterson the cultural attache and chairman of the Australian cheese board Barry Humphries always loved being him as much because he knew celez was a character no modern day comic could ever get away with today [Applause] among the prowl with my weapon of mass destruction and I never fail to lift the veil of a red hot Iraqi town they may not ever find herself in a room with Liz and there are stories about that horrible stories very many years ago Liz came to Melbourne and took the young Edna to the pictures and experience she never would wish to repeat it centers a bit around chocolates something that lays pressed into a hand while sitting in the back of the cinema and he's very comfortable character to perform remind me to call his wife people were saying you know humorless people were saying oh there might have been people like that in the old days but no longer you know we're a sophisticated country well of course we all know that bless is still around you're not out of Step though are you I mean Barry Humphries isn't getting you know out of step with this society that we've oh I hope so I'd hate to be in step with the society the the certainly the world today to be very accepting we're required to be insane the political correctness is the new puritanism is scary I don't plan to break no Hearts but if we don't I could speak I'd be up [ __ ] creek a bit of a both foreign because you wanted to use a character to introduce Edna in Sydney yes I invented him really to appear at this George's League's Club in Sydney to introduce Edna soften the blue because I thought the winner came on there would be cat calls you know there would be rather homophobic interjections so Liz came on as the club secretary the entertainment's officer [Music] Cameo very stupid he gives a pretty good impression of what he'll be followed by none other than ever excited and gentlemen no worries when the mega star for mooneytons steps us forth these boards I want you to give it a clap she's over richly deserved but Liz became popular in his own right and I remember Mike willisy saying that's a good guarantee could keep that character I did Welcome to lunch with laser I should say a late lunch will live because my little secretary crystal ball and me lingered over the stickies today I mean it's busy at bricklayer I've been admitting as a one-armed taxi driver with crabs mental picture of that but Liz wasn't to everyone's taste and that's something that made Barry Humphries immensely proud fortunately I mean you can't really win everybody are these humorless people are they I think they generally are and often they people have not even been to one of my shows it's quite often the academics or their you know ambitious politicians I don't know the old heat-seeking missiles fired up tonight I reckon might have spotted a soft target over there still what some considered highly offensive many others thought was entertaining he flashed the map of Tasmania ladies for those of you who aren't too crash over the geography is Mania is a triangular continent I've been on the bushy side but better than anyone Barry always knew comedy was a test of boundaries gender fluidity that's caused you a bit of grief and what the transgender conversation has put you into a bit of hot water I thought that was absurd this transgender thing what bit I just know that when I went to a party and dinner in Edinburgh because my son was at that University and a very pretty girl next to me said I said what do you do and she said well I'm gender fluid I never heard that before unless Patterson talks about it quite a lot actually in fact he spends a fair bit of time at the dry cleaner Liz and the dry cleaner always likes to know what that stain is and what is that stain and there's generous as it's gender fluid but Barry even the provocateur didn't stop with celez I used to in creating these characters and weaving them into little stories try to be as fanciful as possible I could think that's coming when that's stupid non-eventor of 60 Minutes done a doco on my luxury Weekender there was the lovely Lance Boyle he was the Trade union figure I always thought the name Lance Boyle was a good name you don't get to read a white paper in East Berlin if you're a [ __ ] he represented a union I think it was called the AC UNT some kind of obscure Union but he was a powerful man we'd sit there in a clubhouse after a match with our thermos and some of the different other couples and their thermi what were you hoping to do with Sandy Stone well I invented this kindly old man of the suburbs really to see how much boredom an audience could take and doubt they could take a lot of boredom I only hope and pray that when the time eventually does come as it will 's the first to go [Laughter] [Applause] Dame Edna with little guidance from Barry Humphries easily conquered the Commonwealth I think I'm going to be very successful in the world of pop but then with the confidence of a Hollywood star she brazenly took on the toughest Market of all the United States what's good about a good talk show host is that they allow the other person to get in a word edgewise I have a different Theory I think a talk show as well as a monologue interrupted by total strangers Dave Madden has become so real that as a journalist you can't do a story without actually interviewing her