Where Judith Lucy goes, hilarity follows. The deadpan doyenne of Australian stand-up comedy talks to AXN about her warts-and-all family memoir, The Lucy Family Alphabet.

“My material has always been incredibly personal. I’ve talked about my father’s death before, I’ve talked about being adopted before. Hey, I’ve even talked about having sex with a male prostitute before!” says Judith Lucy, in her laconic, trademark drawl.

There’s no such thing as ‘off-limits’ for Lucy, who mixes self-deprecating brutal honesty with her rip-roaring turn of phrase. Her new autobiographical book, The Lucy Family Alphabet, is full of such anecdotes, laid out like an A-Z on everything Lucy.

“I didn’t want it to be a straightforward memoir, or just a book of gags,” says Lucy. “I got the idea of approaching it like a reference book because there’s no real story that my father wore make-up, and there’s no real story that I didn’t have a shower until I was 15. But I didn’t want to leave those facts out.”

When Lucy describes her down-and-out love life in her 20s, no embarrassing story is left untold, like when she was picked up in a gay club by a man who thought she was a transvestite (“apparently it was my super-firm thighs”) and when her mother walked around the house only in underwear (“it did not bother her in the slightest that she sometimes had a pad in her underpants the size of a Subaru Sportswagon”).

Born in Perth in 1968, Lucy moved to Melbourne in 1988, where she began her stand-up career, which has included sell-out national tours in Australia and London, and appearances in the Aussie movies Crackerjack (2002) and Bad Eggs (2003).

Lucy has a pool of experiences to draw from, including her infamous sacking from the 2Day FM morning radio show, which inspired her successful one-woman I Failed! show in 2006. What comes to mind when reflecting on her foray into radio now? “Just an overwhelming feeling of nausea really!” quips Lucy.

In Alphabet, Lucy casts the limelight on how her parents affected her personal life. “I’d always cracked jokes about Mum and Dad because when it came to material, they were an absolute goldmine,” Lucy tells AXN.

The idea to write a memoir originated from a throwaway gag about her Dad in her last show, after which a cousin commented that ‘Jude must have hated her adoptive parents’. “I was really shocked … I guess I wanted to write a book where I talked about [my parents] like they were three-dimensional people, not just these crazy Irish nutbags who made my life a living hell,” says Lucy.

The book captures all of those awkward family moments many people experience, from the disastrous Christmas dinner (when Lucy discovered that she was adopted), to her mother’s chronic fear of showers. Lucy hopes that readers will relate to these stories, “because everyone’s family is nuts to some extent”.

While many of the situations are humorous, the book has a poignant undertone. Lucy documents the multitude of emotions she felt when meeting her birth mother, Jan, at age 25. “Meeting her is, without sounding like I’m off an episode of fucking Dr Phil, probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” she admits.

Lucy adds that writing the book confirmed how much she loved her now-deceased adoptive parents. “Yeah, Mum and Dad were pretty kooky, but I loved them and they loved me and I really miss them … but I don’t think you’ll be hearing me talk about my parents on stage anymore. I’ve flogged that dead horse long enough!”

Lucy, who plans to return to the stage next year with a new show about growing older, has a strong connection with the gay community. “I am incredibly grateful for the support the gay community has shown me over the years,” she says.

But what is it about her humour that gay men love? Perhaps it’s her refreshing openness.

“I’m happy to jump on that bandwagon,” says Lucy. “I was with Mark Trevorrow (comedian Bob Downe) one day and someone was talking to him about Gina Riley from Kath and Kim, and asked ‘why do you think Gina’s got such a big gay following?’, and Mark replied, ‘because gay men love smart funny women’. I liked the sound of that. If it’s true, then I’m privileged.” AXN

The Lucy Family Alphabet is available in bookstores now.