She’s a registered nurse and a comedian. What could possibly be funny about that? Georgie Carroll will show you, at the Perth Comedy Festival.
By Ara Jansen
“I love all the bits of my life,” proclaims Georgie Carroll. “I have a really good happy barometer.”
The registered nurse and comedian has plenty to cheer about because she’s getting someone to cover her shifts when she heads west for the Perth Comedy Festival in May.
The English-born Carroll lives in Adelaide and has worked in hospitals for most of her career. She says everyone loves a good hospital story. Like her personality, her style is a joyful bluntness brimming with charm. Carroll’s Three Stages of Nursing routine – dividing nurses into dolphins, penguins and orcas – has been viewed more than seven million times.
Her mum has recently moved to Australia and is living with Carroll, her husband and two teenage boys.
“I’ve worked out there’s no point trying to make someone feel bad when you can try and make them laugh. I’ve left my first ever clip online because I was a bit mean in it. I don’t do that anymore and have learnt to be smarter. For example, I know I will never be able to talk about something like addiction with humour,” she says.
But there are plenty of funny things to mine, from the regular shifts she takes at the hospital, and is more likely to rag on the staff than the patients. Allied health staff are always fair game and can “get hit pretty hard”. Her family are not let off easily either – cue a story about her husband’s scrotum and her poles and holes chat (aka the birds and the bees) with her boys.
“The people you work with are a bit like family and you love them, but you don’t like them all,” she says
When she started appearing on television shows, patients started to recognise her. She has a simple rule on how she engages with them on that level – are their pants on or off? If their pants are off, she’ll often say something like “yeah people say I look like her” to assuage any fears that they might wind up as the butt of her next on-stage routine.
As her comedy has become more popular, she’s done less shifts at the hospital. But Carroll also loves the way she can be touring for a week, arrive home on a Sunday and on Monday be donning her scrubs.
The author and podcaster loves being busy, so juggling family and her two careers feels pretty good. Her husband – the king of a spreadsheet – has been enormously supportive.
“He’s the best model of a human ever. He works 9-to-5 and has found his passion. He has helped me set things up so I can be everything I want to be. I’m trying to dip my toe into England and maybe break there.”
Carroll says it’s no surprise there seems to be a growing number of healthcare professions turning to comedy. When you’ve spent a career caring for other people, comedy is an outlet which is totally yours.
It makes for an ideal solo sport after endless team playing. Generally, she says their outlook tends to be more ballsy than the bleak, which often typecasts medical humour.
“I reckon I can get away with a lot more because of my nursing background, like I’m judging you but I also care very much.
“Laughter is one of the best weapons you have against stress on the job and comedy is a great way to get that out.”
Georgie Carroll performs at the Perth Comedy Festival on May 12 and 13. The festival also features a host of Australian and international comedians such as Akmal, Dave O’Doherty, Nat’s What I Reckon, Josie Long, Rueben Kaye, Jason Leong and Dylan Moran.
Details and ticketing at www.perthcomedyfestival.com
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