Working with  Barry Humphries
ROSS FITZGERALD
Barry Humphries and I were friends for more than 60 years.
We drank together, got sober together, and also worked with each other.
In 1972, when we were two years sober, I played a small role in Barry’s raucous Australian comedy, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.  In this path-breaking Australian film (or “fillum” as my father used to say), Barry not only played Edna Everage but a number of other characters as well, including the mad psychiatrist, Dr Humphrey de Lamphrey. I was one of Bazza’s mates farewelling him …

Anti-hero Everest reaches for dizzying heightsAcademic and author ROSS FITZGERALD reflects on the journey to his latest political satire “Pandemonium” and the series’ anti-hero Dr Professor Grafton Everest.    As some avid “CityNews” readers may know, my latest Grafton Everest political satire “Pandemonium”, co-authored with Ian McFadyen, of “Comedy Company” fame, has recently been published. In it, my anti-hero, Dr Professor Grafton Everest, is the first Australian Secretary-General of the shambolic United Nations. In its prequel, “The Lowest Depths”, published last year, Russia’s dictatorial president-for-life, Vladimir Putrid, is assassinated. Will …

Sober Days with Barry HumphriesROSS FITZGERALDBarry Humphries and I were friends for sixty-one years. We drank together, got sober together, and worked together.In late 1969 we were both admitted to a suburban Melbourne alcoholic and drug addiction hospital, Delmont. The wonderful lead psychiatrist there, Dr John Moon, who happened to be a Christadelphian, was a strong supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Delmont was the last mental hospital either Barry or I were admitted to as a patient.The night before we were due to be discharged, we got taken to a large …

The case for vaping as a least-worst optionby ROSS FITZGERALDMany Australians with a severe alcohol problem will die from smoking-related causes rather than from the effects of alcohol. “ACT citizens can have in their possession personal quantities of heroin, cocaine, amphetamine or home-grown cannabis without legal repercussions, but carrying mango-flavoured nicotine juice for vaping risks up to a two-year prison sentence and a $32,000 fine,” writes academic and author ROSS FITZGERALD. HUMAN beings have always used psychoactive drugs. Some animals and birds, such as elephants and parrots, occasionally indulge in …

Cut durry damage by vaping
 
by ROSS FITZGERALD
 
Although Sydney was once the epicentre of Australia’s HIV epidemic, it may soon become the first city in the world to effectively eliminate HIV transmission.
This remarkable achievement will be because of a focus on reducing the adverse consequences of risk rather than trying to reduce or eliminate it.
In other words, harm reduction. The result was the saving of many thousands of lives and billions of dollars.
Sadly, the outstanding success of Australia’s early efforts to control HIV is in stark contrast to Australian policy in …

Friends,

Pandemonium. is featured in ‘Fulbright in Focus’ November 2023.https://www.fulbright.org.au/news-and-events/The above links to my article on the Fulbright website, containing the full text, two reviews, and links to the publisher:

PandemoniumNew Book from Professor Ross Fitzgerald AM

“I am a very grateful recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in the mid 1960s. Indeed it was being in America on a Fulbright that enabled me to eventually become a Professor in History & Politics and, more importantly to start a career as a writer of fiction and …

After I drove a car off the Menangle Bridge, near Camden in 1963, I was flown by air ambulance to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. When I arrived, Dr Miles Little was on duty as the surgical registrar. He and his team operated on me for almost eight hours and, as a result, saved my life.Even though I was then barely 19, he also was the first person to tell me that I was an alcoholic.This is because, after I was switched from a lengthy stay in ICU, I pulled …

Humphries family to boycott memorial                     by Briana DomjenFriends and family of late comedian Barry Humphries are “aghast” Richard Wilkins has been enlisted to MC his memorial — and some won’t be attending in protest.Barry Humphries’ “many lives” will be celebrated in a special state memorial at the Sydney Opera House next month, but an apparent difference of opinion between his widow, Lizzie Spender, and others, including Humphries’ daughter Emily, means many friends and family will not attend the event, which is …

Here is my speech at launch of the ninth Grafton Everest political satire, Pandemonium. The Olsen Gallery, Sydney, 6.30 pm, 14 November, 2023ROSS FITZGERALD   Many critics have claimed to know how Grafton Everest – the bumbling, overweight, teetotal Professor in Life Skills from the University of Mangoland, who’s the central character in all my political satires – got his name.Two claimants stand out.The first – A professor of linguistics who stated that, after analysing my first four fictions, it was obvious that Grafton Everest was a code for ‘Graft and …

Today November 5, 2023 is Guy Fawkes Day.
On November 5, 1974, when I was four years sober, I met my darling wife and friend of 45 years, Lyndal Moor.
 
This occurred at  a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
My longtime  friend Barry Humphries had asked would I go there because Lyndal, who was living with his manager Clyde Packer, planned to attend her first AA meeting.
My first words to Lyndal after the meeting were, “If you only knew what could happen to you if you stay close …

Please spread the word about Paul Bugden’s excellent new play Stardust. It played to sell out houses as part of World Pride Sydney 2023.This production is part of The Sydney Fringe Festival playing at Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville.
More details: https://sydneyfringe.com/events/stardust/

Stardust | Sydney Fringe
 
sydneyfringe.com

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Paul Bugden <bugdensbooks@bigpond.com>
 
Professor Ross Fitzgerald AM