Lucy
Interview Report
by: Janna
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre here in Hollywood, CA hosts
comedy shows seven nights a week and usually sells out. It's
located in a trendy little patch of shops and restaurants along
Franklin and you can look up and see the Hollywood sign.
The fact that I work in Hollywood at a Film marketing company
just down the street and around the corner from the Upright
Citizens Brigade theatre never mattered much, until this event
was announced. My friend Tom wanted to go with me because he
used to watch Xena and he is in a comedy troupe, so he was
interested on two levels. Tom wasn't going to be getting out of
work until 6:30 so we agreed to meet over there, go to dinner,
and then wait in line.
We got out of dinner by around 8:45 and walked down to the
theatre. The line for the first show (first show was at 8:30)
was still being led into the theatre and there wasn't anyone
there yet for the 10:30 show. So we were the first ones there!
It seemed safe enough to walk over to the Used books, movies,
and music store that was a couple doors down, and we did...
that's when my friend Kathy arrived (Kathy Porter who took the
other set of photos-aren't they awesome?). After killing some
time in there we went back down to the theatre and we were still
the only ones there. Tom, who isn't as used to waiting for
these types of events as I am, was slightly perturbed about how
early we were, but he held up fine. :) Eventually we started
to line up. Then Sharon Delaney arrived and was behind Kathy in
line. The line grew steadily all the way down to the corner.
Suddenly Lucy walked up, spotted Sharon in line and stopped to
say hi to her and then went into the theatre after walking down
the street to do something. I believe she was wearing the same
top from the Friday night show at the Roxy 2008. :)
For some reason it took a while after the previous show let out
for them to let us in, a reason that is still unknown to me
after watching the show because there wasn't that much
preparation to do. Byt the time we all filed in, Tom, Kathy and
I in the front seats and Sharon sat in the back it was around
10:45 to 11 o'clock. The stage was small and has a 90 seat
audience. David came out and did a few bits (one where he held
up a small dog and played music that was adorable) and also
showed us a couple of videos, both of which were pretty funny.
I noticed that Lucy was standing in the back watching and seemed
to be amused.
Then he announced Lucy, she came out, he offered her a beverage
(if you look at the pics they had Coke and water bottles on the
desk). Lucy drank a Coke.
David started off by saying that he and Lucy have a lot in
common, they are both actors, singers, and they both have huge
followings in the lesbian community. The audience laughed and
so did Lucy. :)
Then he asked for the first part of his next question, between
acting and singing does she have a favorite... Lucy started to
respond and he cut her off and said wait for it, the second part
is if so what is it... (this guy was all about deadpan humor) To
which Lucy responded that she likes whatever she's doing at the
time. That she was acting today so she likes acting. Then she
made a funny comment about how she's acting in a movie with Zoe
Bell and mentioned that Zoe used to be her stunt double on Xena
and now she's starring in movies and Lucy's doing bit parts on
her show. She said she plays "an old prostitute" and said she
is enjoying the role.
David then went on to say that Lucy is best known for her work
on Xena Warrior Princess to give background to some of the
audience, that he knows that everyone totally knows but he just
wanted to show them he knows it. He went on, saying that Lucy
was originally on Hercules playing a man hating amazon named
Lysia first, then played Lyla and said he didn't know her
story. Lucy jumped in and said Lyla was a centaur lover and
that she was a bad girl. David continued, saying that Lucy then
played a villainous warrior named Xena and that got a spinoff
series and then that ran for six seasons from 1995 to 2001.
Then he asked his question, "What was that like?" Everyone
laughed. (These kinds of things kind of reminded me of "The
Chris Farley show" skits on Saturday Night Live) Lucy said that
yes Xena started off as an evil warlord...like Sarah Palin.
Next question was does Lucy ever get tired of being recognized
as Xena, like when she's out shopping or anything. Lucy chimed
in with a bad imitation of the Xena war cry. Then David
continued on about how Lucy's fans are really loyal, really
rabid, and super scary. Then Lucy asked him if he has scary
fans and he said he didn't think so, but that that'd be awesome
and now he's thinking about it another way. He asked her if she
likes the scary fans and she said that she's "rich with scary
fans". He asked if any of them were there. Lucy wouldn't
really say, she just kind of motioned around. He told her not
to point. I'm not sure what Kathy thought at that moment, but I
was getting nervous. lmao
Then David talked about Battlestar Galactica and that he found
out she was "unboxed" and asked what that means. Lucy explained
being put naked into a bath of goo for a few hours. She said
that there were many of her, and that they were called skin
jobs, like androids and he said robot and then Lucy started
singing "...I played a robot on tv." David then asked if that
was a song from the hit show Battlestar Galactica. Everyone
laughed. Then he said she's probably thinking about it now and
she jokingly said it's going to be.
