ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses how the comedienne and actor Ruby Wax counters a growing trend of celebrities glamorizing mental illness. Wax is an American-born, long-time British citizen who is known to UK audiences primarily for her comedy and her series of interviews with prominent (often controversial) people that satirizes those whom she is interrogating, such as Imelda Marcos. Wax is also very open about her bi-polar disorder and her bouts of deep depression. In recent years she has trained as a psychotherapist, contributed to the BBC Headline project that ran for three years, and has made documentary programs about mental (ill) health. This chapter explores Wax’s TV celebrity persona in conjunction with the function of documentary and comedy genres to better understand why medical professionals largely feel that Wax disrupts the “glamorization discourse” of mental illness while simultaneously presenting deeply affecting issues that audiences find engaging rather than contributing to the rather trivializing “glamour effect.” The author contends that by offering narratives of her own descent into deep depression through a combination of bold comedy and transgressive performance, Wax reveals what it means to suffer mental illness.
