Who else has been caught having sex wearing a backpack?
Becky Lucas has. But don't feel too sorry for her - she's clearly the kind of girl who takes a traumatic experience and thinks, "I can get at least two minutes of stage time out of this."
Backpack sex, getting trolled by a sex doll enthusiast, being crushed by her high school teachers; it's all there in her show Little Bitch, which feels more akin to a hilarious late night heart-to-heart with your bestie rather than a comedy show.
She even admits, "I only put on these shows so you guys have to hang out with me for an hour."
That self-depreciation is one of the secrets to her hilarity. It may be the root of all comedy, but it appeals especially to millennials like me because even if we think we're underachieving, at least we're not Googling "drinking games for one" like Lucas does. And her brutal honesty towards herself balances out her brutality towards others.
The most brilliant part of the show was we know it really happened to her. There's nothing so funny as real life experiences - those so-painfully-hilarious-they-couldn't-be-imagined gems which remind you how screwed up life is.
The show only had a couple of sticky points - one she had already flagged as, "the most divisive joke of the show", on whether men can drink mochas and still be manly. I found it pure genius because 1) obviously they can't and 2) I had never consciously articulated that thought until then. I love it when comics tap into your subconscious assumptions about the world.
But you could hear half of the audience internally grumbling. And you can guarantee today people will be covertly conducting office mocha manliness surveys.
The other questionable bit was about pushing someone off a balcony in a high rise Australian apartment block. It was shade too soon after Gabel Tostee for us, but she recovered by ploughing ahead shamelessly anyway.
After watching her show, you understand why she's said to be the pick of many Kiwi comics this festival.
It's a hilarious dive into the mind of an extraordinary ordinary woman.
Becky Lucas is part of the New Zealand 2017 International Comedy Festival.
Newshub.
