Lucy Beaumont tells some tall stories – many ridiculous and some of them true, one assumes. But such is Beaumont’s wide-eyed delivery that you believe her, particularly if you have seen her on the current series of Taskmaster, where her confused “I don’t know what I thought would happen” approach provides great entertainment.
There’s more of that in The Trouble & Strife!, so named because many will know Beaumont from Meet the Richardsons, a comedy in which she and her husband, fellow comic Jon Richardson, play fictionalised versions of themselves. She co-wrote the show, as she did the first series of Hullraisers, a sitcom set in Beaumont’s native Kingston upon Hull and whose wonderful, distinctive accent she has.
Her wide-eyed innocence and laidback delivery shouldn’t mislead you, however, as many of Beaumont’s tales have solid punchlines or some bite in the tail – as proved when she drops the c-word at one point to great effect.
She mentions what 18 months of breastfeeding did to her boobs, an embarrassing train toilet incident and how the drunk women caught on video who exposed herself in a bar was actually her mum. They are all, she swears, true – and her incident-packed life and frankly weird life experiences make her the perfect guest on Would I Lie to You?, who have already come calling. One suspects she could be a permanent guest and not run out of stories.
The first half of the show addresses finding fame (this is her first major stand-up tour) and contains a Hull version of Twelve Days of Christmas, an attempt at an audience singalong to true stories reported in the Hull Daily Mail. But most of the news reports are crackers, and recounted with such affection that even a southern audience (at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London) could not be accused of laughing at rather than with people who perhaps live their lives differently.
For all its undoubted warmth the show does, though, feel rather stretched, not helped by her unhurried run-up to a gag and a meandering approach through the set. But, as her other work shows, Beaumont has funny bones.
- Lucy Beaumont is touring until 25 April 2024
- More comedy reviews on theartsdesk
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