PRIME Minister Harold Wilson, the late Labour sage of Huddersfield, once said, "I'm an optimist, but I'm an optimist who takes his raincoat”.

Orpington comedian Josie Long is a "cult optimist", in the words of her publicity machine, but one who is now presenting her most personal show to date as she discusses love, family and being as outdoorsy as a bear in Cara Josephine.

On her seventh nationwide tour, with a new niece in the picture, Josie reflects on her own childhood and how she had never truly known heartbreak until now. Such heartbreak that she is using the experience to change her ways; to be more patient; to work out what she really wants and how to become a better person.

"It was definitely getting my heart broken that kick-started this show," says 32-year-old Josie, who plays the Hyena Lounge Comedy Club at The Duchess in York on Friday night at 8pm.

"I was in this relationship that had broken down in the summer of 2013 and I wanted to make sense of it by writing about love, though I always try to pack as many things as possible in a show, so there always contrasting topics and tangents. But I started writing by thinking about 'how can I get over these feelings' and I think I have got over them now. It's been a very cathartic experience going out on stage and talking about it."

This is one of the characteristics that distinguishes comedians from the rest of us: a willingness, maybe even a need, to go public on what others might deem to be private matters.

"I've been doing stand-up for so long that I just think it's so interwoven with how I interpret my life, and I feel most at home on stage," says Josie.

"I feel comfortable on stage discussing things that actually I don't think I'd feel comfortable discussing with those people involved."

Josie is at pains to point out that in writing in a more personal way, she writes "mostly about me and my reactions to people" rather than those people themselves as they "don't have a right of reply".

There is a further reason behind airing her thoughts in public.

"Sometimes, with self-examination, I feel I wish I didn't feel so insular, so it's cathartic to talk about things rather than button them up," says Josie.

"I'd been going to therapy, which was good as it helped to be more open about my emotions and more real.

"For me, it was not so much about specific problems as trying to understand your way of operating and making changes to things that are more healthy and help me to run my life better."

The end of her relationship was a big loss, a grief, and so Cara Josephine addresses that subject in depth, but the show is full of Josie's trademark "silliness" too.

"You can find silliness in everything," she says. "You find ways to pierce things, to make them lighter. In the rest of your life, you can be more balanced, but on stage I feel the need to entertain."

Seven tours into a career that has brought three Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations, numerous DVD releases and television appearances, sell-out tours, charity benefits and a co-hosting slot on BBC 6Music, Josie is "a lot more comfortable on stage that I used to be".

"I feel I can talk about anything I want to, whereas I used to have to talk about certain things only in a funny way. Now I try to be more real, as little different as possible from me off stage; on stage, it's only a little more exaggerated. It also helps that I'm older and more confident now."

That leaves one phrase still to discuss: how Josie has become "as outdoorsy as a bear". "I kind of just fell in love with doing outdoor intense sports," she says. "It's funny, having grown up as an introvert, bookish, chubby girl, but now I really enjoy being outdoors. It's a counterpoint to being heartbroken; going out and being energised by the outdoors.

"I do cold swimming through the winter; climbing; hiking; just anything. I live with a friend who's incredibly inspiring and sporty and we're planning adventures like sea-kayaking on the Isle of Mull.

"It takes you out of yourself too, which is really important."

Did you know?

Josie Long runs a monthly club night in London, The Lost Treasures Of The Black Heart, that celebrates the world’s unsung heroes and has been turned into a podcast.

Did you know too?

Josie is co-founder of the Arts Emergency Service, a charity that supports students from underprivileged backgrounds who wish to study arts degrees.

• Josie Long's Cara Josephine tour visits Fruit Space, Hull, tonight (TUES); The Wardrobe, Leeds, tomorrow; Sheffield Crucible, Thursday; The Duchess, York, Friday . Box office: Hull, 01482 221113; Leeds, 0113 383 8800; Sheffield, 0114 249 6000; York, 01904 641413 or hyenalounge.com