Barry Humphries is in London at the moment, presumably enjoying what is billed as Dame Edna Everage's farewell lap of honor. While it's hard to contemplate the stages of the West End and Broadway without the acerbic-tongued dame, good news comes from Humphries's native Australia. He's apparently taking on an arts festival.
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, to be precise, a major event of its kind, which presents hundreds of acts and attracts thousands of attendees. Humphries will succeed Kate Ceberano there in 2015. And it's not as much of a leap as it might at first seem.
Humphries is best-known for his bewigged alter-ego, whom he has always referred to in the third person (both he and Dame Edna refer to one another as close friends, never acknowledging their identities to be any closer than that). Yet he is also an avid lover of the arts, not least classical music.
Those who know him within the music industry talk of his enormous knowledge of music and recordings, especially French repertoire. And he has even been known to lend the odd helping hand to musicians and projects he especially admires.
So as with so many comedians there's a serious soul behind the wicked grin. And that means he's likely to be an informed, highly creative and thoughtful administrator for the cabaret festival. It's only a shame that one particularly mega-famous friend of his who has been known to belt out the odd torch song won't be persuaded to take part...will she?
