Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2017: Ruby Wax – Frazzled

Ruby Wax returned with a short, yet glorious run this year with another one-woman show full of quips, insights, and engaging information. Based on her similarly entitled book, A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, this version of Frazzled engages the audience with live examples of what it is like to place stress upon oneself, and how to acknowledge and alleviate the thoughts and pressures associated with it.

What results is an interesting mix of information and perceptiveness, gift-wrapped in the natural talent that Wax radiates without any strain: comedy.

Wax is a very adept live performer, and knows exactly how to tell a story or antidote with comical ease and humourous accuracy. It is a satisfying experience to watch how gracefully she handles her content and audience reactions, and provides a warm and friendly performance as a result.

The Q&A session that closes the show is especially indicative of her naturally humourous persona, as she was able to generate comedy from everything from calls of appreciation, oddball questions, and even random attention specific upstaging. (Give a microphone to a crowd and there’ll always be one.)

The topic of mindfulness is given a decent adhering to throughout the show, and was very well received by those in attendance. Frazzled is a show intended to inform, and engage that information through comedy, championed by one of the naturally gifted comics who we all hope will continue to return to this festival with more insightful shows in the future.

– Corey
Corey M. Glamuzina is a Melbourne-based actor, writer, improvisor and comedian with an avid involvement in the art of theatre and film.

Frazzled ran from 30 March to 2 April, at The Arts Centre, Playhouse.
The venue is accessible.

Read The Plus Ones’ guide to MICF 2017, and visit often to see all our reviews.

Disclosure: The Plus Ones were invited guests of ‘Frazzled’.
Image credit: Melbourne International Comedy Festival.