EdFringe Review: Ruby Wax: Absolutely Famous

It’s almost easier to say whom Ruby Wax didn’t meet, interview, and coax fascinating insights from in her huge TV shows Ruby Wax Meets… and Full Wax. Donald Trump, OJ Simpson, Pamela Anderson, Madonna, and many more. Her provocative, abrasive, incomparable style was – just about – kept in check by lifelong friend and A-list producer, Clive Tulloh.

---

Together live on stage at the Pleasance Courtyard (Grand), they review clips from the extraordinary shows, tell a few stories never before heard – and take the audience along for the ride.

This show is precisely what it tells you it is. Ruby remains a compelling, larger-than-life force of nature, the hour propelled along thanks to her and Clive’s obvious chemistry. She does do a bit to open the show; enough to show her devilish sense of humour is alive and kicking, but whilst aware of the show’s concept, it falls to Clive to live-produce the show through questions and a rich collection of video clips. Even for those of us old enough to have lived through Wax’s glory years, it’s easy to forget just how insane her list of interviewees has been. The hour naturally shapes itself around the idea of ‘Fame’, something which has fascinated Ruby her entire life; whether bestowed upon others, or herself.

The show follows a fairly chronological path, starting with Ruby’s days interviewing British household names whilst their stars were rising: think Jennifer Saunders, Emma Thompson, or when she put Felicity Kendal in S&M gear. This section is crowned by the irreplaceable Joanna Lumley, who would prove a ready partner in crime, more than happy to lampoon herself, whilst accidentally germinating the idea for the iconic Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous. It’s very much a nostalgia trip, but it’s nice to be reminded of a time when TV had more personality and less exsanguinated polish.

Global Stardom, Dictators, and Industry Secrets

From there we follow Ruby’s branching out into global celebrity, embodied (haha) for the hour by Pamela Anderson, of whom Wax remains spectacularly fond. Clive’s role in facilitating matters is continually made clear — Wax is still impressed by the folks he was able to get her ‘5 minutes with’ — the trick? Pay off the PRs, don’t pay the talent; your money means more to the former.

Elsewhere, Wax explains that her entire career was pursued to become friends with Carrie Fisher. There mightn’t be tears, but there’s enormous affection in her voice whenever Carrie’s name is mentioned, or her face appears in clipped memories of their time together. Life might have had other plans, but were set to grow old disgracefully together.

There are more fascinating snippets, not least how John Simpson helped to enable her and Clive to branch out into talking with ‘despots and dictators’ such as Saddam Hussein, and the show lingers on her fascinating time with shoe-collecting antiheroine, Imelda Marcos. The trick to turning 5 minutes into almost a week together on camera? Marcos just happened to find a copy of Hello! in their suite, with Wax on the cover. Why invest such effort to peek into the private life of an ex-dictator’s cash-embezzling wife? Fame, Wax avers, is easy to understand; infamy is something much more interesting.

Whether their targets were set on heroes or villains, the pair’s bag of elite, but deadly tricks of the trade (how Wax disarmed celebs by being rude to them; how she was happy to career, wide-smiled into uncomfortable territory e.g., being fake-murdered with a banana by OJ Simpson; or Clive’s obvious knack for knowing who to charm, and how to make the most of it), comes through loud and clear throughout. Tulloh isn’t for confessing all of his arts, but the smile on his face tells it all.

Does the show have a finale? Not really, just one more clip, this time from a lucky bag Clive prompts a choice from. However, the show stays true to its billing till the end, elevated from a simple retrospective love-in by the affectionate, but obviously sparky relationship between Wax and Tulloh, who freely troll each other from start to end. There’s no reverence here — most interviewers aren’t going to make a woman put her money where her mouth is and prove she’s wearing her lucky red knickers; and not just any friend who’d do just that. So whilst there is scope to end the show properly rather than just letting it…end, one feels Wax and Tulloh aren’t professionally done yet, so it’s more Au Revoir than Bonne Nuit!

---

---