Jenny Eclair's New Stand-Up Show 'Does What It Says On The Tin'

UK comedian Jenny Eclair has been an institution on the stand-up scene for decades now - famously becoming the first female winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival's esteemed Perrier Award back in 1995. But, in recent times, she's diversified her career workload to the point where it's no surprise that she hasn't visited our shores for some four years.

"I do assure the audience that it's not contagious and you can't just catch it by sitting next to another middle-aged woman on a bus."

"I like to keep 'em waiting," she chuckles. "This is about my fourth time [at MICF], the reason that I haven't been over for a while is that it takes me a while to write a new stand-up show. I do three writing jobs really: one is the solo stuff, the other is the Grumpy Old Women shows which are big old road shows - big touring kind of theatre sets with props and costumes and all that shizz - and then the other thing I do is that I write a radio series of monologues for experienced actresses, like big names. Plus I also write books, although I'm struggling with my fifth novel at the moment so we shan't go there."

Eclair explains that her current solo show, How To Be A Middle Aged Woman (Without Going Insane) is really quite self-explanatory. "It's an eye-opener - it does what it says on the tin very much," she offers. "Nobody can come to the show and say afterwards, 'Well, I wasn't expecting that', because the poster is a woman in her mid-fifties in a mismatched bra and panties, and there's quite a lot of cellulite on show. Basically, it's a conversation about what it is to be a middle-aged woman - it occasionally gets a bit blue and there's even a poignant bit! It's quite sad that in Australia I can't do the full show because in this country I tour with an interval and it's about 100 minutes, but I only get 60 minutes in Melbourne so I've had to cut out a couple of tricks, which is a shame but something's got to go and I've got to learn to share my space. The only other option is to do the show so fast that nobody would understand a word, which would also be a shame."

Eclair isn't afraid to wear her middle-aged heart on her sleeve in this show, which she offers as a both a cautionary tale and instruction manual. "There's some diagnosing, there's a map and I have a pointy stick to point at some pictures. I try not to make anyone panic - I do assure the audience that it's not contagious and you can't just catch it by sitting next to another middle-aged woman on a bus," she quips. "It's basically the physical, the psychological and runs the gamut of relationships - all that stuff. It's my favourite ever show and the one that's given me the most back - I'm nervous about putting it to bed after this because I just want to tour it forever, but that's not allowed apparently in show business. There really are too many rules in this game."