Comedian Becky Lucas takes a dig at the city’s building frenzy at Melbourne Comedy Festival
Comedian Becky Lucas is ready to bring chaos and fury at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, taking a dig at the city’s rampant construction blitz.
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Comedian Becky Lucas is ready to bring chaos and fury at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Thanks to our current construction blitz, it’s already here.
“The whole city, they’ve just started digging the city up,” the Sydney resident said. “They’re like: ‘It’s closed’.”
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Lucas is on a rocket ride, flicking around the world with gigs and opportunities, and in demand as both a performer and a co-writer of TV shows, including The Other Guy and Please Like Me.
She was also a prolific Tweeter until she posted a joke about chopping the Prime Minister’s head off. Lucas keeps busy on Instagram and with her podcast now.
Despite her rising star, Lucas doesn’t want to mount any comedy podiums.
Taking her cue from the building frenzy that signals Melbourne will be larger than Sydney in just a few years, Lucas said she didn’t want to be No.1.
“I don’t have that competitive nature,” she said. “I don’t want to be the worst, I want respect. But I don’t want to be No.1. I’ve never thought I could be the best comedian in the world.”
With appearances on The Gala and performing a full stretch of shows — some already sold out — Lucas could be on her way to fooling a lot of people.
“I just thought I hope I don’t fail,” she joked, noting the hyper-competitive and yet highly collegiate world of comedy.
“We’re all in this together”.
To that end, she’s imploring people to avoid the sinkholes and B-double trucks in the city streets to come out and see comedy.
It’s not quite that bad, she added, balancing billion-dollar subway tunnels against the desire for comics to be able to perform their intricate routines in peace.
“Comedians are so self-obsessed, you know. Why did you have to start now? Don’t they know that I’m doing a show!?”
OUR REVIEW OF BECKY LUCAS, ‘UM, SUPPORT ME?!’
Rating: ★★★½
Reviewer: Daniel Ziffer
Becky Lucas thrashes out the pain of living, for laughs.
With endearing intensity, the Brisbane-bred break-out star of recent years takes audiences through fights with self-esteem, family and smartphone addiction.
In a tight 45-minute burst there’s no time for a lull and Lucas keeps filling the space with tightlywound tales and delightfully snarky pay-offs.
A positive show about being relentlessly negative, the co-writer of TV shows such as The Other Guy and Please Like Me displays her talent for dissecting the contradictions of how we live.
If you’re not in her demographic it’s an astonishingly funny snapshot.
If you are, it’s so real you might break a rib.
Becky Lucas, Um, Support Me?!, until April 21, Swiss Club.