Ruby Wax: Frazzled

Theatre Royal Brighton, New Road, Sunday, June 19

Tickets £22.15-£24.15 plus booking fees, starts 7.30pm, call 08448 717650

AS well as being a celebrated actor and comedian, Ruby Wax has also been open about suffering from depression in the hope of spreading the word on mental health.

Her latest move has been to promote mindfulness, a process of bringing one's attention to internal and external experiences through meditation and other practices, as a way of coping with stress.

With a masters degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University, Wax speaks to ADRIAN IMMS about her new show called Frazzled, promoting a book of the same title that looks at stress and how to recognise it.

Brighton is a place where there are plenty of people already immersed in the mindfulness concept and others peddling their expertise in the field. What do you think you can add to that with your experiences and background?

I think the difference is I got my degree at Oxford so you get the real deal. I'm a comedian, so it's an entertainment show. And I've done this show a few times and people say that, A, they have learnt something and that, B, it's funny.

So you think there's room for humour in mindfulness...

There was humour in depression when I put on the show called Losing It about seven years ago. I try to do what Bill Bryson does, which is where you take a really interesting topic and comment on it. It's not the same kind of show as somebody who has just decided to open a back room. I'm not just sitting there talking about mindfulness - I'm doing what comedians do: comment on, for example, the state of the nation or how your mind works, but you do it in a comedic way. Then eventually people in the show want to know what they can do, so I take them through it.

Is that to help break down the barriers so people feel more comfortable with it?

Yeah - you can really learn when you're laughing, more goes into your brain.

With your past as a comedian, do you feel you have to have a deeper message for people nowadays?

I tried to do that when I wasn't doing TV, because I think that's what comedians are supposed to do. You're supposed to reflect the state of the world.

Is it almost a case of doing so in order that other people can deal with the world a bit better?

I guess so, like when people nod their heads and go, "Oh, that's me too." What you wanna do is say, "Yeah, we are all one tribe. You guys recognise this."

You mentioned the author Bill Bryson a bit earlier. How much influence did you take from him in terms of being able to write your book Frazzled?

He wrote a book called A Short History Of Nearly Everything and if anybody else had written that I think I would have been in a coma. But you really get it and his scatterlogical thinking makes you realise, "Oh, I didn't know that, and I'm laughing." For me that's the greatest thing.

How poisonous is stress?

Well it kills you. Everybody says, "Oh yeah, I haven't slept for ten years", or "I've stopped eating properly", but in this kind of world stress never shuts down, and I think people understand that, especially being frazzled which means you are thinking about how stressed you are. We are supposed to be a little bit stressed and [it's understandable] when we are being attacked. Except we are not being attacked - [we are getting stressed amid] mundanity, this endless list-making and keeping up with all these people you imagine are trying to get in touch with you. They really couldn't care less. Like when you are running a business, you don't need to start answering spam, which is something I have done in the past. You get addicted to answering.

What do you say to someone who says, "Mindfulness, that's a load of hippy rubbish, I don't need all that"?

If you look at the actual brain research in trying to lower stress levels, mindfulness wins. It could have been anything but that won out for me.

I wouldn't have hugged a tree but if someone said to me that it changed how your brain worked and had results, yeah, why not?

You have said in the past you missed your kids growing up a bit because of stress. How different would things have been if you had these insights back then?

I had a pretty tough job so it needed concentration but not all the time. I got addicted to it so I would be doing stand-up for the milkman to get a couple of laughs. With mindfulness you can pick and choose. You can think, "There's too much info coming in now and I'm burning out, and I am missing out on my kids' childhood." I find mindfulness really does teach you to pay attention to what you want to be paying attention to, rather than being like you're on holiday and thinking about the laundry.

What do you think you'll do next?

I'm opening these Frazzled cafes in various high street shops but they're anonymous, sort of like AA, and we're going to open one in Brighton. This isn't a hippy thing - it's an emergency. I came up with it after too many people seemed to have questions at my shows. But it's not therapy, it's for those people who want to decrease pressure in the pressure tank. It's the beginning of these meetings for people who want to meet other people who are frazzled. To meet their people and be able to network. If they come to my show there's a place to sign up and email. They can also get in touch on Facebook - my page is called RubyWaxOfficial.