Comedian Lucy Porter: 'I'll be a show-off until I die'
Comedian Lucy Porter is behind the wheel of her Ford Fusion on a tour with her latest show inspired by an online insult. Let Yourself Go is her 18th solo show and she’ll be performing it in Yorkshire in the coming weeks.
It was inspired by a YouTube comment she spotted after she appeared on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip - a show she admits feels a world away from her earlier gigs on Mock the Week and Buzzcocks.
It prompted a deeper look at how she’s changed over the years, and how letting go might not be a crisis but a calling.
"The title can be read in two ways,” the 53-year-old says. “I was accused on social media of having let myself go. I thought it was quite a funny phrase.
"When you're young and you let yourself go, it's a wonderful, joyous thing where you're dancing on tables and having a great time.
"And then when you're middle aged it means you're lying on the sofa with a slanket doing a jigsaw. I think I have let myself go, but it's quite a good thing.
"And it just felt like a good way to talk about the joys and non-joys of being in your 50s and starting to be more comfortable with yourself.
"You're letting go of a lot of preconceptions about what your life was going to be. I think you adopt your final form.”
The result is an hour of stand-up exploring what it means to age, evolve, and loosen your grip on everything from self-image to social expectations.
Audiences can expect stories about clubbing in the '90s, working at Granada Television, and being married to a man more than a foot taller than she is.
Lucy never engaged with the person who said she’d let herself go. “You get good content by engaging with these people, but you’re also engaging with an absolute (idiot),” she says.
“I'm one of those people who talks to people in the Post Office queue. I'm much happier with that.”
As well as being an established comedian, Lucy is an actress, writer, voiceover artist and podcaster.
Her face is a regular on television screens, both with her acting work, which has included a stint in BBC’s EastEnders, and with her many appearances on some of the UK’s most beloved panel shows from Mock The Week, to Have I Got News for You, and Would I Lie to You.
"I always loved comedy, but never thought I'd do it,” she reflects. “And then I just kind of fell into it because I was in Manchester in the 90s.
"And there was this massive comedy scene with people like Caroline Aherne and Steve Coogan. I wasn't a natural-born show-off but I've very much grown into it. And I do intend to do it till I die now.”
- Lucy Porter – Let Yourself Go is at The Wardrobe, Leeds on September 27, Selby Town Hall on October 16, Otley Courthouse on October 17 and Steamworks, Sheffield on October 18.
For tickets, visit www.lucyporter.co.uk/gigs/