'Dame Edna' Creator Graces Kirkland Stage

Humor writer and actor Barry Humphries, best known for being the man behind Dame Edna, the "housewife and international megastar," spoke to a packed audience about his life and career in the Kirkland Junior Common Room on Friday.

Sponsored by the Office for the Arts at Harvard as part of a series called "Learning From Performers," the event was moderated by ART resident dramaturg Gideon Lester.

In his irreverent style, Humphries ridiculed almost every possible group while managing to draw hysterical laughter from the crowd.

"The theater's strength lies in its uniqueness and effect on the audience," Humphries said. "Comedy is in the end nothing but a mix of effrontery with talent."

He pointed out that the new generation of theater students rarely go to theaters, because they aspire to act on-screen rather than onstage.

In an attempt to inspire the new generation, Humphries said that when he was young he got degrees in philosophy, law, and fine arts, not really knowing what avenue he wanted to pursue.

And despite initial setbacks--like playing a barking dog offstage in "Of Mice and Men"--Humphries still managed to find his niche.

"At a time when plays were set in New York, I decided that I could make the boring Australian suburb humorous," he said.

When people told him not to take Edna's act first to Sydney, London, and now to New York, he defied the establishment yet again.

Now it is the United States' turn to listen to the housewife megastar and her endless scrutiny of interior decorating and other mind-numbing interests that drive crowds wild.

After trying to expand to the U.S. the first time, he realized that it would be harder than in other countries, especially when a New York Times critic aggressively criticized Dame Edna, triggering the cancellation of the play for a few days.

"It is incredible how much power one guy can have over another's life. I felt like I was going to have to

wait for him to die for me to be able to come back to New York," Humphries said.

But he admitted that audiences nowadays are harder to shock because swearing and sexual allusions are widespread.