41. Nurse Georgie Carroll on Comedy, Chaos and Life After Nursing

What does it look like to swap the intensity of the ward for the unpredictability of a comedy stage? In this episode, we sit down with Georgie Carroll — an ICU nurse of 18 years turned comedian — for a refreshingly honest and wide-ranging conversation about career, identity, and finding joy in unexpected places.

Georgie shares the story behind her shift into stand-up, what she loves about life on stage, and the behind-the-scenes reality of comedy that most people never see. From her first improvised gig to building a career that still honours her healthcare roots, we explore how humour, connection, and curiosity have shaped her journey — along with a glimpse into her podcast The Swab and what’s coming up next.

This episode is for anyone who’s ever wondered “what if?”, anyone craving a lighter take on life in healthcare, or anyone who simply wants to feel seen, understood, and maybe have a laugh along the way.

Please note: this episode contains some strong language. 

Follow Georgie over on Instagram and find out about her upcoming shows here Georgie Carroll, UK-born Comedian & registered nurse in Australia

It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr’s Samantha Miklos and Kate Coomber and recorded at cmr’s head office in Brisbane.

We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso

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Transcript

Introduction

Sam Miklos 0:00

Hi, I'm Sam. And I'm Kate. The value of humour in healthcare can never be underestimated. This is one episode you don't want to miss.

Georgie Carroll 0:07

I don't get the closeness and the connection that I got in nursing. I missed that about nursing. I knew more about some people than I did about my mates. You know, I really love camaraderie. Just the real rapport. The purpose and worth of nursing is way better.

Kate Coomber 0:23

And don't forget to leave a review or subscribe so you never miss an episode. And jump over to Instagram, both It Takes Heart, but also Georgie Carroll, to see all the behind the scenes.

Sam Miklos 0:44

Georgie Carroll is a UK trained nurse, turned comedian, author, and podcast host. You may have seen her on TV on Have You Been Paying Attention or The Project or one of her stand-up shows. Kate and I were lucky to see her in action last night at the Brisbane Comedy Gala. And if that was anything to go by, I think we're in for a treat. Welcome, Georgie.

Georgie Carroll 1:02

Yeah there, you too. Hello.

Sam Miklos 1:06

How are you in? Are you exhausted after a show last night? No. Slash hungover. Slash hungover. Were you taking a Mickey bait?

unknown 1:12

Oh no!

Georgie Carroll 1:13

I did seven minutes of comedy. Seven minutes of comedy. And I yeah, and then partied. No, I'm not it does not, it does not drain me. The people who haven't had jobs who do comedy, you can tell. Yeah. They're like, oh God, I've got vocal strain from from from doing a week, you know, a month of festival. And you're like, you talk for an hour a night. People work in call centres. People work in triage. People like it's it's just so stupid that they're knackered from that tiny bit of little show.

Kate Coomber 1:46

So take last night where there was lots and lots of comedians all in one show. Yeah, a little seven minute slot. Yeah, like when you left the stage, you were like, oh.

unknown 1:55

Yes.

Kate Coomber 1:56

How does it feel? Is it harder? Is it easier when you're doing a big show like that versus your own?

Georgie Carroll 2:01

Much preferred doing my own. Yeah. Well, I much prefer doing my own, like, because the audience is there for me. So they've already slightly invested that they love you.

Speaker 2:10

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 2:10

Um I can often take seven minutes of what I call dog bedding at the beginning of my show, just padding around and working out who's in and who isn't. But you know, if you've only got seven minutes, you have to come out the gate strong. You've seen what's flown already. So does yeah, and does that change then?

Sam Miklos 2:24

Like are you? For me halfway through. So it's before the watching going, oh, I was gonna go out with this, but I don't reckon that's gonna roll with this group.

Georgie Carroll 2:32

Well, we had a few things going on last night. So one was we had a clock on stage that was just so normally you can have a clock that's got seven minutes and it counts backwards, so you know where you're up to. No, it was just a normal alarm clock. Now, I used to be good at maths when I was in nursing, but now I'm a numbers uh I just can't seven onto shit whilst I'm talking. So I didn't know.

Speaker 2:54

It wasn't starting at the end. So I had to look and see what time it started and then work out what time. No, it just said time on the clock and all that.

Georgie Carroll 2:59

So anyway.

Speaker 3:00

I did see people tapping their watches as they came on.

