Juggling life as a mum and stand-up comedian (From Borehamwood Times)

Comedian Lucy Porter talks daytime TV, comedy ninjas and baby brain ahead of her show, People Person, at the Ark Theatre in Borehamwood

10:55am Thursday 28th February 2013 in Interviews By Rosy Moorhead

“I intended not to talk about being a mum at all when I started thinking about my new show,” muses comedian Lucy Porter, “but it became apparent very quickly that I really have done nothing but reproduce for the past two years. I’ve been going around observing things and I’ve had no-one to tell it to – my poor husband has been constantly telling me to shut up. Luckily my kids are too young to tell me to shut up, so I’ve just been offloading on them. I think it’s a relief in our house that I’m back at work.”

Lucy’s new show, People Person, started out at the Edinburgh Festival last year and she began touring it in January this year – after a break from touring of three years.

“It’s reinvigorated me,” says the 40-year-old, “there’s nothing like a long, enforced sabbatical for that. I love my job, it’s such an addiction doing stand-up I couldn’t wait to get back into it.”

People Person is based on the true story of how Lucy met her new best friend Sophie but, in true Porter style, she goes off “in a million different directions”, taking in friendship, motherhood, daytime television, and her obsession with other people’s lives on the internet. “People who like it say it’s like having a chat with a friend, people who don’t like it say it’s like listening to someone witter on aimlessly for an hour.”

Lucy and fellow comedian Justin Edwards have two children, Emily, two, and John, one, and split the child caring duties between them.

“At the moment, with this tour, I’ve mostly worked it out so I can get to a gig and back and they never need to know that I’m gone. I can just put them to bed and then, like a comedy ninja, sneak out and do my business.”

Lucy admits that Justin gets a bit of a raw deal in this show. “I feel really bad as he’s such a good husband and father, but it’s so much funnier if I say he’s bad,” she laughs. “He’s been amazing, although a couple of weeks ago I was away for four nights. It was really hard and I phoned Justin up and he was amazingly composed and calm, I said ‘God, you’re doing brilliantly’ and he was, like, ‘Yeah, I know’, and then I heard his mum in the background.”

Lucy is already busy working up a new show for the Edinburgh festival and is also writing a sitcom and a sketch show. “Nice and busy,” she says, “trying to keep my baby brain from turning completely to mush.”

• Lucy Porter: People Person is at the Ark Theatre, Thrift Farm Lane, Borehamwood on Thursday, March 7 at 7.30pm. Details: 020 8238 7288, www.thearktheatre.co.uk