Dame Edna may be hanging up her purple rinse but there’s plenty of life in the old dog yet.

Australia’s most famous raconteur and wit Barry Humphries will be the next Artistic Director of the Cabaret Festival. Douglas Gautier, the Adelaide Festival Centre’s CEO and Artistic Director,  made the announcement earlier adding that Humphries will take the reins from Kate Ceberano in 2015.

“Kate will be a hard act to follow,” said State Premier and Arts Minister Jay Weatherill, “but in Barry Humphries we might just have found the right person. As one of Australia’s most famous artists, I have no doubt he will use his inimitable style to keep Adelaide’s Cabaret Festival in the international spotlight.”

Barry Humphries is one of Australia’s most loved comedians, satirists, artists, and authors. Best known for his stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, he is also a respected film producer and scriptwriter, a musical theatre star of London’s West End, an award-winning writer and, perhaps less well known, an accomplished landscape painter.

“Kate Ceberano has done an outstanding job,” said Gautier paying tribute to the current incumbent’s impressive track record on an artistic level and at the box...