Theater Talk: "Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance"

theater talk is made possible in part by the CUNY TV foundation [Music] what a lovely old building this isn't the old man look you're looking at me say I've gone TV [Music] we take a left here yeah goodness me what lovely people work in this building good morning tonight do wonderful I saw your show well I'm energetic outside fabulous I'm a gifted amateur I think meant to be years ago perhaps I was here in a former life I might would have one of the original inhabitants of this island who were the original inhabitants of Manhattan Indians I might have been one of those in another life that's quite possible you can't call them Indians though it's not politically correct this is maybe I'll remember that yeah I don't want to offend and yet I do in a way it's good to see you I saw you the other night on stage I was this is a friend of mine mark Salem he's got a one-man show on Broadway David then congratulations you two actually past each other what he was in between whatever it is he does three to say so we came here we had to wait here while he had is here to travel from zone Parnell as you doing these teases are stalking do you know what's afflicted me in the last two days toothache my dental history is a separate interview the whole structure will collapse but I have had a bit of work and I had this dreadful to think on stage now I keep hoping that all of dr. footlights is going to fix me up it's a sort of an English thing an Australian I suppose you walk on stage with whatever ailment or worry and the footlights fixes of I think it's to do with a rush of adrenaline so I was hoping dr. footlights dentist replies would fix my truth we doing all this susan is now into reality television which means she likes to tape everybody walking in off the street now not everyone this is theater talk I'm Susan Haskins our guest tonight is quite simply the most admired woman in the world and we are so honored that she's back with us tonight to introduce her a man who is quite smitten with her my co-host Michael Riedel of the New York Post she really has become one of the world's greatest stars but what I really like about her so much is that she's managed to remain modest despite all of this celebrity and fame that has come her way and so modest in fact so humble that she has agreed to come down from the lofty heights of the Hollywood Squares to sit here with us on theater talk Dame Edna back with a vengeance on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre good evening Michael and Susan welcome back to theater talk I'm thrilled you know viewers I had a lovely time on this program when I was lost in New York how long ago was there four years ago four years and yet I'm still lovely and I'm very very proud really to be in this city and finding acceptance from my little American possum's well we were we were two of the first actually when you came here four years ago you almost discovered me you gave me confidence because I'm a very vulnerable woman very very shy I'm very private we brought you out though you brought me out of my shell and what worries me about Michael and Susan viewers is that they have to see so much theater do you ever get fed up my daughter oh that one too you know you don't go to the theatre oh that's not true I just want to see Dame Edna the other night but do you get a bit kind of do I have to go well I'm afraid that the quality of the is not what we would like sometimes it's it's its regret times I'm watching the show I think if Damon there were in this show yeah it might be might even up you know would have torn it up in democracy I think one of the things that has troubled theatergoers and the serious theatrical journalists such as yourselves is this is the tension in America today as a visitor as a great fan of the United States I'm conscious of the anxiety the the worry that people are feeling about the future about what's going to happen whichever side of the political spectrum their arm and the theater should transport them not all to get always in laughter which I do well but even tragic pairs or serious themes and people look to Broadway for the best the best perhaps it's not delivering well I mean I think you may be right one of the things that's going on on Broadway now is and I have to say I think you've fallen victim to this yourself Dame Edna this drive for merchandising you can buy t-shirts and CDs and they're trying to sell you all these things before you even get into your seat and I notice when I'm at the Music Box the other night I mean I practically killed myself falling over the DVD take you to page out of Andrew Lloyd Webber here and the marketing you're drinking well that's quite a new thing with me I was always normal commercial but people a public clamor they want a piece of me and all the profits or most of them should I say a percentage of the profits do go to the prostate yeah which is my charity is you know though I'm moving to another charity the deviated septum now why is that that's us it's a Cinderella charity yes you're a new show back with a vengeance you're famous for what you like to say empowering people but I always detect a cruel streak in some of what you do I mean to torture the audience in that show I recall it empowering but those people are uncomfortable because they're afraid of what you might do to them if they're tortured Michael Riedl would stand up and leave they're not shackled for their seats they haven't got cuffs um they're not roped in they come back after intermission for