It starts with wearing a hat, apparently. Getting people to chat you up, that is. Deborah Frances-White should know - she has been using her "self-help comedy" to help audiences all over Britain get flirting.

A hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, her one-woman show promises to leave those in a relationship feeling "desired and inspired" and those who are single feeling "like the sexiest person in the bar."

A motivational speaker and artistic director of improvisation company The Spontaneity Shop, Deborah created the show after having a revelation one day about the different ways men and women approach dating.

Women, she says, tend to go out thinking men won't fancy them, while men give the impression they are only interested in sex, rather than an individual woman.

If a woman can teach herself to believe most men want to sleep with her and men can learn to show interest in a woman's personal merits (not the physical variety), everyone's a winner.

Deborah (now happily coupled up, for the record) says: "Men want to sleep with you if you know they want to sleep with you. One of the ways I worked it out was by wearing a bowler hat to a party.

"It was amazing. If you wear a hat, you don't need a personality. People will talk to you and ask you where you got it and if they can try it on.

"Men aren't very good flirts so normally they will say nothing. If you wear a hat you turn him into a flirt. A hat says I don't fear attention and I might want you to talk to me'.

It may sound weird, but Deborah's Facebook group is full of testaments to the success of her advice and she has no trouble encouraging willing guinea pigs up on stage during the show.

"I show a man how to become James Bond in three minutes," she claims of one of her demonstrations. "Most men, if they get nervous chatting up a woman, move their head a lot more and it breaks up speech patterns and eye contact. James Bond will keep his head very still and keep looking at you.

"If you're moving your head around a lot, it says, I'm not even in control of my own head, let alone this situation'.

Deborah was amazed by the number of her female friends who complain they never get chatted up and says: "I really wanted to do comedy that wasn't just about me being funny, but offered something more that people could take away from it.

"It's about taking control. I see so many women who are repeating a bad pattern. You're going out doing the same thing but expecting a different result.

"This show is not about manipulating others, but improving how you feel about yourself."

  • Starts 7.45pm, tickets cost £14.50/£12.50. Call 01903 206206