30 Day Awesome Women Meme, Day 7

[featherxquill]

1. Someone you've loved since you were little
2. Someone you discovered recently
3. A leader
4. A mother
5. A fighter
6. A goddess

7. Someone funny



Judith Lucy

Australians are usually pretty good at being funny, but one thing we don't have a lot of is female comedians. Comedy seems to be a fairly male dominated business across the board, but Britain and the US, at least, seem to have fairly high-profile female comedians - French and Saunders in the UK, people like Ellen Degeneres and all the SNL girls in the US - but Australia not so much. And so today I want to tell you guys about Judith Lucy, who is one of the few well-known female comedians in Australia.

Bio from her website:

Judith Lucy is one of Australia’s most popular comedians.

Her work in radio, television, film and her sell out national tours have made Judith Lucy a household name.

She first hit the scene in 1989 as a stand-up but sprang to national prominence in 1993 as part of the cast of ABC TV’s, The Late Show. She did a tour of duty on Triple J and was a regular on Martin/Molloy. Her live stage shows have been what has set Judith apart. Since her 1996 hit, King of the Road Judith has been a regular fixture on the live scene, selling out big rooms with her sharply observed and honest personal monologues.

In 2004 Judith Lucy was announced as the host of the 2DAY-FM Breakfast Show in Sydney, and was famously demoted and sacked the following year, which became the subject of Judith’s biggest tours, I Failed, which toured Australia in 2006.

Judith has also spent time contributing features and columns for the likes of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Madison Magazine.

‘The Lucy Family Alphabet’ was Judith’s attempt at writing about her nutty Irish parents as three dimensional people while also touching upon the discovery, at age 25, that she was adopted. The book was a roaring success and garnered countless reviews, as well as topping bestseller lists in 2008.

2009 will see Judith back on the stage, with her new solo show “Judith Lucy’s Not Getting Any Younger” This will be Judith’s ninth solo show, her first live tour since 2006 and marks her twentieth anniversary as a stand up comedian.

Her particular brand of no-holds-barred, self depreciating and often intensely personal humour is what, I think, makes her stand out so much. I saw her live once and loved the show to bits.


Stand up:

On Rove:

8. Someone bitchy
9. Someone sexy
10. A writer
11. A singer
12. An artist
13. An actress
14. An athlete
15. Anyone you like
16. A woman of colour
17. A woman with a disability
18. A lesbian, bisexual, transgenderd or genderqueer woman/individual
19. Someone you'd love to have teach you
20. Someone you'd love to get drunk with
21. Someone you wouldn't want to cross
22. Someone you'd love to be for a day
23. A woman from traditionally male arena (politics, science, medicine, military, etc)
24. A woman over 50
25. An activist
26. A woman from the past
27. A woman of the future
28. Someone you once disliked but now admire
29. Someone from your own life
30. Anyone you like

Comments

[florahart]

"All the SNL girls" is funny to me, because SNL is notoriously a boys' club. I mean, even now, the cast is usually like 8 men and 2 women as the main cast, and then a couple girls among the lesser players, and while Tina and Amy have done pretty well, it's been sort of a long time before that since anyone female really broke out. The writers are mostly men, too, and there have been plenty of complaints about how the women are treated.

So I mean, I agree there are some, but the way you put that there in context made me wonder if that perception is only true in the US or something.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting, because I suppose I am thinking of Tina and Amy, and also of the original players - or more specifically, Jane Curtin - but I guess I don't really know of anyone in between who made it into my consciousness. I presumed there would be more, but that maybe they just hadn't got here, or I didn't know their history.

But, shitty, if that is the way it is (I have only seen the episodes of SNL that I have actively sought out, since we don't get it here, or at least not on free to air and I rarely bother watching cable). Also, a sad sort of irony that the original cast was much more gender-balanced than it is now.

[modernpirates.livejournal.com]

Seeing her live was a gem. She had a floor length Lisa Ho gown on and she lifted her dress up to show she was wearing Doc Martens underneath, heh. I love that woman!