Comedy review: Lucy Porter, The Stand, Glasgow

BACK performing after taking time out to have a couple of children, Lucy Porter seems to have found returning to stand-up easier than adjusting to motherhood.

Lucy Porter

The Stand, Glasgow

***

At first, her show is a breezy but underwhelming account of how parenting changes your life – shared by a veteran comic easing back towards sharpness with the diminished world-view of being trapped at home a lot lately. She has a tremendous line on why couples pile on weight after marriage. But mocking those who have the time to leave product reviews on the Argos website feels easy and lazy.

Even so, the loneliness Porter confesses to was a motivation for her finding new friends. Re-affirming her sense of herself as a “people person”, she discovered a soul-mate in Sophie, another mum of freakishly similar tastes and background. Their relationship is the core thread on which she comes to hang anecdotes about her husband, daughter and the well-meaning staff of John Lewis’s children’s department.

Delivered with the comic’s endearing blend of twinkling affability and sporadic bursts of filth and tender cruelty, it’s amusing enough but requires strong closure to make the tale seem worthwhile. Fortunately, Porter was also blessed with one of those unnerving real-life incidents that just beg to be turned into stand-up. She may not be back to the peak of her powers quite yet, but it’s good to find her on the comeback trail.