Judith Lucy, comedian, Ask No Questions of the Moth
I think the fact that I was a good student and that I didn’t have a shower until I was 15 meant I needed to be funny ...
Judith Lucy is certainly no stranger to the stage, with her stand-up career starting 27 years ago. She is a magnificent storyteller, unafraid to share stories of the mishaps and odd experiences she encounters in her life, and is the first to admit when she has made an ass of herself. The past couple of years have been a busy time for Judith, releasing her second book, Drink, Smoke, Pass Out and creating her second series for ABC, Judith Lucy Is All Woman, which is now available on DVD. This week Judith takes the stage once again, as she brings her new gig Ask No Questions of the Moth to Brisbane Powerhouse until June 7. The Weekend Edition had the opportunity to chat with Judith this week, so we thought it best to ask her about the eventful year she has just had and how she feels about inappropriate sexts.
First of all, welcome back! Is it nice to be doing a solo show after three years off the stage?
You know, it’s the sort of thing that I always have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with. By the end of a tour I will be glad to have a little break, but when I haven’t been doing it for a little while I do tend to wind up having an itch that only stand-up seems to be able to scratch. And I can say having already done the show in Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne now, I am really enjoying it.
I hear your last year was truly awful and I am sorry to hear that! But this is apparently great news for audiences of your new show, Ask No Questions of the Moth. What can you tell us about it?
It was a very difficult year for the fact that there was a lot of change. But some of it was good! I am in a relationship, and I talk a bit about that in the show. He is 12 years younger so, you know, grrr! I made the television show Judith Lucy Is All Woman, which was also good. But as far as negatives go, early menopause wasn’t great – in the show I do a little dance number about some menopause symptoms in the show, try and imagine that or maybe don’t – and also my brother passed away last year, which was obviously awful. That gets a small mention in the show, but to be honest with you, its not really something I am quite up to talking about yet. Shows aren’t terribly interesting if you go out on stage and say ‘gee I had a great year last year and I am very much in love’. That’s just not that funny. I think we all know it’s a very fine line between comedy and tragedy, and I guess most comedians tend to turn their lemons into lemonade. Hopefully I have done that with this show!
It has been 20 years since you premiered your solo show King of the Road at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, which saw you literally tap dancing through stories of your life. Has your approach to your stage shows changed much since then?
Well, I hope I have gotten better, because that would be depressing if I haven’t! I have been doing stand-up for 27 years in total, so I had been doing it for a while before King of the Road. That said, I guess that show was a bit of a watershed moment for me because even though I had done a tiny little one-man show called No Waiter I Ordered the Avocado, King of the Road was the first big solo show I did where yes, I did indeed tap dance, and I toured it all around Australia. I suppose it was the first time that I really – without sounding like a complete wanker – found my voice, in terms of feeling really comfortable talking about my personal life. That was the show where I discovered what I like to talk about and how I like to talk about it. To an extent, everything I do has some degree of that in it, even when I do a television show about women in Australia it is still very much from my point of view, and I suppose there will always be that personal element. But with comedians it really is our point of view that makes us funny. So I hope I have gotten better – I know I am certainly a lot more relaxed on stage than I used to be, but I am still essentially the same person!
Your performances are incredibly honest and at times a little shocking, which is what many people love about you, but what is one of the worst or most unusual reviews you’ve ever received?
I think the one I always go to is just the first incredible bad one, which was actually just two words. More than 20 years ago I did a show in Adelaide with Alan Davies from QI and he and I both supported Jimeoin. Jimeoin got an okay review and then it said, “And as for his supports Alan Davies and Judith Lucy, they were just simply awful”. So I guess that I always remember that one! Another one I remember because I thought it was pretty funny was one from Edinburgh that described me as looking like Michelle Pfeiffer’s younger sister – and yes that part of the sentence is fine, but the rest of it was – if a tree had fallen on her. I don’t even really know what that means, but it’s not good, I think I know that!
You are very open about the embarrassing and sometimes awful situations you often find yourself in. Is there one moment that stands out as the most awkward?