Next he brought up when she broke her pelvis at the Tonight
show. Lucy once again went over the stunt and how it went wrong
and how they thought she was being modest when she said she
couldn't ride that horse, but again she said modesty is not
generally her problem. She said she prefers English riding to
Western riding.
David asked her about her singing and if she's been recording
and touring. Lucy played at that for a bit and said lots of
recording and touring, that she's "...huge in Turkey" and then
he said she should go there and she said yes she should totally
go there.
Then Lucy remembered to answer his question from earlier about
whether she's tired of being recognized... she said she got
tired of not being recognized for years while she was a blonde,
that she was invisible and then she dyed her hard dark
again...she said she thinks dark hair is her brand or something.
He asked her what she does when she's singing (earlier David had
danced around and had a foam machine going) and Lucy said she
uses a foam machine, then he offered to let her have the one he
used earlier. She said she liked that machine and asked if he
carried that on the plane and he said yes, that no one else is
gonna do it.
Next topic, Celebrity Duets which David referred to as popular
and Lucy was like "yes very popular, so popular they aren't
making it anymore". David said "because they nailed it". Then
Lucy said it was cool because she got to sing with Smokey
Robinson. He asked what she sang with Smokey, and she said
"Oooh baby baby". Then he asked if she could sing some of it.
She said yes but that he had to pretend to be Smokey and then
she started singing and moved over & practically on top of him
and was running her fingers through his hair. She abruptly
stopped and then he said to the audience "...you guys clear out
of here...show's over! That was AWESOME." Then I think that
when Lucy abruptly stopped singing & jumped up and moved away
she spilled some water on herself or something 'cause she asked
for a tissue and David handed her a towel and said for her to
use that and then he'd put it on ebay.
Then he brought up her pet squirrel, said that he heard she
adopted a pet squirrel and asked how she got the sense that a
squirrel needs adopting. She said that he was really little and
that he came over and sat on her feet, that she was looking at a
house, that she doesn't have a house and she's trying to buy
one...but that she picked up the squirrel and it immediately
fell asleep on her t-shirt. He asked his name, and she said
Peanut. Of course he brought up massaging the squirrel's
genitalia, which Lucy responded with the explanation of finding
out online that it prevents a urinary tract infection. He asked
her if she's sure somebody didn't just make that up. She said
its possible that someone may be having a laugh out there.
Lucy agreed to stay for the next guest. Loudon Wainwright III
was the next guest (he's been in 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up,
etc.). He sang a few songs and then sat down at the desk beside
Lucy. They talked about music and his songs and David asked him
his favorite and he said the one he's working on right now, that
that's his stock answer. Lucy agreed with that. They were
talking about old music and she mentioned the store down the way
that we had been in earlier when we were killing time. Somehow
Loudon got to the subject of the band "Chicago" and then Lucy
was singing part of Peter Cetera's (and Cher's) "After All".
Liza Minnelli came up because Loudon went to school with her and
Lucy mentioned that David Gest looks much better now than he did
when he was married to Liza. I think she may have mentioned the
facial hair. Then she asked David if he had seen David Gest and
Liza kiss on Larry King and she kinda made a face.
Then to end the show David sang a song called "Lucy Lawless &
Loudon Wainwright III" where he incorporated bits of the things
they talked about in their interviews and he made the audience
clap in time to the "music" as he played guitar. He thanked
them for coming. End of interview.
Tom waited for a couple minutes with Kathy and I, but then he
left (he's kicking himself today because if he had waited he
could have met Lucy). Lucy came out with Tig and a few other
people pretty much right after he left. She talked with us for
a few minutes. We took a few pictures and then she & her group
left. By that time it was around 12:30 or so and definitely
time for me to get home given the fact that I get up for work at
5am. But it was a great night. :)
click here to see Janna and Kathy's photos
