OPINION: What a Dame! Tribute to an honorary Jewish genius
Darren Richman on the loss of the "unfailingly charming and self-effacing" Barry Humphries
In the last years of my grandfather Zigi Shipper’s life, I would regularly sit with him at his Bushey bungalow and record our conversations between mouthfuls of tea and biscuits.
On one such occasion, in April of last year, I spoke to the nonagenarian Zigi in the morning and the octogenarian Barry Humphries later the same day.
A year on and both heroes are gone.
Humphries, who died on the weekend at the age of 89, was performing a rare show as himself at the Radlett Centre, a theatre so provincial I have appeared on stage there. This was the first warm-up show before a national tour and included a story about the last time he saw the actress who portrayed Dame Edna Everage’s sidekick, Madge Allsopp.
In a nursing home, at the age of 100, she greeted her old colleague with the words, “We had a lot of fun, didn’t we Barry? If only I could remember what it was we did.” Having spent the day prising memories from a man suffering with dementia, that line hit me with the force of a gladioli to the face.
At the evening’s close, I waited outside the theatre in the hope I might get the man who would appear carved on my very own comedy Mount Rushmore (alongside Mel Brooks, Peter Cook and Larry David) to sign my copy of his memoir. I paced nervously during the agonising wait and actually tripped at one point, the only tragedy being it wasn’t the exact moment the comedy great appeared on cue to mock me.
When he emerged, every bit the dandy, Dame Edna’s “manager” repeatedly thanked us for coming and apologised that the show was a little rough around the edges since it was his first performance after a lengthy hiatus. I was able to thank him for all the joy he’d brought me over the years and my father was able to make him laugh by saying he’d seen a fair few of his farewell tours down the years.
He was undoubtedly frail and needed me to repeat my name when it came to signing the book although even that was brushed aside with a joke (“Oh, as in Darren”) but unfailingly charming and self-effacing, a far cry from Sir Les Patterson or Dame Edna.
It is, perhaps, worth pointing out at this point that Humphries was not Jewish. Yes, he had a complicated relationship with his mother and publicly declared an affinity with the Jews on multiple occasions and, possibly as a result of both these factors, Dame Edna, modelled on the aforementioned mother, was Jewish. As per an interview with the great Dame, “I looked hard in the mirror and saw that I was Jewish. My children definitely think I am. I have no real proof, just a feeling.”
Jewishness as a feeling seems about right to me. Dame Edna was not as nuanced a creation as a Fawlty, Partridge or Brent but a combination of Humphries’ extraordinary abilities and the central conceit that, at the dark heart of every celebrity is the belief they are innately superior to the paying punters (or “paupers” if you were in the cheap seats) meant nobody was ever funnier on stage.
The character’s dialogue was littered with lines taken verbatim from Humphries’ mother but they could have come from just about any Jewish woman of a certain age. “Remember you’re out” was used to admonish the young Barry when he misbehaved in a public place and would become handy years later when dealing with hecklers.
Another perennial favourite, “don’t be unnecessary”, could easily have come out of the mouths of either of my grandmothers and perhaps that’s the point; the specific is the universal and Humphries quoting his mother sounded like all our mothers and grandmothers.
The giant of comedy committed to the bit on his deathbed and beyond, releasing a statement two days before his death in which he thanked “everybody for the support and good wishes he has received but would like more and more” before a posthumously published obituary by Dame Edna in The Telegraph saw the “gigastar” compare her manager to Hitler, a particularly scathing assessment given the Dame’s Jewish roots.
He had the last laugh in one other way that has been slightly less well-documented and it would be remiss of me not to mention it here: it turns out that, despite my dad’s gag, the tour a year ago truly was the final farewell. Humphries’ timing, as ever, was impeccable.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
