Staying with messy artists, any record at all of the work of The London Dungeon's own Lucy McCormick (pictured above, © Holly Revell) is always worth seeking out. When I her caught her solo formidable* Lucy and Friends back in 2024, I eagerly went looking for a trailer online so I could plug the show here, but while one does now exist, two years ago all my search turned up was the series of videos below, and while it didn't take me long to realise this was not what I was looking for, I couldn't tear my eyes away. I don't want to give you any warning of what to expect however, so just see how you get on...
I hope you agree it's worth sharing. In its way, it is almost as coruscating,
nourishing, and unstoppably funny as what I was looking for, if only – as Americans say – on
accident. The central message of "Emptying Yourself for God" is a hell of a hook, and the total lack of rapport between unrehearsed host and puppet creates a tension I find it hard to grow tired of, however much the deranged animated inserts start to drag.
But this Lucy and Friends is also the kind of reminder I always enjoy getting, that before hitting its stride with wall to wall,
parasocial direct address, and crafted video essays, YouTube was once a lot
more like the show Takeover TV, and as its name suggests, a kind of petting zoo for anonymous projects. Like Macbeth and the taste of fear, I had almost forgot.
* I'm trying to make formidable happen as a noun, a bit like spectacle even though that was never an adjective. Pronounce it as French as you like.
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