Lucy Porter Review

This review was originally published on the Express and Star website.

The first day of the Midlands Fringe Festival came to a close with a life-affirming journey through menopause and growing older as Lucy Porter brought the laughs to a Wolverhampton theatre.

The Arena Theatre was the setting for the headline set by the comedian and actress, who said Wolverhampton held special memories for her after attending a Pop Will Eat Itself concert in 1994 and then being forced to sleep on a student's sofa due to missing the last bus to Leicester.

Lucy is a pocket-sized powerhouse of comedy, quick-witted and able to be funny without resorting to swearing or rude language, but by being personable and very genuine, welcoming in the audience to join her on a journey.

She was at the Fringe to provide what she said was the world premiere of her Edinburgh Fringe show, which she had entitled Let Yourself Go, a reference to an internet comment made about her after she appeared on celebrity Antiques Road Trip.

This, she said, was proof of how her career had changed as she had got older, going from Live at the Apollo, Mock The Week and Never Mind The Buzzcocks to being on an antiques programme and appearing on BBC Radio 4.

Lucy's storytelling took the audience on a journey through ways she felt she had "let herself go", talking about the different definitions of how she viewed it as a 52-year-old mother of two and wife to a husband who is more than a foot taller than her.

From looking at how she once viewed old comedians, often seen wearing crumpled tuxedos and ending their sets with a song, to realising that she was now being viewed as one, to trying - and regretting - botox and lip fillers, Lucy used her good humour and charm to elicit laughs throughout her hour-long set.

She even engaged with the audience by doing a register at the start of the show, getting people to cheer at whether they were menopausal, Radio 4 listeners, young, in favour of the death penalty for not indicating or who simply wanted the show to end so they could go to the pub.

As well as that, she found a girl called Jean in the audience who she spoke to throughout, almost offering her an elder sister opinion on clothing sizes on the internet being a bit optimistic and how jumpsuits look trendy, but then become less appealing when you see someone struggling in them in a pub toilet.

Lucy puts you at ease with her conversational comedy, leaving you feeling like you could easily sit in the pub with her and share jokes over your drink of choice, although you might be laughing more than her.

While she comes across as friendly and personable, she admits that even she has limits, talking about how her 'inner Karen' can come out at traffic lights and when people are rude, albeit with a tendency to get angry, then begin getting emotional as a result.

Ending with a corny joke and an improvised song, Let Yourself Go is one woman's story about getting older and feeling that the body is changing, but being able to embrace that fact and live a happy life.

Lucy Porter is heading to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. I'd recommend following her up there. She might even offer you a stem ginger biscuit.

James Vukmirovic