Tues 8 Nov
Drum-roll please….not only can you hear Judith Lucy’s take on male dominated industries in the #NotAllMen breakout session (looking at you, Australian comedy scene), but she will also be delivering a comedy set in the Melbourne Town Hall on Friday 25 November.
Lucy has been part of the stand-up comedy arena for over 20 years and has been described as “painfully honest, sharply observed and with a joke rate second to none”. She has sold out countless theatrical runs in Australia and has taken her shows to Montreal, Edinburgh and London’s West End.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the powerhouse joining us in the fight for gender equality.
Judith Lucy is well-known for her dry wit and incredibly honest and understanding depiction of women’s experiences. Not only is she absolutely hilarious, but she is committed to bringing issues of social justice into her work as a comedian. She has been involved in work with Australian Aid, the Fence Comedy Debate (discussing issues of border security and people seeking asylum), as well as contributing significantly to the conversation around women’s issues and gender inequality, often making it the key focus of her stand-up shows.
Lucy has now written two books and has established herself as a best-selling author. Her first book, released in 2008, was memoir The Lucy Family Alphabet, detailing personal memories from her childhood and early adulthood. Triple J Breakfast Presenter and regular panelist on ABC TV’s First Tuesday Book Club, Marieke Hardy said of the author “She is frank, brutal and – most pleasingly of all – piss funny. There should be more writers willing to go that extra mile and lay themselves bare, and to hell with the consequences. We are lucky to have such a voice in existence”. That we are!
Last year Lucy aired a 6-piece series on ABC called Judith Lucy is all Woman, exploring the position and lives of women in Australia, mocking the patriarchy, discovering the younger generation’s attitudes towards sex, feminism and marriage, and engaging in some feminist jelly wrestling with Amanda Palmer. The show was remarkably unique, with the combination of detailed research, in depth discussion and, as always, Lucy’s signature dry, sarcastic humour that we all love so much. Each episode Lucy states a fact or a theory and, along with the help of some special guests, goes on to demonstrate or subvert it.
In one segment, she asks a group of pre-schoolers which toys boys should play with and which girls should play with. Not surprisingly the children exclaim that remote control cars and Darth Vader toys are only for boys — proving just how young these gender pressures are imposed upon us. In an interview with Women’s Agenda Lucy states “A recent analysis of best selling children’s books found that males were featured twice as often as lead characters and appeared in twice as many pictures – stop oppressing me Curious George!”
In celebrating the lives and experiences of women, Lucy also put together an all-female super-group with some of our fave Aussie icons, including Ella Hooper, Vika and Linda Bull, Jen Cloher, Justine Clarke and Deborah Conway, to sing a cover of Helen Reddy’s I am Woman for the show. (Check it out below!)
You can hear Judith Lucy roar not once but twice at #Breakthrough2016. Catch her in the #NotAllMen breakout session alongside Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Leena Van Deventer, Dr. Toni Meath, and Judy Horacek, and get a second dose of Judith Lucy between 3pm-4pm on Friday 25 November in the Breakthrough Get Together featuring musician Georgia Fields (plus more performers yet to be announced).
Tickets on sale now!
