Comedian Becky Lucas Isn't Looking For Fame, But It's Found Her All The Same

Last year Becky Lucas happened upon a new gold standard for funny when she saw a man on crutches trying to walk a particularly big dog. She's been trying to come up with stand-up as funny as that ever since. "Words are ok, but they're not that great," she admits. "Nothing's funnier than your best friend falling off a chair."

Of course, Lucas is totally under-selling how far her use of words has taken her. She hits this year's comedy festival circuit with her much anticipated new stand-up show off the back of a sell-out 2017 season. She also has a bevy of television credits to her name including writing for Please Like Me and co-writing The Other Guy with Matt Okine.

In the lead-up to festival season, Lucas has been relentlessly gigging on just about any stage she can find. She is certainly carving a place for herself in the Australian comedy landscape, but you won't find her only safely playing to audiences who are already fans of her unique, self-deprecating style. "I think the really cool thing about comedy is you can connect with people who you wouldn't normally," says Lucas. "To me, comedy is something that came from the working class, it brought people together and they could share ideas together and feel less alone."

Lucas can be found just as enthusiastically performing to a random hall or RSL in a country town (where some audience members might not take as well to a swearing woman) as she would to crowds in the top comedy venues in Sydney or Melbourne. "I think society is making us all a bit more insular and we just like talking to the people we want to talk to. That's fine, but there's something nice about connecting to other people [outside our circles]," she insists.

Amidst a "higgledy-piggledy" mix of "filthy sex stuff" and "silly things about umbrellas", Lucas' new show will see her tackling outrage culture. A self-identified "fervent tweeter", Lucas has had enough of the stress and in-fighting propagated online. 

As someone incrementally gaining more recognition in the public sphere while maintaining one of the most down-to-earth attitudes out there, Lucas has some insights of her own into being up for discussion. "I would hate to be famous, I think it's an unfortunate side-effect of stand-up. That was never the goal for me," she confesses. "I always just wanted to sell enough tickets so that I could live and write shows that people enjoyed. I wanted my work to be respected."

"I keep having this recurring nightmare that I've been taken, like I'm abducted like in the movie Taken. Then they put me in one of those big birthday cakes and they wheel me out into a party and they force me to jump out of it; and then everyone's just like, 'Oh, you're not that hot.' I think that's how I feel about my career... people say, 'She's not even that hot.' I'm like, 'I know! I'm a writer!'"

Lucas' undeniable status as a certified looker aside, her unceremonious punch lines and refreshingly real takes make her an absolute delight on the stage. On screen, her unconventional and flat-out funny characters challenge the set mould of what we expect from female characters in Aussie TV.

"I've always been drawn to people who are more self-deprecating," she says. "I like stuff that's a little more silly and comes from a place of, 'I'm a piece of shit, aren't we all? Let's talk about it!'" Catch her live before her new mockumentary series Be Your Own Boss with fellow comic Cameron James drops later this year.

Becky Lucas presents Cute Funny Smart Sexy Beautiful, until Apr 22 at Melbourne Town Hall, part of MICF, and from 16 May at Factory Theatre, part of SCF.