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Well, one of Australia's most beloved entertainers, Maria Venuti, has spent decades dazzling audiences
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as a singer, actress, cabaret performer and of course much love TV personality.
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She's appeared in everything from stage shows to hit films, including the hilarious Fat
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But in 2016, Maria faced the fight of her life.
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She suffered a devastating stroke following an intruder incident at her Sydney home.
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The old deal left her in a coma and was life altering but true to form.
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This showbeer's powerhouse refused to give up and now still full of sparkle and spirit,
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Maria celebrating an incredible milestone, her 85th birthday.
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Sorry, giving up is not part of the story.
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And the always wonderful Maria Venuti and her daughter Bianca and granddaughter Allegra
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right here in the studio, three Venuti girls in the room.
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Welcome, lovely to see you.
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Happy 50th birthday.
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Oh, 50th, she was like that.
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You know what, it's going to say 45th.
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I'm telling people her range.
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Bianca, how does it feel to reach this milestone?
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How did you celebrate?
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Well, we had a big 80th and sort of thought that was it for the milestone, so we just hadn't
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thought through beyond that.
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So when 85 came up, I thought, well, five is still a big number.
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We've got to celebrate all the fives and zeros at this stage.
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So we had a relatively small party, as small as we get.
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We had the lots of gums, friends.
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We had the fabulous Emma Pask singing with mum's penis, Kevin Hunt.
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Woman's Day came in to take photos.
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Monica made this gorgeous birthday cake from Mourish Cakes and lots of stories and lots of singing, didn't we?
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Maria, you can't, Maria, you can still pull a crowd.
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So pink and leopard theme and it looked like it had a lot of fun.
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Beautiful black bow on this beautiful pink and leopard cake.
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Bianca, we're going to ask you 10 years since Mum's Stroke.
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Talk us through the journey and how's she doing now?
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Well, I feel like Mum is just in, is it indomitable when you just never give up?
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She's going to be around forever.
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Actually, look, I think 10 years, like no one thought we'd get to this point.
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I don't think we even thought we'd get this far.
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And Mum's just still the same.
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We actually were on the drive on the way here and we met our Maxi Taxi Driver 10 years ago
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and said, Mum hasn't changed.
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She's exactly the same.
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I said, she has medically the same spirits, the same.
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She understands everything.
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Smile, the smiles, the smiles.
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We went to Europe for my wedding.
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She'll be 90 before we know at 100.
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There's no stopping.
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And still fabulous taste in jewellery.
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Beautiful and necklace.
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It's a, because Maria, her life has been about performing.
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Bianca, is there a favourite memory of your Mum's?
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Well, I was going to say Mum has got a lot of them in her book, so she'll say, well,
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that's her version of it.
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For me, it was probably actually when we did fat pizza after her stroke.
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So, we did on Seb make with Paulie, who was also at her party.
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He had her back acting on set in the wheelchair, not able to talk with the rolling pin, just
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playing the mumic character that she played 14 years before, after her stroke.
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And that to me was really special because I thought she's still a performer.
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I think sometimes big things like this can happen and people just sort of write you off
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a little bit and think, oh, you know, they're aged, they're old, they're done.
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It's like, no, no, no, she's not done.
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Not this one, not this one.
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Hey, Allegra, do you want to be a performer like Nana?
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Is that what you want to do? Do you want to sing and dance and be a big star?
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Do you like singing?
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Do you like singing?
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And what about dancing?
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Do you like dancing or...?
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Yeah, dancing as well.
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I guess you're going to do everything if you're going to be as fabulous as...
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Nana's already given her a little lesson of singing.
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Is that you dancing, sweetie?
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Yes, she's still getting used to cameras.
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This is only ever her second time on TV since she came on here when she was first born,
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but she loves dancing.
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She's very extroverted at home.
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So I think we've got to watch out with this.
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I've been doing this for 100 years.
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I'm still getting used to the cameras.
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I'm so lovely to see you all.
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What are you going to say?
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You say Maria Vanity Tutti frutti shizza.
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You've got a word there.
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You can read more about Maria Vanity's 85th birthday celebration in this week's Women's Day magazine
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available now to all Sunday.
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They got the numbers round the wrong way.
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It was actually 508.
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Yeah, that was a photographic era.
