If there’s one thing that you’ve been able to rely on with a Judith Lucy show over the last decade or so, it’s a bit of theatrical spectacle. She’s never been afraid to frock up for a gig, much less belt out a tune or show off a bit of choreography – generally executed with more enthusiasm than skill, admittedly. However, that’s changing with her new live show, Nothing Fancy.
“Yes, you’ve kind of come to expect really bad showbiz from me,” she deadpans. “Last time I toured a show, it was a pretty long tour and I got pretty sick and in fact, cancelled a show for the first time in my life, which was not much fun. So I thought why not actually just make it a really simple show, just an hour of gags and leave it at that? So hence: nothing fancy.”
Well, having just eschewed the physical world on her rather superb ABC series Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, it’s no surprise that she’s cutting through the clutter to the important kernels of truth. “No, it’s got nothing to do with that,” she laughs. “I’d love to say there was more to it than that I can’t really be bothered to come up with a showtune. I’ll essentially be banging on about the same things as every other show. I’ll just talk about what’s happened to me since last time you saw me and things that annoy me without putting you through the torture of a poorly executed showstopper.”
It’s been a while since Lucy’s done a stand-up tour, but it’s not like she’s been idle in the interim. There’s been the aforementioned show, a forthcoming second TV series (“I don’t actually think I can talk about it, but it’s a completely different idea and I’m pretty excited about it”), and the publication of her first book, The Lucy Family Alphabet. What’s more, there’s a second title on the way.
“I actually came up with the idea of a book before I came up with the idea for Spiritual Journey,” she explains. “It’s my response to Eat Pray Love, which made me want to write, drink, smoke and pass out and there’s certainly an element of that in this book. But I think it’s grown since then.
“The second episode of the TV series talks about how I didn’t believe in anything and basically really embraced alcohol and looked for meaning in other ways, and I suppose I will explain how I got to the point of having any interest in spirituality. There’ll be an amount of hindsight about what, if any, effect it had on me.”
Despite her new interest in the eternal questions, she’s not been inundated with people wanting to explain their personal philosophies to her - “…which is nothing but a relief, I must say. Though I got a lot of mail about it - emails and actual mail mail – and a lot of those people told me their stories. And sure, some of them were crazy, but most people were really lovely and, without wanting to sound like a dick, wanted to share.
“I have found the unlikeliest people coming up to me and say they watched the show and related to it for this reason or that reason. I didn’t know fans of Dolly Parton would also be fans of the TV show. I have been nothing but incredibly surprised and delightedly so.”
So I Will Always Love You acts as a catalyst for the big theological and philosophical questions raised by Spiritual Journey?
“Indeed! A gentleman I encountered at the train station on the way back from Dolly Parton’s show had great deal to say on the subject," she laughs, quoting her semi-deranged accoster: "'The Bible describes the hand as death. It comes as sea and the night, it would seem. You never know when or where.'”
Well, one man’s road to Damascus is another man’s 10:44 to Fitzroy.
“Precisely.”
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