Judith Lucy Makes A Terrific Moth

Lucy tackles darker themes in her latest stand-up show, Ask No Questions Of The Moth, its wry title alluding to the ephemerality of life, lifted from a poem by the Sufi mystic Attar of Nishapur. Indeed, despite losing her brother last year, Lucy remains as dryly sardonic as ever. Ask No Questions Of The Moth ran as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to rave reviews. There are no major changes, Lucy a comedian who prefers to “tightly script everything,” rather than ad-lib. “People have paid to see me and I really wanna give them some bang for their buck.”

"Maybe from here on in you should just always dress as an insect for each new show."

Notably, the sage Lucy wears the moth costume seen on the show’s promo materials — a costume recycled from Sam Simmons’ cult ABC comedy, Problems. “I don’t wanna show off, but I have gotten a pretty good response,” Lucy suggests. “I make a terrific moth. I didn’t know I had that in me. Rod Quantock said to me, ‘You know, maybe from here on in you should just always dress as an insect for each new show.’ So look out for me as a praying mantis in a couple of years’ time.”

Lucy was adopted by her Irish migrant parents in Perth — something she didn’t learn about until she was 25. She later chronicled that emotional upheaval in her bestselling first memoir, The Lucy Family Alphabet. Her breakthrough came when she joined The Late Show. She’s now done it all — from radio to film. Lucy even portrayed “a 55-year-old racist pub owner” in The Sapphires. “God, it’s so nice when you get to read someone else’s words for a while,” she quips. “It’s really great when I can take a break from exploiting my personal life.”

This year Lucy hosted a second ABC doco series, Judith Lucy Is All Woman, solidifying her status as a feminist icon — not that she agrees with the ‘I’ word. “I get very nervous when the word ‘icon’ is thrown around — but just because I can’t possibly live up to that. I will say that I’ve been a feminist since I was 16 and I just think the more of us that come out and claim that word the better. If maybe a young woman saw that television show, or maybe seeing me makes them feel comfortable about calling themselves a ‘feminist’, then that makes me very happy – me and Beyoncé… I’m happy to be your feminist moth!”