Funny Talk: Joanne McNally

You talkin’ to me…?

s she prepares to bring her Wine Tamer show to Greystones on Friday, November 9th, Republic Of Telly‘s Joanne McNally reveals her comedy heroes to the Greystones Guide.

But not before she tells us how a fine looking woman like her ended up in the ugly-ass world of comedy…

I was working in PR in a very jazzy ‘youth communications’ agency where we wore bicycle chains around our necks and meditated to techno music when I was approached by a director called Una McKevitt, who I kinda half knew through a friend. She was casting for a documentary-style theatre show called Singlehood and asked if I wanted to be in it. I said I did. She said grand.

The show did well and we toured it around for a while and then one of the lads had to leave because he was no longer the filthy Lothario he once was. He had fallen madly in love and felt it disrespectful to be on stage talking about all the women he’d had relations with (11). So, Una cast PJ Gallagher in the role instead and he suggested I give stand-up a shot – which, naturally, I thought was utter madness.
He was heading out on a national tour and said I could go along and do a few minutes each time and learn the ropes, and I figured at the very least it would keep me off the streets at weekends – so I went. My first ever stand-up gig was in the Hawks Well Theatre, Sligo, in December 2014. I opened with a gag about Des Bishop’s testicals and then went into a load of surreal shit about giant Tickle Me Elmos.

I no longer discuss either of these things.

My Influences…

Kevin Bridges
I wasn’t really into stand up comedy before I started working in it myself so I’ve no idea how I came across Kevin, but I did. I must have been ‘studying’ for something and procrastinating away on YouTube. I thought he was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. It was his delivery and his honesty, never trying to play the big man.
A lot of his material was based around growing up in a rough part of Glasgow and the interactions he had with the local hard lads. It’s his facial expressions, his timing, his lad next door face. He’s just brilliant.

Chelsea Handler
Nothing is off limits with Chelsea and she couldn’t give a fuck if you laugh or not. She’s fearless. Even when you’re not laughing, you trust her and you’re having a really good time. She just tells stories rather than telling gags which is similar to myself and she drags all her mates into her material – and you know they’re at home begging her not to.
She’s completely pre-occupied with her appearance too, which seems so out of character it adds to her humour. I’m obsessed with autobiographies and Chelsea’s My Horizontal Life is an excellent read. She was dating 50 Cent for ages, and she’s mad for the ride. Her life is interesting to me.

Kathy Griffin
Watching Kathy do stand up is basically like lying across your best mate’s bed drinking gin and listening to her bitch and vent about every celebrity you’ve ever heard of but never met, but she has – and she has dirt on them all. It’s highly entertaining. She’s always doing impersonations of her mother, which I would love to do more of – only my mother asked me to stop, and I was feeling mature at the time, so I agreed. Still, I reckon she’s probably forgotten I’m even doing stand up so, maybe I’ll resurrect that stuff. Moms are funny.

Leslie Jones
Leslie didn’t get her break till she was in her 40s. Dave Chapelle encouraged her to move to New York to hone her stand-up, but she had a rough time. She opened for Jamie Foxx and was booed off stage, so she stopped performing for three years.
Chris Rock had seen her do stand-up in a club in New York years ago and was so impressed, he jotted her name down somewhere, but it was only in 2013 that a role for a female black lead came up on SNL, and Rock immediately pushed for Leslie. Her bit on Steve Irwin is genius.
At 47, she’s the oldest person ever to become a cast member on the show! She’s sweaty and searing and scrappy. I like her.

You can check out Joanne McNally: Wine Tamer at The Whale on Friday, November 9th here, and find out how the vino is fighting back on Joanne’s Twitter account here.