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Groundbreaking comedienne Phyllis Diller is profiled in this month’s OUT magazine “Ladies We Love” issue and it serves as a powerful reminder, in the realm of female stand up, “before Chelsea, before Kathy, before Roseanne, and hell, before Joan, there was always Phyllis.”
Diller was a staple of golden television, with steady appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, Laugh-In, and The Tonight Show.
The comic icon spoke to Ari Karpel and shared with OUT magazine her views on aging, death, and what she’d most like to be remembered for one day.
Now that she’s 93, Diller realizes that being "old" in her 50s was nothin'. "You have no idea what aging is -- you’re just talking about it," says Diller, wearing a sparkly black dress, false eyelashes, and one of her trademark wigs on a rainy mid-February afternoon at her longtime home, in Brentwood, Calif. "You have no idea. Aging is one nasty thing."
Then she breaks out in the cackle that made her famous. "Aaah ha-haaaa!" she blurts, a little weakened by a persistent cough. But she continues: "You’ve lost so much that you sometimes forget what you’ve gained." And what is that? "You gain patience, you gain understanding of people, and I have never feared death. To me, it’s never the big hoo-ha. It’s just a dumb little thing that happens and could happen at any time."
…And how does she want to be remembered? "For being funny," Diller says immediately. "Well, I should say being kind. I am a kind person. I’m kind to everybody. I treat everybody the same, and I’m proud of that. In fact, that’s my religion."
Read more of the in-depth interview with a living legend on Out.com now.
