Nurse Georgie Carroll says there’s a unique “vibe” among country nurses. Photo: Supplied.
This Friday night the Wagga Civic Theatre will host a star performer who traded scrubs and a bedpan for a microphone and a career making people laugh.
Georgie Carroll is a comedian, author and registered nurse, born in the UK, now settled in Australia.
This combination of migration, hospital and busy family life nurtured Georgie’s naturally funny bones until the switch to comedy was inevitable.
“I mean, why wouldn’t you?” she laughed.
“There you are, a 34-year-old loving being a nurse and a family woman, then you stumble across a talent you didn’t know you had and throw yourself at it like a fat kid at a jetty jump.
“I feel truly excellent on stage, I am addicted to it.”
Georgie is now a familiar face on Australian TV, appearing in Have You Been Paying Attention?, Hughesy, We Have A Problem, the Oxfam Melbourne International Comedy Gala and The Project.
Her staunchly medical stand-up clip, The Three Stages of Nursing went viral with over seven million views and has recruited a huge overseas following.
Georgie is returning to Wagga with her show Sista Flo 2.0 after a sold-out performance last year, and she’s ready to deliver the funny.
“They can expect to wet themselves laughing,” she promised.
“It is an hour of hospital-grade staff room banter from me, a proper real nurse.”
‘Nurse Flo’ was a sellout in Wagga last year. Photo: Supplied.
She explained that there was a certain “vibe” among country nurses who could be the source of some darkly funny material that was not for the squeamish.
“When you do shows that are super regional, the hospital staff in the audience are more hectic and have fabulous stories about stitching a bloke’s head back on in the back of a ute or, ‘He hopped into the department carrying the severed leg under his remaining arm’,” she laughed.
“I am sure the Riverina will have tinges of this vibe, on account of being a farming area.”
But she explained that there was a line to walk when finding humour in the ups and downs of a tough profession.
“Nothing’s ever the worst moment in nursing because the person you are nursing is generally having a worse day than you are,” she said.
“I have learned to not talk about things I don’t understand for the sake of bringing it up.
“Mental health is something I steer clear of on stage because I have never worked specifically in it and I have a pretty good run of it with my own mental health so until I can make people laugh about this speciality without making a patient the butt of the joke then I will leave it alone.”
However, when it comes to the areas of nursing in which she has firsthand experience, the gloves are off.
“Midwives and physios I roast joyfully because … well … come and see the show.”
At a time when nurses have never needed to laugh harder, Nurse Georgie is the one to have them in stitches, in the best way.
Nurse Georgie Carroll – Sista Flo 2.0 is on this Friday night at the Wagga Civic Theatre.
Tickets are available here.
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