No – I have told a lot of stories about making an idiot of myself over the years. I suppose one of the routines that might have surprised some people was one I did many years ago about having sex with a male prostitute. But that was actually something I did and knew exactly what I was doing, it wasn’t a situation where I just fell into it because I had had too much to drink. I don’t think too many people were doing routines about things like that at that point! That was an interesting evening.
Do you find it a bit therapeutic to share your stories in such a public manner?
Not at all to be honest! Audiences are very sensitive, so if you start talking about traumatic things on stage that you haven’t worked through then you are still going to be really freaked out about it, and that means you aren’t going to be very funny. When you see somebody walk on stage, you want them to be incredibly relaxed, and you want to be relaxed. That’s what makes comedy work. It’s like when you see somebody who hasn’t been doing comedy for very long and you can tell they are really nervous, they might be telling the best joke in the world but if they are not comfortable, then the audience isn’t going to be either. So that is why I do briefly mention in the show the fact that my brother died, but I don’t really go into it because I still haven’t really come out the other side of that.
You’ll be performing at the Brisbane Powerhouse from May 26 to June 7 – what are you most looking forward to doing, seeing or consuming while you’re here?
I have been performing at the Brisbane Powerhouse for a mighty long time now and I can honestly say that I always look forward to doing that venue because it is such a beautiful place … and because the food is really good! I am really just looking forward to doing this show and having some great dinners, without sounding middle aged.
When did you first realise you had a knack for making people laugh (and sometimes cringe)?
I guess I am a walking cliche in that I was one of those kids at school who had pretty freaky parents. My way of coping with having embarrassing parents was cracking jokes as a kid. I was also a real goody two shoes, completely unbearable. I did debating and public speaking and was the lead in the school play and all of that sort of stuff, so I think the fact that I was a good student and that I didn’t have a shower until I was 15 meant I needed to be funny. When you combine being a suckhole with being smelly – if I didn’t crack the odd joke, I would have ended up being the friendless girl getting beaten up in the corner. That was when it started happening, out of necessity really.
If you could give any advice to your teenage self – the suckhole, as you called her – what do you think you would tell her?
I think I would probably have asked her why she wasn’t doing what all of her friends are doing, and to start drinking and smoking and having sex with boys now, instead of waiting until she was in her mid-to-late 20s. Which is what I did do, which meant that I was about ten years behind everyone else for a very long time. And I was making a fool of myself in my 20s, when most people had done it when they were in their teenage years and had gotten it out of their system. Whereas I didn’t, so I did it for about 15 years.
As well as a successful stand-up career you’ve starred in a number of films and television shows, published two books and co-hosted radio programs. What’s your favourite hat to wear?
I am so lucky that I get to mix it up, but I think that it is a bit of a necessity in this country because it is a pretty small industry. I enjoy aspects of all of it, sometimes stand-up can get a bit lonely so it is really nice to collaborate and work with other people. Denise Scott and I have worked together a number of times and I love doing that. If someone held a gun to my head and said I just have to pick one, then I guess I would choose stand-up comedy because that is where all the other stuff has come from.
What annoys you the most?
That is such a broad question! I do complain about some of the things that are annoying me in the latest show, so maybe that will encourage people to come and hear me whinge about things! I don’t know if I am so much annoyed, but I will tell you that I am somewhat intrigued by dick pics. I do talk about that at length with the audience.
What is it about dick pics that intrigues you?!
It is beyond by comprehension why anyone would send a photo of their genitals to someone they were flirting with. For the majority of women I have spoken to, when I have asked them if they actually wound up having sex with the man that sent them the dick pic, the resounding answer has been no. I feel like there is a big breakdown in communication there, and I am trying to get to the bottom of it. Most of the women had shown their girlfriends, had a laugh and not seen the guy again, but the very last show of the season for the Melbourne Comedy Festival I did meet a woman who not only would up having sex with the guy, she married him! I said “man, you must have really liked what you saw!” But I do feel she is the exception of the rule.
What does ‘success’ mean to you?
Not having to work as a sandwich hand anymore!
Finally, any words of wisdom?
No, I really don’t. I am still trying to work it all out. If I ever do, I will let you know!