Show Details
Lucy Porter: The Good Life
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2006
Starring Comic:
Lucy Porter

Lucy Porter: The Good Life


+
Videos

Clip 1

From the live DVD, released by Go Faster Stripe in June 2008
More Lucy Porter: The Good Life videos
Clip 1
Clip 2
+
Description

Are you in your late twenties or older, and slightly worried that you're not really a 'good' person? Worried that the legacy you're leaving for future generations' amounts to little more than a mountain of debt, a mountain of non-biodegradable rubbish, and a mountain of thoughts and opinions that add nothing to the advancement of the species?

Lucy Porter is worried about all these things and plenty more besides. Can a drinking, gambling, all-round hedonist ever consider herself to be morally good? Can an avid consumer of cheap airfares, pop culture and cheap clothes ever be good to the planet? Can a bubbly, affable, happy comedienne ever be really good at delivering stand-up that affects other people?

+
Reviews

Original Review:

You can't go wrong with Lucy Porter; now such a familiar, sweetly smiling face on the Fringe, and a stand-up you can always rely on for an upbeat hour about her struggles to make sense of the world.

This year, she's been trying to live a better life. She fears she's treading too heavily upon this world; that as a live comedian her job is essentially the unedifying one of helping bars sell beer; and that, come to mention it, it's probably about time she started looking after herself, too.

Full of such liberal guilt, she's vowed to be a bit more green, a bit less hedonistic and a bit more charitable. Noble aims all, and ones which will resonate with a good many well-intentioned middle-class twenty and thirtysomething urbanites who like going to Scottish-based arts festivals, which is convenient. Her failures to surmount many of the obstacles on the path of righteousness will strike many chords, too.

One thing I should probably point out is that she starts the show dressed as a giant carrot ­ not a standard opening, that ­ as if her charming, inclusive and just plain lovely demeanour wasn't already the epitome of wholesome goodness.

But things are not quite what they seem. Behind those doe eyes and good intentions lies a soul as erratic as any unbalanced comedian's. She's not even that sure, she finally confesses, that she's all that bothered about being good ­ after all, if all women love a bastard, there's surely a flipside that says men don't want goody two-shoes.

It's true of comedy audiences, too. For all her enjoyable, excitable chat about her aims and failings, the biggest laughs come when sweet Lucy talks dirty, marrying the coy and the outrageous, just to wrongfoot you. Only she could tell a story of watersports fetishists so full of empathy it ends with a sad but touching mental image.

These moments provide a bit of an edge to an otherwise straightforward, linear show, which otherwise bounds along enthusiasm, good cheer and gossipy confession more than quotable punchlines you can take home with you.

But, as ever, Porter has provided another feelgood hour ­ and that imparted joy has got to validate her job, whatever the beer sales figures.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
+
Comments

Lucy Porter is the friendliest, warmest comedian at the Edinburgh Festival and is delightfully funny. Her comedy is charming yet corrupt. She can be very sweet on stage and then say something quite sick and get away with it.

Richard Gill, August 2006

By far the best show I've seen at this year's Fringe. Agree wholeheartedly with Steve's review, although the Wednesday 9th show was topped off by the guy in the audience who Lucy referred to as her "bitch" happened to work in advertising for Mars, which was revealed late in the show and generated the biggest laugh of the night - anyone who's seen the show would realise why. For me, it was as close to perfect as any show I've yet seen. Perfectly paced and pitched to the audience with whom the banter was smooth and clever. Lucy showed excellent timing, as you'd expect from such a polished performer. I'd wanted to see Lucy for a couple of years and missed a show in Newcastle earlier this year. My mate loved the show too, even though I thought I might have oversold it before hand...it's good when you've got high expectations and they're exceeded. I was planning to catch another show this afternoon before I caught the train home, but decided to leave it as it wasn't posible to top this one.

Shaun Clapperton, August 2006

Have your say:
:
:
:
 
+
These comics also appear in: