We catch up with comedy legend Ruby Wax ahead of her visit to the West Midlands and Shropshire with her Absolutely Famous tour and talk about I'm a Celeb and Donald Trump
Famous for her quick wit, sharp tongue and undeniable sense of sass, the legendary Ruby Wax has been a household name across the world for decades and we caught up with her as she brings her Absolutely Famous tour to the West Midlands and Shropshire
Having made her name as a comedian, actress, writer and TV presenter, Ruby Wax has interviewed some of the most famous and infamous stars of the 20th and 21st centuries – from Pamela Anderson to Donald Trump and, of course, OJ Simpson.
Recently, she came back into the UK spotlight as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and this year is embarking on a new tour that will see audiences get even closer to her.
Coming to The Alexandra, Birmingham, on April 18 and to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn on June 13, ‘Absolutely Famous’ will see Wax live on stage, dissecting some of her most iconic interviews, with audiences given the chance to ask questions – and anything goes.
“The title isn’t about me,” she says. “I’m showing clips of what I used to do. There’s Pamela Anderson, Trump, Jim Carrey, OJ Simpson, Tom Hanks – people who are or were ‘absolutely famous’. So you really see what an interview was when you have a week with them instead of five minutes.
“It’s a springboard; then I go and riff on everything else. In the second half the audience can ask questions, and I don’t care what they ask – anything.”
As has often been reflected, it is probably easier to name those celebrities that Ruby Wax hasn’t met than those that she has, and when asked if she has a standout favourite or ‘not favourite’, the answer is very easy.
“Well the ‘not favourite’ was Donald Trump,” she says. “That was like a bull charging at you. He hated me on sight, so he removed me. He said he was going to throw me off his plane, except we were at 33,000 ft.”
Over a career that has seen OJ Simpson feigning to stab her with a banana, Wax’s chats across shows including ‘The Full Wax’ and ‘Ruby Wax Meets…’ have captured some of the most sensational moments ever televised with some of the biggest names on the planet. Yet, to her, global fame is not what makes somebody a worthy interviewee.
“If people are really interesting, then I kind of interview them,” she says. “So, even in I’m A Celebrity, you know, [Angry] Ginge and Aitch, I interviewed them, inadvertently. They were more interesting than any bigger celeb I could do.
“Just to crack somebody who’s a streamer and another guy who’s a rap artist, to me was really interesting. Just because you’re really famous (and now there’d be PR and they’d say ‘you can only have five minutes’) it wouldn’t be interesting. Somebody who you can have a week with, then it gets interesting.”
During her time on I’m A Celeb, Wax was a fan favourite. But, of course, she also had favourites of her own.
“Well, Aitch and Ginge and then Lisa [Riley] were kind of my close ones in camp. You have to eat a scrotum to be there, and I would’ve eaten, like, 12 to be around those people.”
