In a frank, honest and revealing interview, the stand-up comedian and writer told John Gregory about what has been happening in her life.

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WHEN I picked up the phone to interview Rhona Cameron I didn't expect it to be too different from any other interview with a performer heading to the Island as part of a tour.

You often get a recap of some of their career highlights and talk about what the show is about etc.

But Rhona, who will be performing her stand-up routine in the Island, was different. During the course of our conversation she spoke about giving up drinking, psychological changes and the fact she quit stand-up comedy for four years as she didn't like it (then) and didn't want to do it any more.

It was a personal and serious chat but one which gave an insight into the frame of mind of someone who has quite clearly been through a lot and who could well have a very productive time ahead.

Rhona may have seemingly have fallen out of love with stand-up comedy a few years ago but she now believes this current tour, which heads to The Gaiety Theatre, Douglas, on Thursday, September 11, is certainly the right thing for her.

'For me, it's really useful just now to do stand-up because I am still good at it, I still enjoy performing it and It's good because it keeps me busy and my mind active and the more you are active the more you can think of your next project.

'You are more creative when you are busy.

'I have chosen to do the tour a couple of days a week so that I have got other days free and I want to start the next project writing. It's (stand-up] not something I want to do for ever, because just creatively I find it limited as an art form, as a form of expression. There are other things I would like to say and like to develop that you can't develop just talking and having to make people laugh every so often.'

In terms of her return to live comedy she said: 'I think my style has changed quite noticeably since I have come back. I don't like one-liners, I don't really have many one-lines, I like something a bit more theatrical a bit more lecturish. When I go to see someone I like to feel I know a bit about the person on the stage.

'My first time (at stand-up] after four years was very nerve-racking. I think I had just gone through an awful lot of change and psychological change over the last few years and that has been reflected everywhere and that has been reflected in my work as well.'

Rhona is also an acclaimed writer and it was just before she wrote the successful autobiographical book 1979, A Big Year in A Small Town – a year in her life – that a big change was made.

'I had wasted the first half of the time that I was given to write the book and then I decided if I didn't stop drinking and focus I wouldn't write the book and I had a feeling that the book was going to be – and is indeed – the most important thing I have ever done. I stopped drinking, in 2003, and I had such a short time left to write the book, I wrote it very intensely. Inadvertently, in that process, I did really grieve for the loss of my father that I hadn't properly dealt with since I was 14.' (The book is about when she was 14).

But by writing it in such a short space of time she was 'living and reliving all those feelings, for a while I was immersed in it. It was very therapeutic.'

Her second book, The Naked Drinking Club, a work of fiction, is now out in paperback.

In terms of what is happening in her life she added: 'It is hard knowing I could have been more settled, more solvent at the age of 42 and I am a late starter but I am lucky to have got this far and still be in one piece. I feel now I am on the cusp of a very big change where I am starting to really fully utilise my mind.'

'I want to write and direct, I have had quite a few offers about my first book, I don't want that to go into anyone else's hands, I want to do that myself. The second one I had another interest from a company two days ago.

'I didn't realise it's quite a commercial book my second book, I am sure that's going to get made into a film, these are the sorts of directions I want to go in.'

But in terms of performing live she said: 'The travelling and press aside, I do actually love being on stage, talking and doing my thing. I see it as part of the bigger picture just now. It's quite a good time actually.'

Ticket's for Rhona's show at the Gaiety are £15 and are available from the Welcome Centre at the Sea Terminal, Douglas, the ticket hotline on 694555 and online at www.villagaiety.com

She is the latest in a longline of comedians to have appeared at the Villa Marina and Gaiety Theatre.

In recent years Russell Brand, Alan Carr, Ben Elton, Lenny Henry, Sean Locke and Lee Evans have all performed in Douglas.