Judith Lucy has shared her negative experiences with Melbourne’s rental market.
The beloved Australian comedian described her dire living situation, which has left her without electricity and locked inside her own home after a screen door became stuck, in an Instagram video this week.
‘I am living in a rental that I like to refer to as The House of Sh*t,’ the 57-year-old said in the clip.
‘Since moving in here just over a year ago, I’ve had the plumber here I think four or five times – Tom – we’re on a first-name basis,’ she continued.
‘At one point he came around because my toilet cistern pulled away from the wall and was at such a bizarre angle that every time you went to p**s, it was like you’re in a Salvador Dali painting.
‘A power point blew up not that long ago, and one evening I was massaging my lower back with a very small ball against my living room wall – part of it just collapsed.’
Judith Lucy (pictured) has shared her negative experiences with Melbourne’s rental market
The television star then demonstrated how her home was literally falling apart.
‘In the space of a week, my friend Michelle knocked on the door – that just came off in her hand,’ Judith added, holding up a rusted door knocker.
She went on: ‘Then the lock came off the front gate, then the front fell off the kitchen drawer.
‘Last week, I went to leave my home and couldn’t because the front flywire door was jammed. So I couldn’t leave my own home through the front door for three days.
‘And last Friday, I made the mistake of getting someone around to fix my washing machine – there was nothing wrong with my washing machine, there’s just no longer any electricity in my laundry.’
Judith concluded by insisting she was ‘grateful to be living anywhere’ amid Australia’s housing crisis, but joked that she was ‘considering moving into a small chest of drawers that was left on the footpath because I think it could be safer’.
In 2022, Lucy announced she was retiring from stand-up comedy after 35 years on the road.
The funnywoman said at the time that she was ‘done’ with the constant travel and wanted to prioritise other aspects of her life.
‘I started doing comedy before I lost my virginity,’ she told ABC Everyday.
‘I am living in a rental that I like to refer to as The House of Sh*t,’ the 57-year-old said in the clip, and displayed a door knocker that had fallen off her front door
In 2022, Lucy announced she was retiring from stand-up comedy after 35 years on the road. Pictured in 2009
‘Houses, boyfriends, friendships and my hymen have all come and gone. But not my job of getting up on stage and telling jokes into a microphone,’ she continued.
‘Until (drum roll) now.’
The veteran of comedy series The Late Show said she was leaving the lucrative live circuit because the job was making her unhappy.
She still planned to write and perform, but no longer wanted her career to ‘involve me dying to get to the end of something, or doing whatever it takes to turn off’.
In her statement, Lucy expressed regret over the impact her career had had on her personal life.
‘I’m saying goodbye to something that has defined me more than anything else – stand-up comedy,’ she explained.
‘For some people that’s more likely to be their marriage or their children. Possibly the main reason I don’t have those things is because of the job I’m now leaving.’
Lucy also said her job as a stand-up comedian worsened her anxiety, driving her to make unhealthy choices.
Lucy rose to fame as a cast member on ABC comedy series The Late Show in 1993
‘For years I’d beaten myself up about the habits I’d used to numb myself, whether it was drinking, smoking, dope or watching hours of mindless TV,’ she said.
‘But I’d never asked myself why I did those things. The answer was to cope with the anxiety of my job. I could turn off for a few hours and then get up and do it all again.’
Despite announcing her retirement, Judith returned to the stage in 2023 with a role in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, and again in 2024 with the comedy show Menopausal Night Out.
Judith rose to fame as a cast member on ABC comedy series The Late Show in 1993.
Her comedy album King of the Road was nominated for an ARIA Award in 1998.
She achieved widespread fame as a regular on Rove in the early 2000s, and later became a fan favourite on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering from 2019.
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