One Man Show: The Stages of Barry Humphries

Wear deep V neck lines. It is important to show a little skin. + Make sure you balance your proportions. If you wear a loose fitting top, wear a tailored pair of pants – this will flatter your figure. + Avoid high necklines – eg: scarves, bows and frilly colours. + A narrow tunic style top worn over slim pants will create an illusion of overall slimness and divert attention away from your stomach. Stay away from smock style tops or blouses – these will only make you look larger. + Wide and straight legged trousers will camouflage heavy legs. + If you have curves like Beyonce – flaunt them! Wear belts to cinch in your narrow waist to show off your divine feminine shape. + Do not choose pants with an elastic waist band over a tailored pair. Tailored pants will slim and control your shape – while elasticized pants will give you no shape at all. + Wear colour! Try to stick with solid colours rather than patterns – some patterns can make you look bigger – eg: large spots. + Look for clothes with shape and structure eg: that come in at the waist. Dressing in head to toe baggy clothes will look awful. + Experiment with accessories. Try large drop earrings or long necklaces that will help to elongate your shape. + If you are bigger at the bottom wear darker colours at the bottom and lighter at the top or reverse if you are smaller at the bottom and larger on top.

One Man Show: The Stages of Barry Humphries by Anne Pender, ABC Books, $35

Get your gladdies and wave them Possums, its time to celebrate the life of Edna Everage and the wild genius of her “manager” Barry Humphries. Intellectual, witty, and flamboyant, Humphries stood out in suburban mid-century Melbourne. At his sport loving private school he was the boy sitting with his back to the cricket match, knitting.

Hilarious examples of Humphries’ stinging wit pepper this authorised biography, which celebrates his extraordinary talent without shying away from his many difficulties. There are the drunken antics, some funny, some sad, the critical and popular failures, and his battles with alcoholism and depression.

This is also the story of Australia’s favourite suburban megastar, Edna Everage. From her humble beginnings as a shy twin-set wearing housewife, to her incarnation as a monstrously egotistical couture-clad Dame, her evolution is compelling.

One Man Show shines a spotlight on a sparkling original; an endlessly fascinating artist, satirist, and entertainer.