Georgie Carroll 3:02

Yeah, and I don't wear what's on stage because I don't I think it looks like you don't want to be there. Yeah. Like, oh god, do I must do it? They're checking the time, but Yeah, so that one's gonna just send me a text, you know. It was a quirky little crowd, so uh they were they were what we call um loud smilers for the first ten rows. So they were enjoying their arms.

Sam Miklos 3:22

Not in the first ten rows.

Georgie Carroll 3:23

No, you could hear little pockets of real, you know. I don't think not many people had everyone laughing at the same time. Yeah, yeah. But it's it's it's it's a live entertainment, it's bought like like emergencies, you know, like it's just you can leave it all on the pitch. Yeah. But yeah, I had a good time, and I think there were about four others that really enjoyed it. But yeah, it was a bonkers little night, and then we parted after. So yeah, it's good. What is it like backstage?

Sam Miklos 3:46

Like you think about, I mean staff rooms are funnier. Really? So there's people like you've got Stephen C. Awesome, there's all these people, and I'm like, what are you all just in awe of each other? Are you all making jokes? Anyone in the zone?

Growing Up, Finding Nursing & Early Career Days

Georgie Carroll 3:58

It can it can get stupid and fun. Um but no, staff rooms, I think, because it's such a um healthcare is such is so wrought with adversity. You know, and you're up against it that you kind of have to go in the staff room and deep and just whereas our other bit is on stage and we get a big round of applause at the end, then you come off, and it can be quite a lot of small talk. For people who are wordsmiths, there can be quite a lot of how's your festival going? Yes. Did you do all the festivals? Yeah. You know, like you're just like, alright, I have a lot of anxious people in this profession, but a lot of lovely people, and um yeah.

Sam Miklos 4:34

So before we talk about how a nurse actually becomes a comedian, like who are you? You grew up in Manchester, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 4:44

Yeah. So I'm 50 now, and I lived in Rochdale, a little village off the back of uh Manchester in the Pennines. So you imagine where uh it was a lot of wife swap programmes were made there, not the pos family. But we were the pos family in the shit area.

Speaker 4 5:01

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 5:02

Um and I was like the queen of Rochdale, I could do anything. There were eight pubs. I could smoke in them, even when people couldn't smoke, you know, like I could do whatever I wanted in that village. I was like the queen. Why? Why? Just because I was fun to be around. Yeah. We had uh me and my mate Katie Bamber, we would do anything for the giggle. So like it was just we we made the vibe of the pub.

Sam Miklos 5:25

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 5:25

This is uh might not be fit for your podcast. It's called It Takes Heart. Uh this is uh it might be more uh have more pathos in this, but me and Katie on b on people's birthdays, we used to stand on tables, drop our pants, fluff up our pubes, and set them on fire whilst we sang Happy Birthday and sing it really quickly and then pat it out. What are you laughing at this point? Oh, this would be a a sort of from when you can start drinking, so that's about 17, 18 in the middle. But you do it in houses till then, don't you? But then um lots of hedonistic, risky behaviours in the town. And it's something I see when I go back as well because it's quite a grim, it's grim up north. Yeah. We've got a few girls here from Manchester. It's grim up north, you know. And so you make your fun where you can, so it was we just used to make chaos everywhere. So then I got to like 34, and I don't uh so by 25 21 I'd met the man that I was gonna and I never questioned that that was the path. So I had no idea that you could go out with the same sex or that you didn't have to get married or you didn't have to have kids, or like it just never entered my head. Yeah. I went out with a boy, grandma said, When will you marry it? I thought, oh marry it, you know, like it was just Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, so I got Steve, who I'm still with, and the kids and the career and the house and everything by late 20s. So by early 30s, I was like, what do I do now? Were you nursing at that time?

Sam Miklos 6:50

Yeah, I loved nursing. So why did you how did you get into nursing from like setting your pubes on fire on top of a strip? Yeah, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 6:58

Um what uh how did I get grandma again? Yeah. Grandma rocks. So it'd like be a nurse, a teacher. You know, and you've got that good grandma. Yeah, yeah. Oh god, I've got every I got so many tangible memories. Yeah. You know, when I eat foods or drink drinks or do you know washing my hair in the bath, I'm like, oh grandma, you know. Yeah, and she I wanted to be a popster. I was in a band. Um You were in a band? I was in a band, yeah. Why'd you join the band? Well, I was main singer, yeah. And then obviously fat Audrey, and I'm fat, so I'm just saying there's no problem with being fat, but if I'm being mean about someone and the fat, I'm gonna throw it in there. Yeah, yeah. Fat Audrey came and she was a way better singer, so I was back in singer then. Yeah. That's it. Is that I'm not a violent woman, the closest I've come in to being in a fight is when Audrey got the my job and I had to be back in singer. Um so I was and I probably didn't have the dedication to be a singer, I just l wanted the attention and the fame and the delay. Yeah.

