A funny form of therapy
Ruby Wax is putting depression on stage. She's not the only comic who's battled the blues, says Andrew Johnson
Sunday, 22 June 2008
independent.co.uk [/align]
Ruby Wax, the caustic comedian who has spent years struggling with depression, is about to tackle the taboos surrounding mental health in the only way she knows – in the full glare of a one-woman stage show. Wax, who recently took time out from television in order to qualify as a psychotherapist, will perform a half-hour monologue solely concerning mental health issues at the Edinburgh Festival in August. She is currently studying for an MA in neuroscience.
"I'm doing stuff that's funny about mental illness," she says. "It's a monologue. Humour is the only way to tackle it; otherwise it's po-faced."
In her autobiography, How Do You Want Me?, the American comedian laid bare the details of her own battle against depression and mental breakdown while at the height of her TV career. She also acknowledges that, for many entertainers, going on stage is a form of therapy.
Wax is one of the latest in a series of high-profile comedy actors and performers who are going public about their struggle to stay the right side of the fine line between hilarity and mania. "They used to burn [mentally ill] people at the stake," she says. "We're not killing them any more, or putting them on show in places like Bedlam. We're putting them on the TV instead."
In 2006, Stephen Fry made and presented The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, a documentary on bipolar disorder, from which he suffers. The comedian famously disappeared in 1995 after walking out of a production of the play Cell Mates. He resurfaced in Belgium, saying that he had attempted to commit suicide. Hugh Laurie, Lenny Henry and Paul Merton have all admitted to battling depression. Spike Milligan wrote a book about his life-long manic depression, and the unhappiness of Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams was laid bare in television biopics last year. Pamela Stephenson, who rose to fame on Not the Nine O'Clock News in the 1980s, is now a psychotherapist and probed her husband Billy Connolly's dark secrets – including childhood abuse – in her acclaimed biography of him in 2001.
Gordon Claridge, Emeritus Professor of Abnormal Psychology at Oxford University and the expert in his field, believes there is a link between comic creativity and mental illness. "There is quite a lot of research out there," he says. "There is evidence that people who are entertainers generally suffer an increased incidence of mental health problems. Most of the research is on writers, painters and musicians. But there is no reason why comedians shouldn't be included. There is evidence that people are not necessarily mad, but have traits that are common to mental illness, such as divergent thinking."
Wax is also acting as an agony aunt for the BBC's Headroom, a two-year programme to tackle mental health problems. Weekly webcasts have seen Wax give advice on issues raised by viewers via email, which range from eating disorders to self-harm. BBC3 will be screening a series called Make Your Body Younger next month, which looks at physical and mental health, and in the autumn a one-off documentary under the Headroom banner will see Griff Rhys Jones treated for anger management.
"Nobody ever talks about things in this country," says Wax. "There's such a stigma when you're mentally ill, and I think there's more people like that than are into gardening shows, so I'm speaking up for those people. If you have a show- business career, you get away with it – either you have a one-woman show or you're sectioned."
Professor Claridge believes that mental health should be seen as a spectrum, and not necessarily as being normal or abnormal, although people at the "extreme end do need help". "Comedians are very good at lateral thought and puns. These people see the world in a different way," he says. "If you mix that with intelligence, then they are able to express their world-view through their art."
The comedians who've been to the brink – and back
Ruby Wax
"Depressions happen once every five years – like the pox."
Spike Milligan
"My marriage ended because I'd had two, three, four, five nervous breakdowns. 'The Goon Show' did it. That's why they were so good."
Jack Dee
"Depression has always figured in my life, but now I'm dealing with it." (2006)
Caroline Aherne
"I remember buying champagne and the next thing I woke up in hospital [the Priory]."
Tony Slattery
"I was just in a pool of despair and mania."
Paul Merton
"It wasn't about depression. I couldn't stop having ideas. It was just pouring out of me."
Emma Thompson
"It doesn't make you want to kill yourself – you just don't want to be."
Stephen Fry
"There's no doubt that I have extremes of mood."
Hugh Laurie
"It was certainly more than feeling a bit sad."
Lenny Henry
"That's where depression hits you most – your home life." (1996)
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I was accused once of having such an interest in comedy because I was suffering from some kind of mental health issue. The logic of that comment as an accusation was (and remains) foolish - if you're feeling down, a laugh is an aid to feeling better - that's not exactly rocket-science is it! It's like pouring cold water on a burn...
