TORONTO – Phyllis Diller, who passed away Monday at the age of 95, performed one of her last stand-up comedy shows in Canada more than a decade ago.
The legendary comedian took to the stage of the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga at the age of 83.
“I like jokes. I like gags,” she said in an interview before the performance. “I want an immediate laugh and I want to hear it. I want it to be out loud.”
At the time, Diller gushed about enjoying her life “surrounded by flowers and trees and squirrels and birds” at her home in the Brentwood Park area of Los Angeles. “I have everything that I ever wanted,” she said.
By show business standards, Diller was a late bloomer. Born Phyllis Driver in Ohio in 1917, she was 37 and a working mother of five in San Francisco when her husband Sherwood urged her to create a nightclub act.
Diller was booked into the Purple Onion for a two-week run, where she poked fun at celebrities and high fashion and slithered around the piano with a cigarette holder in hand. The booking was extended to 89 weeks before Diller took her act on the road, ending up at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall in just five years.
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Diller says she came up with her on-stage persona after attending a number of drag shows with a gay friend.
“He was pointing me in a very chi-chi direction, which would have been very un-commercial and I would never have gotten rich,” she recalled.
“Then I took myself in another, far more commercial, direction. I wanted to get into what I really knew about because I had been a housewife and that sells to the common people.”
Diller’s comedy act led to a small but memorable role in Splendor in the Grass, which in turn led to parts in more than 21 films. She co-starred with Bob Hope in three films, joined him in Vietnam to entertain U.S. troops, and appeared in 22 of his TV specials.
Diller took her talents to Broadway, starring in Hello Dolly!
An accomplished pianist, she performed for a decade with the name Dame Illya Dillya as a soloist with dozens of symphony orchestras.
Diller gave up Beethoven and Bach for paintbrushes and canvasses. “I’m now one of the world’s major painters,” she boasted in the 2001 interview. “Oh, don’t look at me for humility. People love them. I’ve even got people who collect them.”
Diller was also very open about her cosmetic procedures – even ignoring the advice of a publicist who urged her not to talk about it.
“Boy was he done,” she said. “This proves, don’t listen to advice. Go with your gut feeling.
“My basic thing in life is being honest. I’m just an open, honest person. I’m not devious or secretive,” she explained.
Asked if there was anything she would have done differently in her life, Diller was adamant. “I never look back, sweetheart. I always look forward. It’s really true. I enjoyed everything I did and I did it as well as I could.”
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