My friend Dave Schwartz (not to be confused with the other Dave Schwartz I know or the other Dave Schwartz I know or even the other Dave Schwartz I know) writes…
I worked with Wayland Flowers and Madame on Solid Gold in the early 1980's. He was a really nice man. He got me tickets one night to see him perform at the Roxy and he was much, much funnier than he was on television. He did a more risqué show than he could have performed on TV and it was very, very funny. I remember one of the jokes in the show had to do with a new home he had purchased and how run down it was. He called it, "Casa Tastrophe."
Anyway, just to add something to what you wrote on your site today… I spent some time as a stand-in on the Solid Gold show. That means if Wayland Flowers was going to do a routine with Andy Gibb or Marilyn McCoo, I stood in for the star while they were getting the lighting set on stage.
One of these times they brought Wayland out and I was standing on stage and we started a conversation. However, I didn't include Madame in the discussion. And that was the thing… if Wayland was operating Madame, you had better not ignore her. As Wayland and I spoke, before long Madame started darting around impatiently in front of me. And the more I talked with Wayland the more incensed she got at being ignored! I can't exactly describe it, but it was clear she had a personality completely distinct from Wayland and as long as Wayland had her on his arm, she came alive.
From my discussions with him, I can tell you that Wayland was an extremely nice man. I hope that somewhere there is footage of his live shows. It would certainly be worth seeing.
Apparently, there is. As a couple of folks have written to inform me, there is another performer — Rick Skye — who has inherited the act and who works with Madame, primarily in casinos and cabarets. He maintains this website and somewhere in there, you'll find an offer for a DVD of what they admit is not the best recording of a Wayland Flowers performance — but at least it's something.
By the way: This particular Dave Schwartz is the Dave Schwartz I've known the longest of all the Dave Schwartzes I know. Once upon a time, he was a production assistant on Solid Gold and I remember visiting the set one day there when the dancers were trying to teach him to do the dance routine that ran under the closing credits. This was a little like trying to teach a rhinoceros how to tightrope-walk but, hey, Dave gave it his all. He does a lot of daring things…and one recently was to make a video of a stand-up routine and —
Well, here: I'll let him tell you what he did. If you want to see an example of great courage, take a look.