Lucy Porter – The Bare Necessities

Starting from a theme of love, and her love life problems, Lucy decided to make things less complicated by searching out the bare necessities. Already a reined-in-show, after the financial problems of the last year, it’s now an anti-credit-crunch show.

Lucy’s topics within this vary from newspaper money saving tops, to budgeting with a partner, from the fun of rioting to the joys of living with heroin users. A bit of audience banter is her excuse to move into advice on enjoying your low-responsibility twenties, even through a tramp managing to steal her credit card. Other topics include having your things in a storage facility, and the strange things we save. A 1983 TV Times allows her to analyse why the eighties was better – and also worse.

Returning to her theme, Porter discusses why health is now more complex, her thoughts on ID cards, and the DNA database. A tangent on Max Moseley leads to questions as to who may be foreign in the audience, an explanation of Formula One, and a brief tour back through some earlier references. Again, it’s a smooth move to talking about her row with Leo Sayer, back to Moseley and ‘themed orgies’ including her only ever orgy attendance.

Next up, she talks about poster campaigns for safer sex. Although the audience are laughing, she could seem prejudiced that her assumptions don’t even consider the possibility of same gender sex. She’s quickly onto a trip to Bangkok, and her rather specific phrase book for English men. Finally, it’s a list of bare necessities. These vary from sensible “a comfy bed” to fun “a friend to tell you if you’re being a twat” to silly “a few ways to eat a jaffa cake” to a nice touch of reincorporation “an anecdote involving Leo Sayer.”

There are plenty more of these, building nicely, to a quick return to the TV Times – as backing singers come on and serenade us with the “Bare Necessities.” She’s a confident, relaxed performer, playing with the audience, throwing in touches of interaction, and seeming to enjoy herself. On stage, she has a screen, which is wasted on just two quotes, plus a picture of a kitten and two ducks. It’s an unnecessary distraction, as it’s hard not to keep checking back, in case something has changed there.

She’s always cheery, smiling, and upbeat, with some wonderful lines, but there’s also a feeling that her theme is slightly an excuse for favourite anecdotes and touches of self-indulgence. Not that anyone seems to mind, as they keep laughing.