Kate Coomber 7:56

I can see you dancing though and moving more as you back up to the floor.

Sam Miklos 7:59

I mean you and Katie are like on the on the table. You were for Audrey's side is.

Georgie Carroll 8:06

I get it. So um, and then I remember grandma, I was a bit aimless, if you get what I mean. Yeah. Um yeah, and grandma said, um, oh you should you should try nursing, and she'd been a ward clerk in emergency. And so long ago that I remember her taking me in as a toddler, and I used to sit on her desk while she was a ward clerk in emergency, and I used to just stamp papers. Oh wow. Count papers, move things around. Yeah. Yeah. So a really long time ago. And so I started the nursing training and I hated the training. And the only reason I stuck at it was because all the grown-ups in my world thought I wouldn't stick at it.

Kate Coomber 8:46

Mm-hmm.

unknown 8:47

You are.

Georgie Carroll 8:50

I was a good quitter back then. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't a good quitter. Yeah, yeah. I hadn't got a frontal cortex yet. And I was just like, yeah, I don't I'm not being a nurse. Yeah. And then when I started nursing, that's when I began to love it. Yeah. Probably the first year was horrid because I hadn't thrived as a student. Um and it was a a weird training time. All the nurses in England had just been on strike, so the government needed more nurses. It was something called Project 2000.

Speaker 4 9:17

Uh-huh.

Georgie Carroll 9:18

And they uh literally just let everybody have a go, and all of the training was not really nurse-based, so my child placement was in a primary school so I could see what a well child looked like.

unknown 9:30

Right.

Georgie Carroll 9:30

One of my placements was in an op shop so I could learn how to deal with people. Yeah. Um it was not, it was not great training. And then we had to. Did you get to a hospital at all? We got in hospitals, but yeah, it was it there were just so many people to place that they would just put us anywhere. Yeah. That was a whole people's. It just needed numbers. They needed numbers for the government to say we got nurses. So I did most of my actual learning on that first year, which is not great. Yeah. Because it wasn't the grad programmes, even you were just thrown in. Um, yeah, so I remember oh god, I'd be appalled now, but um, yeah, someone asked me to get f a bag of decks. So just dextros, just you should know what that is by the time you qualified. But I just went in the fluid room and just got one of every bag and brought it back because I was like, I I don't know. I don't know what you do one of these. We did two assignments on how not to strike.

Sam Miklos 10:21

Oh wow.

Georgie Carroll 10:22

It's an interesting thing. So what were you loving about it? Yeah. Well, I like I said, it was in spite of the adults. It was just like, I'll I'll show you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not that I can't be successful, I just don't want to be. You know, like it was very much in defiance of them when they were going to she'll never last at this.

Sam Miklos 10:38

And so what sort of nurse were you? Were you nursing in emergency? How were you out?

Georgie Carroll 10:42

Everything I turned out to be, I think, a really good nurse. Yeah. So uh intensive care for 11 years. Yeah. Um and I er loved everything about that apart from this sounds so bad, what the job was. I loved the science and I loved the occasional win. Yeah. But I did feel like we were torturing people quite a lot. Why? Because there's a lot of cause we can, not cause we should happens in there. And so you have lots of conversations on intensive care about would you want to would you want someone to try this hard at this point?

Sam Miklos 11:22

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 11:24

Uh yeah. So um so I really enjoyed it and I really loved people. Like I just naturally I think had I not been um I don't know if veins the word. I thought I wanted to it to be more exciting. I should have been in aged care. I adore the old like I like people love dogs. Yeah, I just love them. So there's not one, I don't walk past and want to know how old it is and where it came from and its story and it's I I just love and I should have been there. But there was something um obnoxious, I suppose, um, in me at the time that was like I'm not going to age care. Yeah. And if I come back now, um, I always in order for this job to make sense, because my new my new job in comedy is so wonderful, like the hours are great and the money's great, and the you get a round of applause. Yes. You're quite grateful. And people are excited to meet it. Oh yeah, and you're and you're flying around, and you you know, it's so gorgeous. There are no downsides really. Um and so, in order for that to make sense, uh, I have to have a a backup plan that like if this disappeared, I'll still be happy. Yeah. And that would be lifestyle coordinator in an aged care village. I would love that. And love it. So not necessarily nursey then, just like social workery almost, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kate Coomber 12:44

Yeah. Director of fun. Fun director, yeah. Chief fun officer.