more and I call it tough love you call it torture well you do bring people up on stage not to give anything away and and put them in silly costumes have you ever had someone put you in a silly go well say some because someone refused to be your mother Nancy wants to put you into it I'm sick of that corporate look on my he's not Jodie Foster my feeling is that if I talk to people in the audience which I like to do I'm on the stage there's another show going on out there isn't there people have come and I look at them and if I like the look of them but I feel I need to be a little bit as you say cruel to them to be kind to empower them then I feel the people in the balcony need to see them by the end of the show they want to see who's this woman Edna was talking over who is Susan who is Michael I wonder what they look like the audience of pondering at the end of the show I let those people take a curtain call and I let them be seen to advantage in lovely outfits well not so lovely but sometimes slightly absurd has anyone ever refused to put on V occasionally if I'm tired or I have toothache which I do now possums brave woman I am if I'm a little bit nervous or not under par I lose my power Michael my magnetic force herbs and I get sometimes women saying not tonight please Edna and I respect that I respect it I don't give them flowers at the end of it if you throw flowers at them you were crack them on the head with a gladiola I do a lot of people wonder about this the flowers band do you know how that started no how did it start I never knew and of course you will have observed this seeing other shows how it ends how to end a lovely show I never knew quite how to finish how to send the audience home and I always had gladioli on the piano a big vase of them because I love them and they symbolize all the good things of life to me optimism even vulgarity which is even given a very bad name some people so and it's an Australian virtue in Australian vulgarity is considered perhaps the nicest thing you can possibly have yeah um in fact you a friend of yours a guy named les Paterson I believe Minister of Culture who's really rather quite folder he wants to come on this show yes I'm afraid of fire that's great but not in my sense I mean vulgarity in the sense of grit optimism a thrusting force well I had this farce and on a matinee all the ladies in the front row looked at the flowers and not at me and at the end of the performance I was so annoyed with them I did these flowers out of their very drippy with water and I flung them into the audience well these women were thrilled they partnered and when I sang my final song they waved them to the music and Susan I thought that's the ending that's how to end and ever since it's been a tradition except now I spend thousands of dollars I give away so many of these priceless flowers some women collect them afterwards I see the scrambling around under the seats and open flower stalls I still have my gladiola from four years ago in my in my for yes what a lovely in your foyer yes why don't you put them as part of your merchandising wagon if it'll in the lobby those glad you're life Michael renal harping on about this manager and I think people like to buy these things I mean these DVDs have been brought out I had nothing to defect now on another front and were you disappointed that your friend Teresa Heinz Kerry didn't become the first lady well a little I was a little because I've been grooming that woman I was sure she was going to well I thought sees the similarity everyone sees your influence well there's a bit of interest to start with they're both amazingly wealthy you know we both got well my stiff husband's but I was looking forward to redecorating that White House's bringing it you know I mean Laura a taste how would you describe her taste Laura Bush's taste it doesn't exist I'm afraid I've noticed though in this in your current act back with a vengeance you have always been a favorite of a lot of conservative critics and I know Rupert Murdoch a very close friend of yours ma'am people always like you cuz you work consistently conservative seem politically incorrect but there are a lot of subtle but they're they're Bush bashing jokes have you moved to the left on the political spectrum I am I'm almost a communist and an animist them rights has held me to their bosom not knowing that I am a serpent no I'm really a political and the reason for that Michael and here's a confession would you manage to elicit I know nothing about politics and the political ignoramus but I know what I like and I think I know what would be good for America and I've observed a strange dichotomy in American culture watching television if you could bear to watch it this this is probably the only thing worth watching on television and and I've noticed there's a contrast is either lewd very low very lewd gratuitous nude material or sentimental things things so simply you feel instant diabetes of the spirit and it worries me that this difference and violence lewdness violence vulgarity well you're the one who throws flowers at people at the end of your act no there's nothing lewd about that they're violent no but generous - but how do I give gifts I throw them how rich are you I well I'd have to go to Switzerland to tell you how wealthy I was I give it all away I've live humbly I'm just staying in a in a rented apartment in New York I have no bodyguards I walk in the park people who know me greet me I sometimes have to scribble on t-shirts but I have a happy life well you've made a killing though in the