Comedy Festival 2018: Judith Lucy & Denise Scott play off each other with ease in Disappointments ★★★★½

DENISE Scott and and Judith Lucy are wry and laconic, their material audacious but never offensive as they trade gags and insults, playing off each other with ease.

NEVER fear, die-hard but ageing and slightly weary fans of this wickedly funny comedy duo, you’ll be home in time for your favourite telly programs after these late arvo, weekend-only shows by Judith Lucy and Denise Scott.

Disappointments is laugh-out-loud funny, even for younger members of the mostly over-40ish crowd who laugh their noggins off at every age-related ailment or life-related complaint that Lucy and Scott have experienced over their decades-long comedy careers.

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They start as ‘lie-down’ comedians, propped up in beds, but graduate from flannelette nighties to sparkly, green and black dinner jackets when they transition to ‘stand-up’. Later, they appear in something far more revealing, but no spoilers here.

Denise Scott and Judith Lucy in Disappointments.

Both are inclined to over-share, and there are gasps and roars of laughter as they trade routines about menopause and dry bits, bowel screening and IBS, and other bodily functions of the over 50s and 60s. It’s identification comedy for the middle-ageing.

Scott’s stories of her debilitating arthritis get howls of laughter from fellow sufferers in the crowd, and tales of successes and failures in their respective careers and relationships ring bells (or alarms, in the case of Lucy) for many.

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Scott and Lucy trade gags and insults, playing off each other with ease, and shifting the focus from one to the other when they are not engaged in riotous dialogues.

They are wry and laconic, and their material is audacious and rude, but, strangely, never offensive, perhaps because of its outright, heart-on-sleeve honesty.

These two masterly comics spill their guts with no holds barred in this mischievous and outrageous testimony to being bloody resilient as we age. Testify sisters!

Judith Lucy and Denise Scott, Disappointments

Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, Melbourne, until April 22 (April 14, 20, 21, 22 only).

comedyfestival.com.au