Humphries’ friends slam comedy festival ‘disgrace’

Callum Godde and Kaitlyn Offer | April 24, 2023

Friends of Barry Humphries have labelled the Melbourne International Comedy Festival a disgrace for not celebrating the entertainment legend, who helped start the annual event.

Humphries died on Saturday at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney following complications from hip surgery stemming from a fall earlier this year. He was 89.

The festival joined the chorus of local tributes to the revered comic despite its chequered history with the late star.

Humphries delighted and outraged audiences for more than half a century and was a founding patron of the festival, leading to it naming its annual prize for most outstanding act after him in 2000.

But an outcry over a series of comments widely seen as transphobic prompted the renaming of the festival’s top gong in 2019.

Organisers said on Sunday they were saddened by Humphries’ passing and hailed his contribution to the festival during its formative years.

Despite Humphries’ name being stripped from the award and no formal tribute taking place on the final night of the 2023 festival, event director Susan Provan said nothing could ever detract from his contribution as an artist.

Irish comedian Dylan Moran paid tribute to Humphries in front of a packed audience on Sunday night.

Friend and collaborator Bruce Beresford and British-Australian entertainer Miriam Margolyes both said it was disgraceful to see the festival treat Humphries the way it had.

“It’s a disgrace what they’ve done, I mean he’s one of the greatest comic geniuses ever,” film director Beresford told ABC Melbourne on Monday.

“How can you take his name off an award like that? How offensive, how insulting.

“Barry was in many ways a social commentator – he was really commenting and giving a view on incidents in the world around him, which is what he’d been doing all his life, but … I don’t think he was malevolent or malicious.”

Margolyes called on festival organisers to “sharpen up”.

“How dare they. He had more talent in his little finger than they did in their whole bodies – all of them. I’m outraged by it and I want to speak up now to support him. It’s not about transgender (issues)” she told ABC TV.

Margolyes said she didn’t agree with her friend’s politics – a fact she told him to his face – but she still appreciated Humphries as “the greatest comic who ever lived”.

“I didn’t like his politics. I really didn’t. But I revere the talent of the man,” she said.

“It was coruscating; it was all-enveloping. And if people can’t see that, they need something shoved up their bum.”

The comments come as the family of the Melbourne-born comedy legend discuss the possibility of a state funeral with the Victorian government.

Creative Industries Minister Steve Dimopoulos said talks were under way with the entertainer’s loved ones about the best ways to honour his legacy.

A range of options are on the table, including a state funeral.