MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY
FESTIVAL
Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St Melbourne until April 22, 2018
(April
7, 8, 14, 20, 21, 22 only)
Star Review: ****1/2
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Review also published in Herald Sun online April 9, 2018. KH
Never fear, die-hard but ageing and slightly weary fans
of this wickedly funny comedy duo, you’ll be home in time for your favourite
telly programs after these late arvo, weekend-only shows by Judith Lucy and
Denise Scott.
Disappointments is laugh-out-loud funny, even for
younger members of the mostly over-fortyish crowd who laugh their noggins off
at every age-related ailment or life-related complaint that Lucy and Scott have
experienced over their decades-long comedy careers.
They start as 'lie-down' comedians, propped up in
beds, but graduate from flannelette nighties to sparkly, green and black dinner
jackets when they transition to 'stand-up'. Later, they appear in something far
more revealing, but no spoilers here.
Both are inclined to over-share, and there are gasps
and roars of laughter as they trade routines about menopause and dry bits,
bowel screening and IBS, and other bodily functions of the over 50s and 60s. It's
identification comedy for the middle-ageing.
Scott's stories of her debilitating arthritis get
howls of laughter from fellow sufferers in the crowd, and tales of successes
and failures in their respective careers and relationships ring bells (or
alarms, in the case of Lucy) for many.
Scott and Lucy trade gags and insults, playing off
each other with ease, and shifting the focus from one to the other when they
are not engaged in riotous dialogues.
They are wry and laconic, and their material is
audacious and rude, but, strangely, never offensive, perhaps because of its
outright, heart-on-sleeve honesty.
These two masterly comics spill their guts with no
holds barred in this mischievous and outrageous testimony to being bloody
resilient as we age. Testify sisters!
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