Drag sensation guarantees major laughs for her WHEN ADDRESSING ROYALTY such as herself, Dame Edna expects certain protocol.

“When one asks for Judi Dench, it’s Dame Judi Dench. Likewise, it’s Dame Diana Rigg. It’s the same for me — Dame Edna,” says the gay icon, tongue firmly in cheek as she lays down the law about being addressed by her full title.

Dame Edna Everage makes her much-anticipated first appearance in Atlanta next week with her road show, “A Night With Dame Edna: The Show that Cares.” It’s on the heels of her highly successful “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour,” which premiered on Broadway in 1999 and won a Tony Award for Live Theatrical Event. Dame Edna spent the last two seasons on the road for her U.S. tour.

“My show is a bit like vaudeville. I sing. I dance. It’s full of naughty, politically incorrect statements. All kinds of people love the show,” Dame Edna says in phone interview from her home in Sydney, Australia. “Gay, straight, adults, children. I guarantee major laughs — not chuckles.”

With her purple wig, granny glasses, feathers and rhinestones — not to mention her glam wardrobe — Dame Edna’s show is full of audience participation, including a finale that finds her tossing her signature gladiolas to her fans. It’s not uncommon for audience members to join the superstar onstage for certain portions of the show.

Dame Edna boasts that she does her homework, too, for tour stops. She has already been getting the skinny on Atlanta, referring to Coca-Cola and local gay bars in a recent conversation, as well as trying to stay current on local gossip.

DAME EDNA IS really prolific (and heterosexual) character actor Barry Humphries, heard this summer as a shark in the recent “Finding Nemo.” Of all the characters Humphries created, Dame Edna is the one that has gained most attention. Edna Everage has been an icon in her native Australia for decades —- and a housewife, adviser to British royalty and investigative journalist to boot.

She’s met the Queen, authored “Dame Edna’s Coffee Table Book,” “Dame Edna’s Bedside Companion” and “My Gorgeous Life” (her autobiography), and hosted the talk shows “The Dame Edna Experience and “Dame Edna’s Neighborhood Watch,” among others.

Although she’s long been a name in Australia and in England, Americans have been slow to catch on, a fact Dame Edna ruefully admits.

“I did a show in the late ‘70s in New York. The audiences just didn’t get it. Maybe it was the wig, the material, or the accent,” she says. Afterwards she didn’t spend much time in the U.S. A chance conversation with friend Joan Rivers changed that.

“I talked to Joan a number of years back. Few people know I’m Melissa’s godmother. She convinced me to do a show in San Francisco. The next thing I knew it had moved to Broadway and I had won a Tony and I began touring! Now I have a rapport here; I have a bond with my American possums,” Dame Edna says.

As she has garnered more attention in the U.S, she guest starred on TV shows “Ally McBeal” and “Hollywood Squares.”

Dame Edna’s husband Norm died more than a decade ago, leaving her a widow. As part of her show, Edna discusses her “artistic” (and fictitious) gay son Kenny (“still unmarried,” she sighs) and even has a sing-along about him.

“Kenny has designed a set of new dresses for my new tour. They are so fabulous and affordable — no more than a mortgage,” she reports. In a local angle, Dame Edna has even heard that her long-lost daughter has visited Backstreet on a number of occasions.

INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTARDOM hasn’t completely changed Dame Edna.

“I’m a Melbourne housewife, not a trained actress. I’m a bit more glamorous now, but I can be a little shy. I tremble — my knees knock a bit before I walk onstage. But I’m more forthright these days,” she says.

Edna also denies reports that she and another diva, Madonna, are feuding. “Not true!” she claims.

Dame Edna ppreciates her place in history. “I taught Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe their poise and elocution,” she quips.

She also likens herself as part of the Australia wave of female superstars including Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton John. She has concerns about Kidman, however. “I am worried about her. Nicole is so thin. I don’t think she has handled the ramifications of her divorce well,” she says.

During the Atlanta run of “A Night With Dame Edna,” a lucky raffle winner will be allowed ...

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