and when you sit down with Dame Edna you wind up as part of her act it was an enormous gamble not knowing whether Americans would understand our Danes very particular humor turns out they did even the usually very serious American 60 minutes program jumped aboard the Edna Express damn internet did it ever enter your mind when you were a little girl growing up in municons that you would end up a mega star on Broadway I was a Frump I wonder it's possible your researchers have found footage of me I've tried to suppress it but sun has leaked out and it wouldn't surprise me in the least of 30 minutes found a little bit of this footage the 60 Minutes time Edna well you're giving me extra time indeed because you deserve I wanted to you something privately Bob Simon Barry Humphries has managed me for many years he in a way discovered me and he helped me he nurtured me there's no doubt about that you needed him at the beginning I've helped him I've been on all his shows but I don't need him anymore and it seemed Edna was right in the U.S with Barry nowhere in sight she cultivated a rich life story for herself I was born with this lovely move here viewers and the only woman actually on the planet with a purple bikini line wow Edna was so utterly convincing I've adopted this lovely baby from the same Village in Africa where Madonna shops for her loved ones even her autobiography sold as non-fiction in bookstores I don't think I'd make a very convincing man Katie I don't think so there seems to be no real process where I think what can Edna say next she says it before I can think of it like next to the dehydrated girl what's your name Sandra what do you do for a living Sandra just more up the family you brought up don't say just I don't want to hear about your low self-esteem Sandra Suzanne's outfit you're wearing is it you know it's Suzanne's motto is this goes with that but not in every case Sandra not in every case why do you think people pay good money to get abused and humiliated and single death and embarrassed by Edna because they are simultaneously delighted entertained convulsed with laughter and somehow elevated into a form of stardom they come into the theater as ordinary patrons they leave signing autographs in the lobby giant Rivers I think you might have been a little ancient Egyptian princess I think you might have been have you ever woken up feeling slightly mummified it's no secret is that you've had a weeny little bit of cosmetic surgery so I suppose with those bandages on those little surgical bandages darling Edgar one of my favorite people Old Man Rivers [Applause] [Music] once she got going there was no stopping Edna ire I see a little bit of dandruff no one including Prime Ministers future and present were spared her Venom think about this bumbling fellow don't you [Applause] think he rang me up with a very thrilled with a new Gallup poll 78 of Australians adore me he said he did I said darling you only need another 22 to be neck and neck with me my purple possum picker oh it's luring me over here you what's your name is there something particular about the gladiolus is it funnier than a tulip they're big they're voluptures fleshy luscious Ness gorgeous beautifully colored [Music] there's something Australian something very frustrated about about a thrusting and it's optimistic and it's it's magically bereft of any form of subtlety it is gladysan what other show does this could you imagine Barry Manilow doing this on the road day midna might have been wowing the world but on the home front there were setbacks Mr Norman everidge husband of the world famous actress named Edna everidge passed away peacefully in London just about an hour ago do you often visit the cemetery where Norm is interred as often as I can Bob and I suspect when you ask me that question there was a malicious intention not a malicious intention I have been criticized Robert Simon for not visiting my husband's grave often or nothing I go when I can I remove the graffiti because there is envious graffiti all over it well over his Obelisk is obelisk I was in the cemetery buffing up my husband's obelisk [Laughter] [Applause] he used to like me doing that when he was Jeffrey getting them all now than ever before and I do I disapprove almost everything she says and in fact I cringe at some of the things what the woman says but I have come rather to respect her right to say them because you have been accused of racism fascism sexism or ageism oh good the more the better beautiful oh you smell lovely thank you I've always loved garlic prawns the world needs me I've got something look I isn't it funny people adore me and I've I've tried to analyze that and the answer is so simple I adore myself my self-esteem is infectious Edna was a woman who never doubted her place in greatness [Applause] and she's left the world in no doubt that she was indeed the queen of Comedy [Music] boys thank you girls thanks a lot [Applause] International stardom sat well with Barry Humphries for years he lived the high life overseas but he always returned to Australia so to call this home there well yes you know when I've been back a few days I feel I've never been away Elizabeth I always carry a copy of the Melbourne Street directory with me it's very nice reading thinking well there's a street I haven't been up Barry when