End of a 47-year career

Phyllis Diller is ending her stand-up comedy career - after 47 years.

The 84-year-old American comedienne says her show in California on Sunday would be her last time on stage.

But although she won't be performing her one-woman routine any more, she won't be retiring from showbusiness..

She plans to spend more time writing, and not doing stand-up, which she said "isn't as easy as it looks".

Diller was one of the world's most successful comediennes, and her gag rate was said to be up to 12 jokes a minute.

She started her stand-up career relatively late in life, at the age of 37, when her husband urged her to create an act for the local nightclub. Five years later she was playing Carnegie Hall.

Diller described her outrageous on-stage look as "like a lamp shade in a persona" - and among her many accolades is an award from the American association of plastic surgeons for publicising their work.

Long-time friend Bob Hope said: "For the Queen of Comedy to just hang up her wigs and walk away, we don't think so. Put them in mothballs, maybe."

Published: 18 Apr 2002