My Life as Me: A Memoir

I recently went to see Dame Edna when she came to our local theater. I was in the second row and she "got" me. What a hoot it was to banter with her. I was fascinated by both her and her alter-ego, Barry, so ordered this book. And I loved it. Barry is a wonderful writer and it is a pleasure to read his autobiography. No one could tell his story like he himself did. It usually takes me days, if not weeks, to get through a book, but I read it all in 2 days. If you love Dame Edna and want to read the "back story" of Barry's life, you'll really enjoy this book. I am his "biggest fan" both figurtavly and literally speaking.

Bazza's back with the old bounce in his step. This is an extended and more richly detailed biography of Australia's most gifted comic export. Like many expatriate, fellow-travellers, Humphries has found in Australia, a deep vein of material on which to base a career. His foray into Dadaism during his Melbourne University Review days is crucial to the formation of his various personas(as Uni Reviews would serve later in the UK for Cook and Moore, the Pythons and, more recently in Australia, to The Chasers). His Edna Everidge, Sandy Stone, and Les Patterson are enshrined icons of the Australian psyche. Humphries, a self-confessed bibliophile, is no slouch at writing and this memoir has delicious evocations of pre and post war Melbourne(though only the post stuff can I validate). Barry's portrait of the tedious, middleclass 'burbs' is as good as Ted Egan's is of the workingclass northern suburbs of that era. There's a refreshing restraint on the vengeful tone I detected in the first memoir, and some typically excruciating recounting of some humiliating experiences that endear Bazza with all the frailty that Dame Edna has excorcized from her stage persona. The name dropping is a trifle boring. But then, that's the circle that Humphries frequents. Just deserts!