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Dame Edna Returns

Associated Press file photo

Dame Edna will perform at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday and Tuesday.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 27, 2009

Updated: 03/26/2009 03:01 pm

TAMPA - Dame Edna Everage says she's bringing her own stimulus package to town.

"I am bringing laughs with a capitol 'L' to all my little possums in this time of need," she noted in a telephone interview. "In these hard economic times, if we can't laugh, what can we do?"

Megastar Dame Edna, the alter-ego of Australian character actor and comic Barry Humphries, will be offering her own comedy bailout program at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The fashion and pop culture icon with lacquered lilac-colored hair and catlike glasses is on her "First Last Tour," which she says could be the first of many farewells.

With a sly, subtle wit, Dame Edna will be commenting on current events, the new president and the recently evicted one as well as numerous celebrities who have made headlines. And there's her globe-trotting, adventure-filled, high-rolling lifestyle to discuss.

"Who would have thought that I would have been on so many tours in America?" she says, recalling, with tongue in cheek, how she came to the United States after she had bombed in London.

"I had greatly over-extended myself and I didn't know what to do," she continues. "I called my dear friend Joan Rivers - who incidentally is still alive somewhere - and she told me: 'Go to San Francisco. You have a following there.' So I booked a show for two weeks. And here I am 10 years later."

"Dame Edna's Royal Tour" in 2000 injected new life into the Dame's late-life career and led her to Broadway, where she won a special Tony Award. She also toured in 2004 in "Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance!" and earned another Tony nomination.

American audiences have been in love with Dame Edna since the 1990s but the 6-foot, 4-inch tall Humphries has been playing her for more than 50 years (through four marriages and the raising of four children).

Humphries turned 75 last month and, although he rarely appears out of character, he may take a curtain call on this tour.

On this tour, Dame Edna is fresh off giving unheeded fashion advice to Michelle Obama. "She rejected my suggestion that she get eyeglasses like mine," she notes.

Dame Edna: My First Last Tour

WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday

WHERE: Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater

COST: $47 to $80; (727) 791-7400 or (800) 875-8682

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654

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