The Melbourne International Comedy Festival failed to pay official tribute to comic legend Barry Humphries despite his pivotal role in establishing the event.
The Tony Award-winning entertainer died aged 89 on Saturday at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital following complications from hip surgery.
The festival posted a statement shortly after news of the icon’s death broke, acknowledging Humphries’ contribution to raising the profile of the festival nationally and internationally.
“He will be remembered by legions of fans around the world for his wit, inimitable characters and biting satire. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Vale Barry,” the statement read.
Despite the festival’s statement, there was no official tribute to Humphries on the closing day of the festival, which ran from March 29 to April 23.
Relations between Humphries and the Melbourne festival’s organisers had soured in recent years following a number of disparaging comments made by the comedian about the transgender community.
Festival organisers stripped Humphries’ name from the event’s biggest award - known as the Barry Award - following outcry over his remarks.
In an interview with The Spectator magazine in 2018, Humphries said being transgender was “a fashion”, having previously called gender re-assignment surgery “self mutilation”.
The gong had been awarded in Humphries’ honour since 2000 but was renamed in 2019 following a push led by Australian comedian and 2017 winner Hannah Gadsby.
Festival director Susan Provan said the event’s organisers had been mulling removing Humphries’ name from their most prestigious award for “a while” but the comments had “played a part” in the name change.
Actress Miriam Margolyes, a friend of Humphries for more than 65 years, said the comedian had been “very hurt and saddened” by the way the Melbourne International Comedy Festival had treated him following the backlash.
Margolyes, best known for her role in the Harry Potter film series, said MICF had cancelled Humphries “rather late in life” and the comedian had never been “properly appreciated by Australia”.
"It's quite difficult to talk because I loved him and I admired him. He stood for all the things that I admire," she said in an interview with the ABC.
"But we sharply disagreed politically. And it's joyous to me that it's possible to do that and still love somebody."
Humphries was a founding patron of MICF and worked as an actor, comedian and artist for more than six decades, receiving an Officer of the Order of Australia and Commander of the British Empire in recognition of his work.
His family confirmed the 89-year-old’s death in a heartfelt statement, saying the comedian had remained “completely himself until the very end”.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival gave the following response to SkyNews.com.au.
"We are taken aback and offended by some of the misconceptions currently circulating in media and on social media. Barry Humphries was an incredible artist and provocateur," they said.
"He created a global platform for Australian comedy and he played a significant role in raising the profile of our Festival in the early years – there is no disputing that and we celebrate his comic genius.
"Yesterday was the final day of our 26-day festival. We were extremely saddened to learn of the passing of Barry Humphries on Saturday night, but with over 300 shows to stage on Sunday the show had to go on. We acknowledge that he deserves an appropriate tribute, we will now take time to consider what that might be.
"As the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is an artist driven festival, we will be consulting in the coming month with the wider comedy community who we represent. We are reflecting on his incredible contribution to our comedy scene and discussing how the Festival can honour him and pay tribute to his legacy. Barry was an active participant in our 30th birthday celebrations and he moderated The Great Debate as well as appeared at the Festival Launch event.
"In 2019 we did change the name of our top award from the Barry to the Most Outstanding show – this was in response to transphobic comments he made publicly that lacked empathy and baffled many in our industry. We did not ‘cancel’ him. The award for most outstanding show was re-named to reinforce the equality and diversity that our Festival community has always championed. Some of the values Barry espoused in later years did not reflect more contemporary industry values. We can still celebrate Barry’s artistic genius while not much liking some of his views. Provocation in the world of comedy lives on."
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2023-04-24 05:42:38Z
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