Comedy Is Still Not Pretty by Lynda Gibson, Judith Lucy, Denise Scott , April 2, 2003

 Comedy Is Still Not Pretty  

by Lynda Gibson,  Judith Lucy,  Denise Scott 

Melbourne Comedy Festival

Lower Melbourne Town Hall, April 2 to 20, 2003 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on April 2

How is it possible to get laughs out of the death, cancer and menopause? This trio manages to make us belly laugh at all three.

All hree of these women, Lynda Gibson, Denise Scott and Judith Lucy are known for tipping their personal lives onto the stage. They do it in triplicate in Comedy Is Still Not Pretty. Lucy gets personal again about  her parents. Years ago she talked about discovering on Christmas Day as an adult, that she was adopted.

Now she jests about the death of both her parents and grief being the best way to lose weight. It has to be seen to be believed. Gibson has been fending off her ovarian cancer for some years and her last solo show was all about it. Joan River's face-lift jokes have nothing on Gibson's chemotherapy gags.

Scott used to do material about birthing and motherhood. Now it is the dark shadow of middle age and pending menopause. "I woke up one day and I looked like Nanna," she quips.

This is not a stand up comedy show. The three do song and dance numbers. They open with a Ziegfeld Follies girls' feather and fan dance. The only difference is that they are in weird little flesh-coloured leotards with nipples and pubic hair drawn on with texta. It is grotesque and absolutely hilarious particularly as they spend the entire show in the nude outfits.

Their movie and television parodies are delightful. They do a slick and funny version of The Women, the 40s film featuring every Hollywood female star. It is riddled with nasty upper class mums, maids and husband stealers who all look like women playing men in drag.

Their satire of the McLeod Sisters highlights the TV shows inanity. Three women with neat hairdos managing a farm? I ask you. There is a girl band song, a rap song and dance and lots of Esther Williams style leggy choreography.

The entire hour is a jibe at the youth and beauty myth. These women don't want to be sex symbols. They want to be funny - and they are.

By Kate Herbert