The five elements to happiness

There’s no point asking him what the different between contentment and satisfaction are or pointing out that pleasure and intense joy are surely pretty much one and the same thing.

“You’ll just have to see the show,” he tells you.

Besides, these five elements have been handed down to him by his mother - and he reckons they have been scientifically proven.

He will explore them all in The Search For Happiness at this year’s Brighton Comedy Festival (October 16, 7.45pm, Brighton Pavilion, tickets 01273 709709).

He promises an hour of gags, anecdotes and his trademark serving of pathos - all in search of the human holy grail of happiness.

We all search for those moments of happiness in our lives, but how can we find them? Is there anything we can change about ourselves to make them more likely to happen? Using certain parameters – birthplace; profession; marital status; child status – Jason will construct a “truly happy human”, then measure his own life against his creation’s.

By guiding us through the things in life that make us truly happy, Jason brings stories from his own life to illustrate all the things we need to find happiness.

However, he won’t be talking about one at least of the two things that makes him happiest. Doing stand-up and a smile from his four-month-old baby Layla are the best things that life can offer, he says - but don’t expect talk of Layla to feature in the show.

As he says, he’s never come across a stand-up who can be truly funny about babies.

Besides: “I quite like having something that I don’t like talking about in shows. It’s good to have a little privacy!”

The Search For Happiness was inspired by Jason’s project for Radio 4, Jason Cook’s Happiness HQ, where Jason, his mum and fellow comedian Chris Ramsey tried to find the happiest people in Britain and explore how to have a more contented life.

Jason started out as part of the renowned Newcastle based sketch troupe, Soup. He made a name for himself around the Tyneside area, most notably during his time spent as a regular compere at The Hyena Club where he honed his talent in front of 300 baying punters.