Hull comedian Lucy Beaumont recorded her new radio show in the city this week with a little help from her celebrity friends. Ian Midgley reports.
YOU'VE either got it or you haven't, says Johnny Vegas, and Lucy Beaumont's got it in spades.
Puffing on a fag outside the New Walton Club stage door, comedy TV star Vegas has worked with some of the biggest and best comedians this country has to offer – and he knows talent when he sees it.
"Do you know what the secret to comedy is?" asks Johnny in his familiar gravelly twang. "It's ... timing.
"Lucy's got that," he adds, nursing his pint of Guinness. "She knows exactly how long to let a punchline hang.
"She's totally confident in her material. She can let it hang that extra beat, where most comics would panic and rush it. It feels like forever when you're on stage, but it's probably only a split second.
"I honestly haven't seen timing like that since the likes of Les Dawson."
Ideal star Vegas is in Hull – surprisingly the first time he's ever been to the city – to record Lucy Beaumont's pilot Radio Four sitcom. He's playing the club manager to Lucy's visiting stand-up.
Part comic glimpse behind the scenes at a northern working men's club, part stand-up routine, the show is her prize for winning the BBC's New Comedy award last year – and the next step towards fame and fortune for the Hull comedienne who has been described by some critics as "the next Victoria Wood".
The show will be broadcast on Radio Four on June 18.
And standing inside the cavernous Walton Street Club before more than 400 comedy fans descended on the venue on Thursday night, 28-year-old Lucy admits to a twinge of nerves.
"It's a big room isn't it?" she giggles nervously. "I'd forgotten how big it was. Am I nervous? A little bit. But I'm so happy to be here. I'm feeling good. This is the nice part of the job. Usually I'm sat on a platform somewhere on the way to a gig at the other end of the country.
"Last week I did a show in North Devon. Four-and-a-half-hours there and four-and-a-half-hours back. I worked out that after tax and National Insurance I earned about 75p for the night. I wouldn't mind, but I didn't even go down very well."
The elfin comedienne shrugs and puts it down to experience; it's part of paying her dues.
"I don't think they could understand my accent."
There's no worries about being understood inside the New Walton Club, a stone's throw from where Lucy grew up, firstly in Spring Bank and later Hessle.
And although it could have been recorded anywhere – with a swanky London studio standing in for Lucy's home town – there was never any doubt the show, called Lucy Beaumont: To Hull And Back would be recorded in her old stomping ground.
BBC Producer Lianne Coop says the venue was perfect – even pressganging club manager Alan into recording an introductory sentence for the programme.
"I don't listen to the radio," he adds helpfully after delivering his line.
Lianne, who met Lucy while producing the BBC Comedy Award last year, says this will hopefully be the first step in a long and successful comedy career.
"We knew we had something special right from the very start of the comedy awards. Lucy's just a natural comic and she's got an amazing presence on stage.
"Why did we come to Hull? It's because it's a huge part of who Lucy is and a lot of what her material's about. There was never any question that we would do the show anywhere else. She's got such a strong northern character we knew she's really be able to play off a Hull audience and get a great reaction here. Hopefully that will come across in the recording when it goes out."
Making the most of the local talent available, even the musical interludes were provided by Hull band The Beards.
"How did we get the gig? It's because I went out with Lucy seven years ago before she dumped me," says Beards bassman Graham "Knocker" Norton – no, not that one.
"This is payback. And I'd only just stopped crying."
"No, we're delighted to be asked," adds guitarist James Baz Barraclough. "It's great to see a local girl like Lucy doing so well, making a success of herself on a national stage."
Back to Johnny Vegas outside the stage door. He's just finished his opening routine and nipped outside to for a smoke and a chat with the band.
He's in no doubt that Lucy's going places.
"Do you know when you get that feeling that you're there at a seminal moment," he croaks.
"And I'm not just saying this, but I reckon one day I'll be sat at home with my lad on my knee watching one of those Comedy Connections programmes. And I'll be able to say, I was there. I was there at that gig before she became a massive star.
"I watch Lucy now and I think I wish I was that funny again. It makes me want to get back on the circuit and be a better comic. That's how good she is."• Lucy Beaumont's To Hull And Back will be broadcast on Radio Four on June 18.• Lucy will be doing an Edinburgh Festival warm-up show at Fruit, in Humber Street, Hull, on Sunday, July 28, when she will be road testing new material.
