The Goddesss Collective is, so far, Nicky Barry, Lucy Best and Justine Sless.
Nicky Barry
Nicky Barry is a Melbourne based comedian, MC and occasional actress. Nicky commenced her comedy career in 2013 and is now a highly regarded regular on the Melbourne circuit, popular with both punters and comics alike. Nicky is also regularly engaged as an MC and hostess for corporate and private events. Nicky has written and produced a number of critically acclaimed group and solo shows for Melbourne Fringe (2015, 2016), Adelaide Fringe (2016) and Melbourne International Comedy Festival (2016 – 2020). Nicky has minor screen credits for a variety of comedic roles including Oscar Thorburg’s The Couchling and Corey White’s Roadmap To Paradise.
Lucy Best
Lucy Best is an Australian-based British comedian, MC, writer and producer. She performs Stand Up Comedy, Cabaret, Music and Theatre around Australia and internationally. Lucy’s work regularly includes her hilarious hot takes on themes of feminism, mental health, social justice, sex positivity and gender and sexual diversity. Recent credits include Unbridled – The Butterfly Club, 2021,
Motherfu(t – Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2021 and Fringe at the Edge of the World 2020, Sass & Chide – Melbourne International Fringe Festival 2020 and Keep The Change – Kodiak Bar 2019, Adelaide Fringe Festival 2020, Motley Bauhaus 2021
Justine Sless is a comedian, writer and humour academic. Justine is the Australian Producer of Funny Women UK ( a global platform that supports women’s voices in comedy) Justine teaches comedy as a health and wellbeing tool, has performed comedy since 2007, was the former creative director of Melbourne Jewish Comedy Festival has written numerous one woman shows for MICF and Fringe Festivals and tailored comedy material for a vast range of clients. Justine has an MA by research in creative writing, her research is on humour as a power construct within the wider gender-based violence lens (published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in 2022) Justine has written for Funny Women UK, Jewish Women of Words and has had stories published in anthologies and academic journals. justinesless.com
About us:
Each of us came into comedy in our 30s and 40s, an age where women are being advised to dial it back, to camouflage their perceived imperfections and to assume a mask of satisfaction and compliance in an industry and a broader society where we are still considered less. Our work is heavily influenced by our lived experience of this and of our “daytime” jobs as community workers with a passion for social justice and equity. We have collectively spent almost 25 years honing our comedic skills and developing our craft and over 70s years in the community sector.
As a comedy trio we each brought our own comedic style to the show described by Arts Hub as:
Sheer Comic Panache
Barry brings her usual relaxed and (seemingly) spontaneous ‘having a laugh over a drink’ comedic style.
Best is her ‘tastefully outrageous’ self.
Sless hits an individual comic peak.
Our identities post-divorce and the ultimate power we feel as a result, is of interest to us in a comedic way. In many ways, the repression and dismissal we often experienced within our marriages is mirrored in our experiences within the comedy industry.
What interests us now as a comedic concept is the idea of power, where it resides, how it is gained and who has it… and how we three, as women in comedy, buck the trend for taking the power by being seen, heard and taking up space: despite now being over fifty and in our late forties.
Unbridled Review ArtsHub: https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/unbridled-lets-rip-on-marriage-and-divorce-its-hilarious-262941-2371511/
Unbridled Review Deep Distraction: Linkhttps://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/deep-distraction/deep-distraction-ep-3-petrol-P248oNb0uEk/
CONTACT: Lucy@lucybest.com Tel: 0421 356 999
Lucy Best; Writer, Producer, Performer 