“It’s a terrible addiction. Some people would say that doing 18 solo shows should fill me with pride, whereas I look at it and think, oh God, I haven’t been able to quit the habit.”
Comedian Lucy Porter is about to head out on her 18th solo tour, Let Yourself Go, admitting that her addiction to comedy means she’ll be performing stand-up until the day she dies.
‘if you want to put people off having fillers and Botox, then this might be a good show to bring them to’
“My shows are largely an exercise in airing my dirty laundry and chastising myself for all my shortcomings,” she explains. “It’s easy to write a new one every year because I’ve always done something dumb in the intervening year, and life just happens to you. When you’re an observational, confessional stand-up, it’s not like writing a novel.
“So in the beginning, I wasn’t a natural-born show-off but I’ve very much grown into it.”
So what can you tell us about Let Yourself Go. “Well, the title can be read in two ways. I was accused on social media of having let myself go and I thought it was quite a funny phrase. When you’re young and you let yourself go, it’s a wonderful, joyous thing where you’re dancing on tables and having a great time.
“And then when you’re middle aged it means you’re lying on the sofa with a blanket doing a jigsaw. I think I have let myself go, but it’s quite a good thing. And it just felt like a good way to talk about the joys and non-joys of being in your 50s and starting to be more comfortable with yourself. You’re letting go of a lot of preconceptions about what your life was going to be. I think you adopt your final form.
So did you engage with the person who said you’d let yourself go? No, oh my God. The problem is you get good content by engaging with these people, but you’re also engaging with an absolute bell-end. You just get a disproportionate level of douche-baggery online. I’m one of those people who talks to people in the Post Office queue. I’m much happier with that.
‘You get a disproportionate level of douche-baggery online’
Lucy also delves into the whole botox controversy. “My attitude is you get to an age where you have to decide whether you want to look tired or surprised, and tired is the route I’m going down. I did once try Botox and I talk about how awfully badly that went in the show.
“So if you want to put people off having fillers and Botox, then this might be a good show to bring them to. But never say never. I might get to a Joan Rivers point where I have a facelift and become a bit more aggressive. But for now I’m a softer, wrinklier person and I’m quite happy with that.
“But it’s weird, you don’t see normal-looking people on telly anymore. Everybody’s had something done. There’s no bald men! I really miss them. You never see a comb-over these days.”
‘I really miss bald men. You never see a comb-over these days’
How Lucy has the time to go back on time is anyone’s guess, especially as she has got a book coming out soon. “It’s called Middle-Aged Women Get Shit Done. It’s a love letter to my fellow women and it’s a series of observations about the responsibilities and also the delights of being a middle-aged woman.
In the meantime however Lucy has been touring since February – a long time to be on the road? ‘Well, yes, but as long as we can all still leave the house, and my audience are still alive, then I’ll still be doing it. I’m very happy with my audience. I can smell the deep heat coming off them.”
Lucy Porter brings Let Yourself Go to The Theatre, Chipping Norton on September 10. https://www.chippingnortontheatre.com/events/lucy-porter-let-yourself-go
