Lucy Porter taught me what a slut drop was.
Sure, I had a pretty good idea, but thanks to Lucy Porter’s helpful walkthrough of the midlife crisis, all doubt has been removed from my mind.
And what a delightful tour of the tension between crisis and happiness Lucy’s Wake-Up call is. Once, when on holiday (remember those) to Morocco, I found myself expertly stolen onto a brief unofficial tour by a local. I had to tip generously for afterwards. Lucy Porter’s opening moments reminded me a bit of that in terms of grace, style and charm but none of the ‘exploit the dumb tourist’ and the guilt that came later.
And like my unofficial but well-practised tour around Morocco, this hour into Lucy Porter’s life felt alien and similar simultaneously. I’m not a middle-aged woman with children and a husband. I do care about health and happiness, though. According to Lucy’s research, I should be at the bottom of the U-dip of happiness because I’m a middle-aged man. It’s already pretty great being a middle-class white, middle-aged man as the whole world is made for me, and I feel happier than I ever have, so imagine my delight to hear the suggestion that health-allowing life will only get better.
Also, just like that Morocco tour, I’m not entirely sure when Lucy’s gig started. We moved gracefully on from chatting up the audience at the show’s start and found ourselves well into the comedy storytelling before we knew it.
The Wake-Up Call
I’m not entirely sure what Lucy’s Wake-Up call is. Despite the charm of Lucy’s banter, we are taken through life’s usual tensions and challenges, complete with health scares.
Is a health scare a wake-up call? Perhaps, but it sounds as if Lucy was doing everything right and owes the world some ‘told-you-so’ rather than needing to reassess what she was doing.
There were some welcome moments of wholesome epiphany as well. These could be wake-up calls but hardly a t-turn from how Lucy was living.
Let’s not get too academic about it. This is a comedy; I laughed throughout the hour tucked away at the back of the Pleasance in the Forth studio. Make sure you can find it, so you don’t have to climb the stairs after the gig has started.
It was only on my own walk home, and my chuckling settled back into business as usual as the lessons and implications of Lucy’s insightful nudging began to penetrate my own dim-witted mind that I had these thoughts.
Lucy, I think, would be a great friend. I predict she would protest otherwise, but I’m sure she’s the sort of buddy who would listen when you needed to vent and have insight and advice. It’s great that an easy listening hour of comedy puts me in mind of all this.
Overall
A casual and relaxing hour of comedy from an intelligently understated storyteller.
I learnt that Lucy Porter has been on some big TV shows. That’s not why I booked myself into this gig, so I can’t comment on whether or not it matches her on-screen presence. I booked based on previous encounters, and I’m thankful I did.
I left Wake-Up Call feeling happier and ready for a brighter future. That’s the power of Lucy’s wisdom.
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