Some months back I’d seen advertising for Dame Edna’s show, which is on in Toronto at the moment. I’d put off buying tickets as they were a bit expensive at the time, though later an offer came up where we got two tickets for $100, and considering it was her farewell show, we snapped them up.

We went to the show last night, going a little early to try to find something for dessert before it began. Most of the restaurants around the theatre don’t advertise their desserts so we were a little stuck. In the end I had a granola bar and another sort of granola bar made from crushed up crickets from Canteen at TIFF. Glen and I pretended we were crickets after I ate it. I didn’t feel particularly insect-like.

The show started at 8pm. We were early. We sat down, waited, and then it began. We had pretty good seats for the price, in the orchestra just a bit over halfway back, and in the middle. I’m glad we weren’t in the front row.

I’ve never been to a Dame Edna show before but I gathered that a lot of people there had and they knew what to expect. I only remember seeing bits of a show on TV when I was little and even that didn’t help me here.

Anyway, she came out, did her intro song, and then started in on the audience. She’d pick a few people in the front rows, talk to them about their houses, and then, just as you sensed she would, she’d say something mean which got a big laugh out of the audience. We loved it, though you could tell there were times she walked a very thin line.

Canadians are so nice and don’t like to be mean about anybody, which made us wonder how her comedy was being received. But still she got lots of laughs and we were safely seated at the back so the chance of us getting picked on was slim.

There was a wonderful part at the end of the show where she invited a man and a woman on stage (who didn’t know each other) and “married” them. This was particularly hilarious as the man was married to another man sitting in the audience. Anyway, she marries them and then she calls the man’s mother who lives in Hamilton. She picks up the phone, we can hear everything she says, and even though it was funny, the mother was just so lovely and such a good sport.

After the finale with the gladiolas, they showed some clips from her career, which spanned 60 years. She’s spoken to so many famous people, and there was a wonderful clip from the Royal Variety Show where she sat next to Charles and Camilla then moved because “they’ve found me a better seat”. The curtain then came down and rose again to reveal Barry Humphries.

Now he really did get a standing ovation and a long applause. It really was staggering to think of his career as spanning 60 years, and a little sad to think that this part of it is coming to a close (even if it might not be really). I’m so happy we went to see it and have the chance to watch this performer while we still could.