Comedian Lucy Porter is bringing her Wake Up Call tour to Farnham Maltings on March 31 at 8pm.

Wake Up Call is a show about revelations, realisations and epiphanies – large and small. Subjects covered include bin collection schedules, the novels of Jean Rhys, cats, school fair booze tombolas, the Scottish Enlightenment, pressure washers and Huel. It’s an exuberant, silly show with some wisdom sprinkled on top.

The show takes its inspiration from the unwanted wake-up calls we all receive in life. Sometimes the universe is like an aggressive hotel receptionist, forcing you to get up and do things when you’d rather just stay in bed.

Like a really good episode of Casualty, this show starts with a medical emergency and then expands to talk about anxiety, grief, love, loss, shame and regret, with a bit of sauciness thrown in.

There’s also some practical advice on mid-life crisis management as Lucy’s friends are crumbling around her amid the pressures of young children, elderly parents and the depredations of age.

Since Lucy’s mid-life crisis has been chronic rather than acute – it started when she was about 25 and just won’t quit – she’s been dispensing tips on what to do when you realise all your achievements are meaningless, and that life is just one long banquet of disappointments on the way to the sweet release of death.

An antidote to “toxic positivity”, this show revels in healthy cynicism. The only reason Lucy has a ‘Live Laugh Love’ sign on her house is that it’s more effective at keeping people away than ‘No Cold Callers’. Lucy does find joy and positivity in some of life’s bleaker moments, but she’s not going to try to inspire you – the show’s messages read less like motivational quotes, more like country music song titles: It’s Hard to Have a Breakdown When You’re Already Broken, You’ll Never Meet a Man Called Keith who Doesn’t Own a Shed, If You Want a Peaceful Home, Don’t Marry a Banjo Player etcetera.

A journalist once described Lucy’s comedy as “middle-aged, middle-class and middle-of-the-road”. Lucy is not sure he intended it as a compliment, but she had to admit he was spot on.

This is comedy for middle-aged women and anyone who loves them. If you want to find out what your mum, your wife or your eccentric aunties are really thinking, this is the show for you. If you’re medically curious, you can find out about Lucy’s unusual illnesses, and she’ll almost certainly end up talking about her love of Radio 2’s Ken Bruce and what happened when she recently appeared in EastEnders.

For tickets, priced £18, call 01252 745444 or visit https://farnhammaltings.com/