I became aware of Barry in the early 1960s, through the comic strip he wrote for Private Eye, The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie, about the worst aspects of Australians living abroad. I remember its co-founder Richard Ingrams saying Barry was the man who gave the magazine its initial sales boost. Then I was doing a TV programme in the Establishment Club with John Betjeman and he’d just seen Barry’s one-man show and said I had to go and see this man, he was terrific. So not long after he’d moved to London Barry was the talk of two key places.
I met him soon afterwards. He was a very charming man with a little edge that you had to watch out for. He would suddenly cut into your chat, and out of nothing, mention your tie or your lack of tie, then go off into this spin, and you’d just think, where’s this going – you never knew – but it was hilarious. He had a real gift. He told me he’d started doing this on trips, or on the way back from school football games in Australia – he was the entertainment in the back of the bus imitating people, like teachers, and making everybody laugh. He got the hang of comedy that way.
