Barry Humphries

The Price of Fame

Text settings
Comments

Try not to meet us in the flesh

We’ll disappoint you if you do,

Our dandruff and our garlic breath

Are better tucked away from view.

Try not to catch us off the cuff

We’ll topple your romantic dreams

Not concentrate or smile enough,

You’ll see us parting at the seams.

You hang our pictures, read our books

Or watch us on the telly nightly,

You’ve clocked our more despondent looks,

Know if we’re straight, or gay, or slightly.

Better to love us from afar

Let distance tint your overview,

Up close you’ll see how crass we are;

How disappointingly like you.

I learnt this lesson three years back,

I sat in Hatchards signing books,

A lady who had bought a stack

Had flashed me several meaning looks.

‘I’ve always been your biggest fan’

She fixed me with a gimlet eye,

‘I thought you such a clever man,

But may I say, I hate your tie?’