STAND-UP Josie Long is in the middle of a four-month-long tour and she's absolutely knackered.

"It's intense but it's good. I like it," she says, ahead of her date at The Stand on March 18 during Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

She's touring Cara Josephine, the show first previewed at the Fringe last year to critical acclaim. Now Josie is taking it to places as far afield as Skye and Mull as well as England and Ireland, then a string of dates in Australia.

It marks a change of direction for the award-winning lo-fi indie kid comedy genius better known for taking a hard political line. This time she is exposing some of the deepest parts of her personal life.

"The reason I did it is because I felt I didn't have enough new things to say about politics, I felt I'd really said everything I think and feel," explains the 32-year-old who began performing when she was a teenager.

"Not enough had changed in the country for me personally to write about. But in my life itself I felt like I had really been through quite a lot: emotional things I wanted to talk about.

"I broke up with somebody and that was the trigger for me trying to think about my whole love life, why I behaved the way I did and how I could move on from it."

It sounds like an extreme form of therapy but according to bubbly Josie, who has been referred to as London's answer to Girls star Lena Dunham, opening her heart in public has been revelatory.

"It felt really strange, it's unusual, it's like a level of vulnerability that I've never really had before," she considers. "It's been really interesting, I think sometimes it really drags you into certain emotions that you think you're over.

"It's about looking at our behaviour in relationships. Sometimes I make decisions for really superstitious or romantic reasons that are just not to do with real life."

She says lessons have been learned: to be more realistic and accepting of that other person.

The show focuses on another tug on her heartstrings - Josie's love affair with her one-year-old niece, the namesake of the show.

I wanted to give her a present in a way, I wanted to do something to commemorate how much I love her," Josie says.

"She's adorable, she's the best baby in the world, she's beautiful and funny and sweet and great. I love her."

It won't be all baby talk and break-up chat from Josie. Loyal fans will be delighted to hear there is still a political element to the show.

Josie believes you can never hide your political views, even when she's talking about romance.

"It's just a little bit of fun really. I talk a little bit about art and class and about people think that certain types of art aren't for certain types of people, and stuff like that, which I think is quite political," she says.

"The reaction has been great, absolutely brilliant. Of all the shows I've done I think it has been the most consistent in terms of people feeling it and appreciating that I'm being honest. I'm really enjoying performing it."

A highlight of the tour is the stop in Glasgow. "My favourite place in the whole country," according to Josie.

Working with Clydebank-based director Doug King two years ago, she made two short films that were nominated for Scottish Bafta New Talent Awards. The offbeat tales about a pair of friends who live, breathe and eat Glasgow's indie music scene also featured cameos from Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and musician Aidan John Moffat.

Stuart went along to one of her shows at the Fringe and she had the chance to appear in a small role in his film God Help the Girl.

Now a feature film in planned, to be shot in Glasgow this summer, and she's hoping her pop friends could reappear in other cameos.

"It is a continuation of the short films. It's me and the same actor Darren Osborne and we are best friends," she says.

"It's about trying to find your place in the world. About trying to get all of the different elements of your life a bit better and moved on. It's about growing up and belonging but it's also about politics.

"My character is really close to her sister and then her sister moves away. It's about how she copes with losing her grounding.

"She's a bit in love with this political group of activists and wants to be a part of them but she's not very successful and it's about how she gets beyond that and sorts her life out."

It could be the script for another comedy stage show...

Josie Long: Cara Josephine, Stand Comedy Club, March 18. Visit www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com