stephen fry in adelaide

This was the third time I've seen Stephen Fry live... or fourth if you count when I took Ma to see him "live" on the big screen (which wasn't in the least bit live, but it was him on stage doing that thing that he does so well)... and the first time he's been to Adelaide (as far as I know), the previous two instances being in Melbourne.

And seriously, I could listen to that man talk until he completely ran out of words or things to say (I'm guessing in both instances that would take a considerable amount of time). Doubly so if he started doing accents or impressions, which I think he is unable to stop himself from doing.

I would also be very happy to listen to him repeat his favourite line from The Importance of Being Earnest...

"I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection."

It was something of an interesting crowd... there were clearly a large proportion of the homosexual persuasion... some of whom I'm pretty sure had come straight from Picnic in the Park just across the river from the Festival Theatre, then there were what I'm guessing were just general Fry fans... and possibly people involved in the Dunstan Foundation. And then there were people who may have fit in all or none of those... I mean I'm pretty sure that former PM, Julia Gillard was also in the audience.

The event was hosted (or possibly MC'ed) by political journalist Annabel Crabb. And I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed most of her hosting... while I don't have a major dislike for her, she's just not somebody I'm especially fond of, but mostly she was good.

They divided the event into two halves... after a brief intro by Crabb, Stephen spoke for around half an hour (and walked just short of 2km with his continual pacing back and forth... we know because he counted it on his Apple watch), then Crabb came back out and they sat down for some questions for the following forty five minutes (which turned into just this side of an hour).

Stephen spoke about Oscar Wilde, and the decriminalisation of homosexuality and his own homosexualist journey from impressionable youngster learning about Wilde through to now. And as I said at the start, I could listen to him just talk about anything he likes for as long as he likes.

Crabb's questioning in the second half started off pretty well, but I think it got a little fluffy towards the end... of course she may have been attempting to bring it back from the kind of serious/dark place it went to. But the aforementioned listening to Stephen thing was still in effect.

So all in all it was an excellent evening.

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