2013 Edinburgh Fringe

Lucy Porter - Northern Soul

Lucy Porter - Northern Soul. Lucy Porter. Copyright: Associated London Films Limited / Extonation Productions Limited
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Venue

5: The Stand Comedy Club

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The Fringe favourite - familiar from Buzzcocks and Mock The Week - returns to The Stand with her best show yet. Does geography shape our destiny? Born in Croydon to a Northern Irish dad and a Midlander mum (who met in Africa), Lucy never felt that she belonged down south. She tried moving to Manchester, marrying a Welshman and travelling the world, but she's still - like the littlest hobo - seeking her spiritual home. 'Impeccably punch-lined anecdotes of the everyday. Genuinely delightful' (Telegraph). 'Fizzing with inventive one-liners, a treat from start to finish' (Herald).

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Press articles

Edinburgh festival 2013: Lucy Porter's diary 11 August

In her latest blog from the Edinburgh Fringe, Lucy Porter considers that she might be entering her Edinburgh dotage.

Lucy Porter, The Telegraph, 11th August 2013

Edinburgh Festival 2013: Lucy Porter's diary August 9

Lucy Porter explains how comedians stay sane in the Edinburgh Fringe bubble ahead of the first 'proper' weekend of the festival.

Lucy Porter, The Telegraph, 9th August 2013

Explain yourself: Lucy Porter

Lucy Porter has been a regular at the Fringe for more than 20 years, ever since winning a competition to join the Perrier Award judging panel when she was 18.

Ed Potton, The Times, 7th August 2013

Lucy Porter, comedian - portrait of the artist

In between Edinburgh gigs, Lucy Porter talks about the itinerant life of the standup, why Kate Bush is such an inspiration, and reveals her greatest ambition - to go on Countdown.

Laura Barnett, The Guardian, 6th August 2013

Lucy Porter, part of the Fringe festival furniture

I first came to Edinburgh when I was 18 to serve on the Perrier Awards panel, and was inspired to try stand-up myself.

Lucy Porter, The Independent, 5th August 2013

Edinburgh Festival 2013: Lucy Porter's diary August 5

Edinburgh Festival 2013: Lucy Porter suffers from flat-fright.

Lucy Porter, The Telegraph, 5th August 2013

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"I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky. I desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described (except that it is cold, spacious, severe, pale and remote) and then ... found myself at the very same moment already falling out of that desire and wishing I were back in it." - C.S Lewis

Does geography shape your destiny? Fringe favourite Lucy Porter's latest (and greatest) show is about never quite knowing where you belong. Born in Croydon to a Northern Irish dad and a Mid-lander mum (who met in Africa), Lucy never felt comfortable as a South London suburbanite. In her teenage years she was seduced by the music of Morrissey, the art of David Hockney and the politics of Dennis Skinner. Then she was seduced by the kissing of an actual man from Bury, and she started to suspect that the North of England might be her spiritual home.

Lucy moved to Manchester and then Liverpool. As much as she loved her time there, she didn't find the sense of completion she'd yearned for. Stand-up comedy has allowed Lucy to travel the world, and she's acquired a taste for the exotic (she even married a Welshman) but she's still - like the Littlest Hobo - waiting to find a place to settle down.

Currently living in London, Lucy still finds that her internal compass points North, but now she suspects it might be a symptom of the profound, insatiable longing that CS Lewis describes as 'The Northernness'. A momentary epiphany made Lucy think she'd found an answer to this emptiness in Norwich but she now realizes that was a side-effect of sloe gin.

This show draws on Lucy's years of touring and travelling, as she shares her thoughts about the regional peculiarities she's spotted in Britain and beyond. She'll explain why she felt more at ease in a Cape Town toilet than any Soho nightspot. Exploring the North South divide, Lucy also explains why The East West watershed means that Hull and Bristol are like the Nation's Nipples.

Revealing the best and worst places in the UK to do stand-up (spoiler alert: Glasgow and Liverpool), Lucy asks how much we should be defined by our birthplace, and how hard it is to shake off one's roots. Is it more difficult to stop being a Catholic or being from Croydon?

This show hinges on a charming, surprising and fascinating tale about Lucy's dad's search for an alternative back-story. He claimed to be from Glasgow (despite a very obvious Belfast accent) because he didn't want to be associated with 'the troubles'. It highlights how ignorant Lucy was about the reality of the class struggle, Irish politics and the relationship between her mum and dad. A couple of life-changing events intervene to illustrate how Lucy's presumptions about her parents were entirely wrong.

Like any good Northern Soul night, Lucy's show should leave you feeling happy and slightly sweaty.

In other news, BBC Radio 4 have commissioned a script for a sketch show that Lucy is writing with Catherine Shepherd, and she is also at full pelt creating a sitcom with the working title Giant Husband, Tiny Wife.

They say that everyone has a book in them, and Lucy has been involved in the painful process of extracting hers for some years now. She now has a literary agent helping her, and we hope to hear the pitter patter of tiny pages very soon.

Lucy can currently be heard on BBC Radio 4 shows including The Unbelievable Truth and Jo Caulfield's Speakeasy. A veteran 'talking head', the eclectic mix of topics she has discussed or paid tribute to on BBC Two, ITV, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Arts include: The Bradshaws, Clive Dunn, Now That's What I Call Music, Mark E Smith, Coventry and the colour green. Lucy is the voice of Playstation's online magazine 'Access', and consequently gets quite a few 15-year-olds turning up to her shows expecting her to talk about God of War and Skyrim.

After a few years of enforced absence, Lucy roared back to the Fringe in 2012 with her critically acclaimed show People Person which she subsequently took on a 42 date tour of arts centres & theatres in 2013. People Person will be released on DVD by Go Faster Stripe in 2013.

Performances

Date Time Venue
31st Jul 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
1st Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
2nd Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
3rd Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
4th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
5th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
6th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
7th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
8th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
9th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
10th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
11th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
13th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
14th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
15th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
16th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
17th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
18th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
20th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
21st Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
22nd Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
23rd Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
24th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club
25th Aug 2013 17:10 The Stand Comedy Club

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