“Every time it could be shit. Every time it could be not very funny”
JUDITH LUCY REMEMBERS No Waiter I Ordered the Avocado, the first solo show she ever performed, back in 1991, years before Town Hall was the festival’s home. To develop it, she applied for the prestigious Brian Mccarthy Memorial Moosehead Award, available to Australian comedians wanting to try out a risky, innovative idea. “If you get the money, it’s kind of a big deal and you really don’t want to blow it,” she says. “I had the double whammy of doing my first solo show and also feeling like I couldn’t do a shit job because I’d received this money. I was totally freaked out.”
That’s clear from some of the reviews she received, including one from Kaz Cooke. “She said nice things about the show, but that it would’ve been nice if the comedian hadn’t just run out of the theatre. I was so uncomfortable about doing the show and people responding to it that I didn’t even really accept the applause at the end.”
It’s difficult to believe that Lucy – with two and a half decades of successful stand-up shows – might be that uncomfortable on stage, but she says there are still creeping insecurities.
“The weird thing is that it always feels like you’re starting again every time you do a new
show. Every time it could be shit. Every time it could be not very funny. Every time you write jokes, do it in front of an audience and wind up changing the show as it goes because some jokes work and some don’t; it’s a process that doesn’t really change.”
With her new show, Judith Lucy Vs Men, Lucy is recounting her dating history for audiences every night and asking them to vote on whether she should continue to date or “hang up her vagina for good”.
“Because I have been doing this ridiculous job for so damn long, I’m in this really lucky position where some people have been coming to see me for a long time, and they know what’s going on in my life. And you know what? I want their input.” That puts her in an enviable position when it comes to festival time, where she’s able to pull big enough crowds to make a profit. Once comedians get into that sort of position, they can start branching out into TV, film, radio or writing. But many at the festival, Lucy says, count themselves lucky not to lose money on their shows. “People are just there to see each other’s shows, drink too much and sleep with other comedians. So that’s always good.”
Judith Lucy Vs Men
Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne 3004. comedyfestival.com.au. $44.90-$52.90. Mar 28-Apr 14.