It's an unobtrusive plaque you've probably walked over a thousand times at the intersection of Petrie Plaza and City Walk: ''The Doug Anthony All Stars were born and died here.''
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But the members of the Canberra-formed comedy troupe - Tim Ferguson, Richard Fidler and Paul McDermott - who regularly busked there in the late 1980s, had never officially endorsed it.
Yesterday Ferguson made up for the long lapse with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. At 48, and despite battling multiple sclerosis for many years and walking with the aid of a stick, he looked and sounded upbeat and still sported his trademark dark fringe.
Old friends and well-wishers kept approaching and Ferguson seemed touched that people remembered the comedy troupe, which lasted from 1984 to 1994 and which, he said, was named after the former National Party leader because he was the sort of conservative politician who would never associate with the likes of them.
And given the song titles in their repertoire included I F*** Dogs, it's not hard to understand why their namesake might have had reservations.
But yesterday only hints of the old DAAS style peeked through. Wielding the scissors to cut the ribbon, Ferguson quipped, ''Circumcisions to the left, all others to the right.'' More seriously, he said that at the time the plaque was installed - ''I think it was about 20 years ago'' - all the former members were working elsewhere on separate projects. ''Richard was making Race Around the World on the ABC, Paul was making the first series of Good News Week and I would have been making Don't Forget Your Toothbrush with the Nine Network.''
In fact, the plaque was installed in 2003, but he could be forgiven the lapse: all three men have been busy since going their separate ways.
Ferguson had a lot of memories of his time in the national capital.
''I lost my virginity all over Canberra.''
How could that be?
''You just have to be really careful … Belconnen is an Aboriginal word for 'virginity loser': with me it was just 'loser'.''
Looking around, he mused, ''It was on that bench I lost my virginity - again. At David Jones we took about 300 interested Canberrans in to shoplift the entire joint … but all we got were a few dresses and shoes and jewellery.''
He said his fondest memory of Canberra was performing in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood with Canberra Youth Theatre.
''It was just the right time to learn that language can do whatever you tell it to do.''
It was a lesson that stood the Doug Anthony All Stars in good stead.
And more recently Ferguson has put it to good use in his autobiographical Carry A Big Stick, which he will be bringing to his home town next month.
■ Carry a Big Stick is on at The Playhouse on October 19 at 8pm. Not suitable for children.
Tickets $49.80/$43.80. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au