Lucy Porter: Fools Gold - Fringe 2009
Live Review

How does Porter do it? For the past few years she’s turned around a consistently good full hour of new material with a coherent theme and gags that hit the mark time after time.

Plus, it’s always an ultimately feelgood show (she even delivers a couple of drinks to a couple of people separated from their mates who had been to the bar) while maintaining a satisfying level of smut and a touch of the gossipy mate.

This year a bangle given to her by her staunchly Catholic granny when was 12 has got her thinking about gold and how she’s always shunned it and its ostentatious connotations.

Growing up a silver-preferring goth in a parental home with an avocado bathroom suite with gold taps and a father who wore gold in the style of Mr T was good enough reason for the thought of the metal to send a shudder though Porter. But on the plus side gold has reawakened her interest in chemistry, old alchemists and the boy who used to sit next her in her science class.

As ever, her diminutive size and cute good looks are a comedy gift, giving Porter that deceptively innocent appearance, beneath which lies the mind and mouth of a docker.. Flirting gently with a member of the audience as she lowers gold leaf into his mouth as he kneels beneath her on a cushion she notes: ‘I can see why Catholic priests are tempted…’

During this show, she asked one member of the audience what he’d seen at the festival, and he replied Daniel Kitson and Marcus Brigstocke. She comments that they’re the big guns and that, in comparison, she’s like a supply teacher. Lucy, you’re selling yourself short. She may not be greatly political but her shows are perfectly formed and her consistent audiences prove it.