The title of Judith Lucy’s show comes from a poem by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar titled The Dullard Sage. Lucy doesn’t discuss poetry in her show, but she immediately draws the audience in with her personal stories and observations on death, relationships, change and the insanity of life. Opening with a dance, Lucy asks several audience members about their previous year and her witty responses – always paired with the perfect wry expression – have the audience in hysterics.
Lucy relays the personal discoveries experienced during the filming of her TV series, Judith Lucy Is All Woman. The inimitable Australian comic tackles any topic – no matter how embarrassing, peculiar or private – with adeptness, charm and irresistibly sardonic lines. Lucy possesses the rare ability of being able to convey – wittily, honestly and cleverly – our greatest frustrations and anxieties. No one is better at ingeniously mocking the ridiculous and mundane than Lucy.
The 47-year-old comedy legend had a difficult 2014, but reminds us that our dark times won’t destroy us, even if they do make us lose our minds. Lucy is masterful in turning pain and distress into acute self-realisations. She garners ferocious laughter with her rants on entering early menopause, but if this is how funny and brilliant she is when she’s menopausal, perhaps aging won’t be as scary as we thought.
BY CHRISTINE LAN
