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List Price: $24.98 | | Label: BBC Warner
Salesrank: 62743
Released: June 8, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.00 |
| Used Price: $2.45 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
She's no ordinary star, she's a megastar! Larger than life and brimming with wit and hilarity, she's Dame Edna Everage! And she's inviting you to explore all her nooks and crannies in The Dame Edna Experience. Available for the first time ever, this series of six variety/chat shows (or, as Dame Edna calls them, "monologues interrupted by total strangers") is guaranteed to keep you in stitches. Celebrity guests (foils for Dame Edna's rapier wit) include Sean Connery, Charlton Heston, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jane Seymour, Larry Hagman, Rudolf Nureyev and Joan Rivers!
DVD Features:
Featurette:The BAFTA-winning program An Audience with Dame Edna Everage Ester: Dame Edna Everage, a 30 minute talk show from the U.K. in which Dame Edna 'bares all' so to speak.
Interviews:Two interviews with Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries, one of which is conducted by Dame Edna herself!
Music Clips:Dame Edna performs her theme song "Niceness"
Other:Exclusive Dame Edna introduction PLUS the Madge button!
Description of The Dame Edna Experience - The Complete Series 1:
Dame Edna Everage--an Australian housewife turned megastar in her own mind--is possibly the most entertaining person alive. Of couse, she's not actually a real person; she's the alter-ego of comic genius Barry Humphries, the cocoon from which Edna bursts out like a radiant butterfly. Her 1980s talk show, The Dame Edna Experience, proves an ideal format to wallow in her splendor. Though the hairstyles and fashion choices of her guests may have dated--Jane Seymour looks like a meringue pastry topped with shaved cinnamon--Edna's dazzling egomania and Humphries's wicked, sure-footed wit are amazingly fresh. Whether she's wheedling sex tips out of Zsa Zsa Gabor, flirting with Charlton Heston, trading fashion tips with Jerry Hall, singing a duet with Cliff Richard, practically yawning in Sean Connery's face, or simply reveling in her own marvelousness, Dame Edna will charm your pants off. On top of the talk show, there's a short interview that Dame Edna does with Barry Humphries himself (spooky!) and a TV special in which Dame Edna takes completely unrehearsed questions from an audience of British celebrities. Her effortlessly funny improvised responses will leave you agog. --Bret Fetzer
The Dame Edna Experience - The Complete Series 1 Reviews:
Dame Edna, season 1 
2009-03-31 - Dame Edna- the master of fun condescention and still funny today. This season series was the "all new together" experience. Really telling about how TV comedy today has regressed into the crude and boring, and how open-minded we used to be a few decades ago. By 'we' I mean we Americans who love all things British, which means we love their cleverness or fun with the English language and imagination. I recommend getting both seasons at once. I was skeptical that I'd have fun watching, but, not only did I laugh my head off, but it was an honest laughter I hadn't heard from myself in a long time.
Barry Humphries will always have a warm place in my heart.
Oh Possums, you must buy this dvd! 
2004-11-28 - What can you say about Australia's most famous housewife megastar that hasn't already been said? Dame Edna is the best Australian export since, well....since ever! I am so pleased to see the release of The Dame Edna Experience 1 (and 2, as well as her Christmas specials!). If you haven't heard of Dame Edna (and that would be impossible consider the megastar she is) then you must give this dvd a try. Dame Edna, a few decades back introduced us to her version of a talk show---a monologue interrupted by strangers. Regardless of the guests (which include Jane Seymour, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Larry Hagman to name a few), it is the great Dame herself who provides all the entertainment and certainly all the laughs. Accompanied by her ever present New Zealand bridesmaid, Madge Alsop, Dame Edna welcomes the guests and provides them with a name badge, in case she forgets their names, of course!
The dvd contains 6 programs and an introduction by Dame Edna herself. Also, the second disc includes lots of fun bonus material---A Night With Dame Edna Everage, in which she takes questions from the audience, peppered with such famous people as Joanna Lumley of AbFab. There are two interviews, one where Dame Edna interviews her "alter-ego" and creator Barry Humphries. Dame Edna sings her theme song "Niceness" and you mustn't forget to push the Madge button!