you fill out your immigration card what do you write where it says occupation I've always worried about that occupation because I've never been entirely sure what I did I generally write artiste with an e because we people in the theater are called artistes that's the old word for us sometimes I write bird mimic if I'm feeling facetious I haven't I've had a little work done but have you not quite as much as some if I'm able to ask you about your wife Lizzy yes sure she's the love of your life yes I'm very fortunate I mean I think people mature at different levels you know I haven't had a great record as a husband I've married some remarkable women and uh they've not had a terribly easy time Barry's life was not without its challenges he fought and beat alcoholism and married four times he was the proud father of four children and he spent his final 33 years happily married to fellow actor Lizzie Spender what do children think of Daniel well of course they enjoy it very much because it's it must be nice to have a father's job you can explain imagine how you would explain being a quantity surveyor teacher it's even a solicitor how do you think then your children would have described your job dressing up Dad dresses up it's dressing up it's playing [Music] people say it look it wouldn't have nerves but I do because I think we our livelihood depends on what we do in front of the public and uh well how do you do this I feel worse every show I do before I go on stage I'm praying yeah and there's nerves only disappear when I step into the spotlight [Music] I'm ready for my public I have to ask have you ever considered life without performing is that possible not really I get very irritable do you if I'm not on a stage and yet I'm very nervous and I wake up in the night laughing a joke my own jokes no one amuses me more than I do after Decades of being Edna Liz and the others a few years ago Barry introduced audiences to yet another intriguing character himself and he discovered something wonderful Barry The Man Behind the Mask was a hit so excruciatingly boring that whatever followed would by contrast seem hilarious what is success to you generally I mean how did I get away with it I don't think of myself as really successful I have one ability I think and that is communicate with my fellow Australians and that's the joy of it for me [Music] before the anesthetic takes over they forget to say I want people to know who I am you know they go in [Applause] like a Mercedes and they come out like the backside of a Ford Mondale someone has said that the tragedy of gray old is that you don't and you absolutely have not grown old I'm very energetic and very childish [Music] prankster paid a commander of the British Empire and received an order of Australia Dr Barry Humphries for services to entertainment he's been immortalized on an Australian postage stamp and his voice lives on as Bruce the shark in Finding Nemo it has been three weeks since my last fish on my honor or may I be chopped up and made in his soup throughout his extraordinary creative life Barry Humphries experienced many successes Dame Edna was Central to most of them she was the character he both loved and loathed but a mega star that it couldn't help but admire even he would he would should have the last laugh some people say Berry Humphries is a comic genius a giant of world satire some was the first person to teach Australians to snigger at themselves firstly I'm sorry possums he leaves me cold I'm sorry call me old-fashioned if you like why would my contract I have to introduce him so without any further Ado clap if you feel like it Barry thank you [Music] [Music] and you've said to me you've said that that he's dysfunctional that he's a sick man that you were well I thought your life this one and you've been well I I'm going to use the L word now you've been the loser you are a loser Barry Eden is on the stamps ediner is the one who gets the key to the city she's the star I'm glad the greatest pleasure that I have played a very important role in creating this dare I say monster I've thought of litigation but why bother I'm going ahead without you Barry thank you thank you Ray Martin and goodbye Barry Humphrey Humphrey do you believe in an afterlife I'm not at all sure would you like to think there is perhaps it might be rather nice little taste of Oblivion I like those cushions with embroidered embroidered mottos you know them the one I like is um I always thought old age would take longer it comes on you a bit fast what were the best years of your life oh right now right now [Applause] [Applause] hello I'm Liz Hayes thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on nine now.com and the nine Now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 433,651

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Tom Steinfort, 60Mins, Amelia Adams, news, world news, news australia, investigative journalism, 60 minutes australia youtube, 60 minutes youtube, 60 minutes episodes, 60 minutes australia episodes, 60 minutes australia, 60 minutes, barry humphries, comedian, dame edna, edan everage, les patterson, dame edna everage, funny man, entertainment, celebrity, celebrity death, tribute, obit, australian icon, icon

Id: 6aRvtzEEf1U

Length: 43min 30sec (2610 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023