By Doug Draper
As regular readers of Niagara At Large know, we honour the death of favourite artists here, and how can we leave out Phyllis Diller.
The one and only grand dame of stand-up comedy
Phyllis Diller, who rose from a young wife and mother in the 1950s to become a pioneer for women in the merciless field of stand-up comedy, died in her Lose Angeles home this August 20 at age 95. Her son Perry reportedly found her resting peacefully in her bed in the morning with what he described as a smile on her face, which seems only fitting for someone who, for more than half a century, brought so much laughter to a world where things are often not all that funny.
Born in 1917, Diller may seem to many younger people to have been to old to perform in the beatnik coffee houses in a bohemian district of San Fransisco in the 1950s, but that’s where she got her start. She was already in her 40s and she was that cool. During one of her last tours in 2001, she performed at Brock University’s Sean O’Sullivan Theatre in St. Catharines, Ontario and her rapid fire delivering of lines had a sold-out audience of all ages laughing until tears were rolling down their eyes.
At one point during the show, she said her husband – she always just called him ‘Fang’ – was a loser in just about any job he ever had, offered to manage her entertainment career. “And here’s a guy who couldn’t sell a pair of binoculars to a peeping tom,” she said before offering up her own trademark cackling laugh – ‘Ha!, Ha!,Ha!’
Just a few years ago, Phyllis Diller was interviewed on CBC radio by Q host Jian Ghomieshi who asked her about favourite jokes. She picked one by a younger female comedian who followed in her wake and it went like this. ‘Giving an old man Viagra is like putting a flag pole on a condemned building.’ She finished the line with that same trademark laugh.
Phyllis didn’t really need to tell other comedians’ jokes. She was an original and we may never see her like again.
(You can share your views on this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
I mourn her loss – what a gem she was. I adored everything about her: her look (that hair!), her laugh (fabulous cackle more like), and her salty straight-shootin’ no-BS humour. A legend indeed.
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It seems that Phyllis Diller enjoyed playing slot machines ,Phyllis Diller was in Niagara Falls Ontario about 14 years ago and spent time playing the one armed bandits,I happened to play a slot machine and Phyllis had left her rewards card in the machine, I pondered whether to keep it as a souvenir or turn it in, I turned it in, it probably was discarded , she was a scream and a pioneer ,before her face lifts she looked pretty rough as life took it.s toll on her, she reached a very good age ,possibly beacause she was never overweight. we will miss her. the ability to laugh at oneself made her more endearing.
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I will miss her talking about , FANG!
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