I recommend this for all the fans of Dame Edna out there---run, don't walk, to get this treasure on dvd! And for the rest of you, ditto! If you want a lot of laughs this is a must for your dvd collection!
Greatest Comedy Talk Show EVER!
2004-07-09 - This is hardly "Early Edna", since these shows were made in 1987, and Barry Humphries has been playing Edna Everage since 1955. Rather, this is Edna in her prime. These shows are classics, and I was delighted to replace my many-generations-down VHS dubs of the original LWT broadcasts (Some with the original commercials still intact) with these gorgeous, pristine DVD copies. Edna's wit ages well. Some of the guests are dead now (Beautiful Nureyev, Arthur Marshall, odious Mary Whitehouse), some are unknown in America (Dennis Lichfield, Arthur Marshall, odious Mary Whitehouse), some are easy targets (odious Charleton Heston, Zsa Zsa) and some are beloved (Sean Connery, Larry Hagman, Sir John Mills) but all are irrelevant, merely settings to show off Edna's wit. There are many highlights, but the two biggest to me are both on the last program, Edna's delightful duet with Sir John Mills and her unforgettable pas de deux with Nureyev. He's the one out-of-breath after dancing with her. The extras are worth the price of the set by themselves. Edna subjects Barry Humphries to some of her patented tough love, and be sure to ignore Edna's warning and press the Madge Button. You'll finally hear Emily Perry's voice as she does a completely charming song and dance, with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber as her accompianist's page-turner! Be sure to listen to all of Edna's spiel's on the menus, and, if you routinely skip the text bios on discs, don't skip the ones in Edna's "Guestbook". They're written by Edna, and they're as hilarious as everything else. This is top flight entertainment from the funniest man in the world. And don't fret. The other season of The Dame Edna Experience, as well as her Christmas specials, will be out in October. Now, when will we get "The Complete Dame Edna's Hollywood"?
This "early Edna" has come a long way...
2004-06-12 - I've been waiting for this release for two months! Taken from 1987, you can surely tell this talented "lady" was bound for glory! You can also state that she has gotten better with age.
The first DVD (a touch over three hours), which has the introduction and four episodes of "The Dame Edna Experience" is very funny. The guests she has were big in their own time: Jane Seymour, Nana Moskouri, Larry Hagman, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Charlton Heston and a few folks that I didn't know, since I'm from the States. None the less, I found myself laughing and pausing/rewinding to watch again. The antics are well planned and there's a bit of a shock value that can't be duplicated. This is what makes it uniquely refreshing, BUT, this is not the Dame Edna of the late 90s and early 2000s. She has come a long way in polishing her wit and delivery...hence the four star rating.
The second DVD (a touch over 80 minutes), houses the specials, her song "Niceness" and interviews. I LOVED the second DVD, eventhough it was shorter. It gives you a better sense of who Edna (Barry Humpries) is and what she's about.
I remember seeing Dame Edna for the first time on Ally McBeal. I've been a fan ever since. Go Dame, Go!! I can't wait for Series Two!!
Dame Edna Is Much Too Funny
2004-05-07 - I have to preface this by saying the obvious....eveyone has a different sense of humor. I love what I like to think of as brainy humor...slapstick isn't my thing. Love Woody Allen, hate Jerry Lewis. That said, The tounge-in-cheek humor of Dame Edna consistantly makes me laugh. It's just too funny. Friends of mine don't get it, but that seems to be normal with comedy. Everyone finds different things funny.
I'm so excited to see this collection out on DVD....it really is long overdue. You have to see Edna carve up her guests with the most bizzare and hillarious interviews....and watch the guests struggling to figure out if its all for real. And of course, there's Madge! The whole thing is totally nuts, and the best TV show I've ever watched. If you've never seen Dame Edna, you must give this a shot & see what you think. You might just get hooked on Dame Edna Everidge!
