REVIEW: Deborah Frances-White talks about getting a date

For when she returned to the stage for the second half of How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You, there had been some "wife swapping" and matchmaking going on in the front row at the Pavilion Theatre.

Deborah was almost left speechless (but not quite) when she saw not only had the grandfather and grandson team found partners in 20 minutes, but at least one of said ladies was married and at the show with her husband.

"Worthing is full of swingers," she declared. "I've never had this happen at a show before."

Well done, Worthing. It may have been a select audience but you all joined in the fun and showed what we are made of.

Who could help but be charmed into it by Deborah giving such an intelligent, insightful and hilarious view of the dating game.

And watch out boys. I am now a Scorsese film '“ with a hat '“ well, you'll have to imagine the hat. Apparently, you should all want to sleep with me.

Deborah Frances-White dished out a whole load of tips and it wasn't about being promiscuous. The key words are "want to".

In fact, Deborah pointed out that while most men want to sleep with most women, most women don't want to sleep with many men.

They just want plenty of men to want to sleep with them.

Sorry guys. But it's always worth giving it a try. You never know your luck.

In a funny show with a serious message about how we communicate with each other, Deborah showed us what we could do to help us get along better and feel sexy.

She got to know some members of the audience, even pairing up a couple of singles from the very start.

Willing volunteers were shown how girls should choose their ideal hat, what not to say and do when you chat up a girl in a bar and how to become James Bond in just three minutes.

At the end of the day, it's all about confidence. It's not a new concept but we all need reminding and Deborah, along with some "scientific" research, presented her case in a funny and convincing way.

And now I'm off to the shops to choose my hat...

See page 2 for an interview with Deborah

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LADIES, if you want to get ahead with the men, wear a hat.

It really is true and Deborah Frances-White proves it during her Edinburgh sell-out self-help comedy show How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You.

And she'll help you find the ultimate hat, too.

"If you walk down the street in a bowler hat it won't be long before a man says to you that's a nice hat," said Deborah.

"You enable them. Saying you have a nice hat is harmless and if you respond it can turn into something. If you just smile and walk away it's not a problem.

"My friends find it funny as it happens with me all the time if they're with me and I'm wearing a hat. It won't be long before a man says it's a nice hat and there's always something more to it."

She discovered her hat trick when she had a party to attend and didn't feel like going.

"I thought if I wore a hat it might help and loads of men started talking to me. Hats are especially good at parties."

It's all part of Deborah's bid to build people's self esteem '“ "how to walk into a room and feel good about yourself and sexy".

Deborah said women think men don't fancy them as they're too short, not thin enough... "every woman has got a reason".

"Most women go round like a bad sitcom. If you're an actor and your agent calls and says you've been cast in a sitcom, it's your best day every.

"Then the agent says he's not sure you should do it, the script is bad and it's on a bad channel, at midnight. You could do better and should turn it down. You're too good for sitcom.

"There's huge power in that '“ being able to turn it down. Most actors are in a position of needing to take everything they can get and loads of women go out in a bad sitcom.

"Their breasts are too small, their bum is too big... they prefer another sitcom. Everything about them is telling men 'you have the power to turn me down' and men are not often in that position.

"You have to go round like a Scorsese movie '“ you're the best an actor can get '“ men respect that. If the woman rates herself as the one you're probably not going to get, then that's the one they want.

"And a Scorsese movie in a hat '“ men will go crazy."

Gentlemen, you need to change the way you behave and talk to women.

"Men talk to you at a party and you feel like you're being hit on," she said. "They are saying I like women, not this woman in particular.

"You don't feel special or interesting. As soon as a man makes you feel like the most interesting or sexy woman in the room, it's difficult to refuse."

To illustrate this, Deborah takes a willing man and woman from the audience and turns the man into James Bond in three minutes.

"I get him to talk to the woman normally and then I give some secret instructions. You can see the woman physically shudder at the difference."

Positive reactions have flooded back from the show. "A middle-aged Australian woman came up to me at Edinburgh and said she loved my show and she had pulled every night of the festival," said Deborah.

"The first time I did the show was in New York and a few weeks later a man told he hadn't had a girlfriend in five years and since seeing the show he had found someone.

"It's great the show is doing something. I'm not really interested in doing comedy that's just about me being funny."

It worked for Deborah, too, as she was the one men weren't interested in when she went out with her friend as a teenager.

"I used to be a bad sitcom," she said. "I used to think of myself as the ugly one but we were like identical twins when I look at pictures now. It was me giving the message across that nobody would fancy me. Men have a totally different response to me now."

Deborah skipped the usual route of the comedy circuit and hosted an improvisation show for 10 years.

She was doing stand-up to warm up for the show and realised that was the way she should go.

The motivational, self-help theme has developed over the years and now Deborah even coaches companies.

She is a regular guest on 5 Live's Breakfast Show and sold her first screenplay to Fox Searchlight '“ a rom com, of course.

Next stop is Edinburgh Festival with her advanced class, an update of the show, which she is currently writing.

She is also working on more screenplays and writing for TV. There is interest in turning the stage performance into a TV or radio show.

How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You is at Worthing's Pavilion Theatre on June 5 at 7.45pm. Tickets are 12.50 or 14.50 from the box office on 01903 206206 or go to www.worthingtheatres.co.uk

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