last four years in the team the financial side of it is an obsession of yours Michael I've observed in your writing a killing is very relative isn't it well but you sort I've had my lean times hmm I know poverty well something close to it what would that be moderate wealth I've experienced and that's agony I'd rather be a total pauper well you started out though in Australia you are a middle-class housewife really what not even middle-class lower middle-class housewife in Australia I lived in my early years in a the Australian equivalent of New Jersey and what could be more tragic than that I was I was there and I had three young children an invalid husband but I broke out of this I never thought I could and I made the most important decision of my life Caesar I put my family lust I've never looked back after that never well you talk about your family in the show and I wonder do you have any regrets I mean do you consider yourself to have been a good mother or do you feel you abandoned those children I have some regrets I do I look at the children of other people and I see normalcy achievement and look at my own I see dysfunction and I've wrestled with this you're probing very deep you accuse me of cruelty Michael reader your rape is touching my innermost nerves you since but your last Broadway gig went to Hollywood you appeared on Ally McBeal you appear to the Tonight Show I saw you all that happened now I thank you for that yeah have all the people who interviewed you've been Sympatico with you David had that Susan them not they're not on my wavelength even Michael who teases me probes me it rebukes me even is on my wavelength because he has a he knows what I'm about what I'm into he's he's there's a feeling for what I do you remind me of my mother for lunch you're eating for lunch oh well yes but you know they don't always ask do you know what they want to know what did you advise the Queen what was Princess Diana really like that sort of thing mmm but we're talking about real things in a way New York for me though is sitting here with you drinking this not so bad coffee little bit croaky I've just come off the stage night and normally I go and have my beauty sleep but I had of course I came to this little gloomy little brain how many hours a beauty sleep do you need I manage with seven as you get older Michael you'll find you need less Susan doesn't get enough if she wakes it for two you shouldn't call me at that out of this I get this call I know there it is it's Susan I can't nod off I said try the da vinci code a guaranteed soporific talking about The Da Vinci Code I was down the other day it went down to Arkansas for the opening of the Barbra Streisand she was there yes a little wet wasn't it very wet so we were in I was in the minibus for the presidents and after the opening it was very spectacular and he's revealed he said Edna bill said to me he said I've exposed everything I've revealed everything have you really have you really were you telling the truth when you said you didn't have se X with that woman and he said well I was in there Bella he said I thought they were referring to Madeleine Albright little mr. Bush was blinking a lot more than usual and he always he can't stop drinking when he's feeling agitated hmm and I realized because I'm very intuitive but he was jealous of that I burring he was jealous that mr. Clinton President Clinton had established a library and it's been funny so I I just said you alright bill and it George and he said well isn't it he said how many books do you need for a library lovely and I said yeah me quite a few mr. president and he said well he said would Laura's Da Vinci Code be enough I didn't think so I got out of it but it was a tense man with your show now at the at the Music Box music box which was Irving Berlin's theatre viewers yes his spirit is there Jerry you can't serve any alcohol in that theater because Irving Berlin a thing prohibited don't go in I really think alcohol isn't overrated I'm the stimulant well we are delighted that you're back in New York and we're very pleased that you agreed to come on earth I'm honored that I was asked I said instantly lissa do you want to leave it a while I said no it's they were me I'd like to come on again during my run we love you I'm very happy to see you my darling and you too Michael and specially you possums for listening to a croaky old mega star or Giga star as I now AM has just stepped off the stage of the Music Box Theatre to talk to you and I want to thank you all for having me it's your place Thank You Dame Edna no I know I know I should have beat you in a minute Leila Christine for me wouldn't you I could be Christian or I could play that stick yes good as that he was such a wonderful dance thought I would bring her that where are you gonna come for my own with the premiere I think you're sure December the 13th don't miss infuse oh my god oh I'm so thrilled to meet you I've been a fan of yours for so long I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world yeah what's the question we're too shy to cosplay as Christine no yes madam Giri yes it too young you're too sexy well you know I don't know if you could do ballet have you seen Matt Damon did you bail she's one of the publicist [Music]

Channel: CUNY TV

Views: 64,912

Rating: 4.7894735 out of 5

Keywords: CUNY TV, Theater Talk, Susan Haskins, Michael Riedel, Dame Edna, Broadway, Barry Humphries (Author), Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance

Id: L4Z64E-ztuw

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Thu May 12 2011