Lucy Porter review - SkinnyFest 2

Article by Kate Nevens | 14 Aug 2006
Lucy Porter is, by anyone's standards, adorable. With a gorgeous smile, delightfully frazzled hair and a stage covered in daisies and ladybirds, the teeny tiny lady even has an adorable premise for her show: how to lead a good life.

The cutesiness, however, is a façade. Hiding behind Porter's veneer of childlike charm is a pointedly sharp wit, deftly bursting the bubbles of loveliness she seemingly works so hard to maintain. Her do-gooder condemnations of corporate sponsorship and 4X4s are seamlessly interspersed with how to see the good side of Robert Mugabe and the dangers of death by spunk poisoning, proving not only that she can work the cutesy persona, but that she hasn't washed her mouth out too thoroughly before the show. Though she doesn't have the audience perpetually writhing about in their seats – constant hilarity is just not her style – the perky, pint-sized comedian slips in enough unexpected, crude and offhandedly deadpan punchlines to change the Radio Four-style chuckling into true belly laughs.

It would be easy for her sweetness to be irritating, and her appetite for ethical living to be moralising, but Porter neatly sidesteps both these traps, never taking her ethics too seriously or making her sweetness too sickly. Yet in the space of an hour, Porter and her excitable, infectious giggle will make you want to turn vegetarian, use your mattress as a savings account and invite her to your newly-arranged civil partnership, if only to keep that pretty smile on her face.
Lucy Porter - The Good Life, Pleasance Courtyard, until August 28 (not 15), 21:30, £12.50/£11.50 (£11/£10).