Sir Les Patterson
| Sir Les Patterson | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | January 1974, St. George leagues club, Sydney, Australia |
| Created by | Barry Humphries |
| Portrayed by | Barry Humphries |
| Born |
1 April 1942 Taren Point, Southern Sydney |
| Information | |
| Family | Gerard Patterson (brother) Lois (sister) Noreen (sister) |
| Spouse(s) | Gwenneth Lorraine Patterson (née Dolan) |
| Children | Craig and Karen |
| Relatives | Leo (uncle) |
| Religion | Christian (Roman Catholic) |
Sir Leslie Colin "Les" Patterson (born 1 April 1942) is a fictional character created and portrayed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries. Obese, lecherous and offensive, Patterson is Dame Edna Everage's exact opposite: she is female, refined, Protestant and from Melbourne; he is male, uncouth, Roman Catholic and from Sydney.
Patterson's humour abounds in such a wide range of racist and sexual stereotypes that it would offend almost anyone who takes it at face value.
By Humphries' own account, the character of Patterson first appeared in a one-man show that he performed at the St. George leagues club in Sydney in January 1974. Appearing in the guise of the boorish, loud-mouthed and uncultured Patterson, Humphries claimed to be that club's own entertainments officer as he introduced the next act, Dame Edna Everage. As Humphries recalled, "I understood later that many members of the audience thought Les was genuinely a club official, which says a lot for his charm and sincerity". Later that same year, the character (by now identified as Australia's cultural attaché to the Far East) was revived in a two-week cabaret appearance that Humphries performed at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. In Humphries' words, "The English merchant bankers and commodity brokers and Australian accountants there all recognised Les as someone they knew in the Australian diplomatic corps, and took him to their hearts." Patterson went on to play an even larger role in Humphries' next one-man show in London, Housewife, Superstar! (1976), delivering a lengthy monologue that was included on the original cast album.
For more than 30 years, the character of Sir Les Patterson has been a regular feature in Barry Humphries' solo theatrical appearances in Australia and Great Britain, during which he performs a monologue and frequently bursts into song. Some of Patterson's specific monologues (as documented in the theatre programmes for Humphries' various shows) include the following:
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