Judith Lucy

Comedienne. Author. Actor. There are many epithets appropriate to use with regards to Ms Judith Lucy, but in the lead-up to her new show Judith Lucy's Not Getting Any Younger, there's a new one: "Toots".

"I actually have a singing teacher at the moment, and the way he counts me in is to say 'one, two – you're on, Toots' – and it makes my day every time," she explains. "This man's life is musical theatre and it rolls off his tongue very easily. And I'm very easily pleased."

So the performance will involve brassy showtunes?

"No, I think the word is 'poignant'," she interrupts. "I've done 'brassy' in other shows: this time you'll be thinking 'should I be laughing here, or has she just reached right in and ripped my heart out?'"

Music aside, the show sees Lucy assessing her life to this point and casting an eye to the future. "It's looking back, it's looking forward, it's being right here right now – what can I tell you, it's an interactive three-d time continuum," she laughs. "No, you know, I just essentially do the same thing every time, which is bang on about whatever is on my mind and hope that it doesn't bore a roomful of strangers senseless."

The show, as the name suggests, follows Lucy's meandering thoughts on the subject of getting to the big four-oh, born of a less-than-stellar romantic dalliance. "I had an encounter with a gentleman which was a tiny bit on the shabby side, and I was moaning about it to a friend," she says of the show's origin. "And I said to him 'quite frankly, don't waste my time because Judith Lucy's not getting any younger', and my friend said 'that sounds like the title of your new show' – and I thought 'Bingo!' And I sat right down and wrote some new material for the first time in two and a half years or something. I owe that man a great deal. He may have been a bit shabby: but you know, every cloud..."

And as for the show's content, "There's a lot of stuff about getting older. And my face: essentially when I get up in the morning I look like a cross between a deflated balloon and a chimpanzee. I must remember to put that in my next personal ad," she deadpans. "So there's the decline, but there are also the good things about getting older. I think you do get a bit more comfortable in your own skin. Death gets a bit of a run, though. I talk quite a bit about death, so let's hope that's looking forward many, many years."

She admits that there was a time where she was considering retiring from standup, focusing instead on writing last year's The Lucy Family Alphabet, but has accepted that live comedy is in her blood – for better or worse.

"There is something so completely unglamorous about comedy that really does keep you grounded. I was doing a gig recently with the magnificent [Melbourne comic] Denise Scott where we were comparing a fashion parade for a campaign for the Victorian AIDS Council, so there was a bunch of very young, very good-looking men wearing nothing but underpants, and Scotty and I wearing our nude suits – and boy, let me tell you, did we look hot in those," she drawls. "So it's midnight and we're standing backstage in our nude suits in this seedy nightclub and we just turned to each other before we went on and went [sighs theatrically] 'yeah, it doesn't get much better than this. I bet this is what Angelina Jolie's life is like.'"

Quiet dignity, thy name is Judith?

"Andrew, dignity is something I said farewell to so many years ago," she laughs. "Dignity and pride: they just skipped away…"

Judith Lucy's Not Getting Any Youngerplays at the Playhouse at Sydney Opera House, 21 July - 2 Aug.

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