Downward Spiral

25 June 2013 | 11:00 am | Baz McAlister

"I recall a young Judith onstage 20 years ago, twirling a salami over her head. To be honest, the notion that Judith Lucy would become one of Australia’s greatest stand-ups was not the first thought that came to mind that night."

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Over the last three years, long-time friends Judith Lucy and Denise Scott have laboured on writing their respective follow-ups to their first books. Scott was finishing The Tour, after the success of her 2008 memoir All That Happened At Number 26, and Lucy was working on Drink, Smoke, Pass Out, having likewise published The Lucy Family Alphabet in 2008.

“For both of us, writing our first book was easy but the second one was so much harder,” Lucy says. “So we would ring each other up and have these long conversations where we would talk about our mutual self-loathing, shame and despair. Then we'd have these long lunches which were the same, except alcohol was involved. So we just thought, 'Well, gee, doesn't that sound entertaining? Let's share that experience with a Melbourne Comedy Festival audience and do a fun, loose show, and hey – sell some books!' That's really the bottom line; we're hoping to squeeze the ticket price out of people and also get them to buy our masterpieces.”

That was the moment their 2013 festival show The Spiral was born – with the two joining forces because, as Scott says: “We had a common lament that doing stand-up is just so lonely.” It sees the pair, who first met and worked together more than two decades ago, onstage together doing what they do best. Oh, and dancing. To Rihanna's S&M, no less. “That is worth the price of admission alone,” Lucy says. “It's mind-blowing,” Scott adds. “Audiences have left the theatre in genuine shock claiming to have seen nothing like it since Torvill and Dean last toured.”

Neither woman recalls the first time they actually met, but both have vivid memories of seeing the other onstage for the first time. “I recall a young Judith onstage 20 years ago, twirling a salami over her head. To be honest, the notion that Judith Lucy would become one of Australia's greatest stand-ups was not the first thought that came to mind that night,” Scott says. “I saw Scotty on stage not long after I moved to Melbourne, which would have been 25 years ago,” Lucy says. “It was at The Last Laugh – I was just a punter – and one of the first shows I saw was where she'd dress up in drag [with three other performers] as male lounge singers. Little did I know that a few years after that we'd be doing shows together.”

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It is a friendship and mutual respect that has endured the test of time, and Scotty says the pair has a lot in common. “We can both drink wine whilst in the foetal position on the floor; we both barrack for St Kilda; and neither of us drives,” she says. “The closest we've come to a disagreement was once when Judith wanted to get a cab and I wanted to get the tram. Judith won.”