Moving To Australia And Finding Comedy

Sam Miklos 12:48

Yes. So, like, how then did you become a comedian? Right. And why? And why?

Georgie Carroll 12:54

Well, yeah, so 34 hit, and I was like, there's gotta be more. Well, you're in Australia, boobs left at this point. Yes. Like, literally, there's only so many times you can set them on fire, and there's a lot of birthdays in April. Yeah.

Sam Miklos 13:06

Um, so can't wait to celebrate your birthday now. You can do it now, no one's got any anymore. They'll be coming back in fashion soon. Yeah, yeah, like everything highways to jeans about.

Georgie Carroll 13:21

So um by 34 I was just like, there's gotta be something else. I've fallen in love, I've made the humans that I wanted to make, and they're well.

Speaker 4 13:29

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 13:29

You know, I wanted humans and I got them. And and then uh, I don't know, like there's gotta be something else. So that prompted the move to Australia. Um I wanted Italy, but Steve wasn't gonna learn the language, and I thought I'm not moving somewhere and just being that kind of expat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and so yeah, I'd never been to Australia. I thought this is bizarre. I thought you had no trees. I thought the ones I don't know what.

Speaker 13:53

I thought we had no trees, you didn't know. What do you mean?

Georgie Carroll 13:55

Well, you lived here, so you knew you did, but just in my head, there's like a lot of desert. A lot of desert. Because it was rainforesty stuff that I wasn't used to, and I thought that's all like just plastic trees. And um yeah, so I was like, oh go, you know. Um And I suppose like what was that, 23? And a little bit of me thought it might be more misogynistic than it is. Yeah. You know, like all the blokes who'd be stood around the Barbie and all the women who'd be looking after the kids, and it's not, it's way more progressive than I think England was. Yeah. You know, but I was still like, let's go and have an adventure. Um so I came to Australia and then the comedy. So uh no childcare. We were both uh I'm very social, like I super social. Um so I'd go out on my own because we had no childcare, and then he'd go out on his own, and um So I just got on my own, I'd go to the cinema, you know, and he had more options for places to be safe than a woman does, but the comedy clubs were good, they were like a uh youth club for adults and people said hello. And uh the comedy was dreadful. Like a hostage situation.

Kate Coomber 15:01

Where were you? Where did you land first? So Adelaide, so it's still there.

Georgie Carroll 15:05

Really kind, gentle place to live. I can't recommend it enough if anyone wants to mark it.

Kate Coomber 15:09

That's what they referred to last night of flat. Yeah. I was thinking of you backstage when when they were making jokes about Adelaide last night.

Georgie Carroll 15:16

Such a kind place to move to as a migrant, and and you it wasn't long before you know everyone, you know, so it was really lovely. Um and then went to comedy, it was awful. I was gossiping in the toilet to someone over a stall and just going, Oh god, this comedy's awful. Turned out that was a promoter's wife and then or girlfriend at the time. So she said, Do you want to have a go? And I was like, Yeah, of course I do. I thought it was karaoke, I did not know people wrote jokes. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Speaker 15:43

Because they do do those, just yeah, like a like an overnight. Yeah. Well, so that was it. He said, Come on.

Sam Miklos 15:47

You just thought they were just getting up there and just having a crack. That's what it looked like. Yeah, but they were actually preparing.

From First Gig to Full-Time Comedian

Georgie Carroll 15:53

They were preparing. So then he said, Come back next week with three minutes. Well, I just went back into the hospital. I did not write one thing, all I did was invite people. I was like, I'm gonna do stand-up next week. Are you coming? And because it was until Wednesday and and shift workers don't care what day it is for going out, if it was a Saturday, no one would come, you know, because that's prime real estate, isn't it? It's Saturday. So yeah, I was like, yeah, everybody came, and everybody came. And I'd not seen it.

Sam Miklos 16:18

You were nursing at that time as well, so you just gathered all your phone. So you got them all in there, but you hadn't planned nothing.

Georgie Carroll 16:27

Nothing. And it's still online, and it's stuff I wouldn't say now. Uh I was quite mean about people on drugs, but it was funny. But it was it was stuff that you might say at a barbecue that you shouldn't really say. Yeah. It was too gallows humour and a bit too mean. Yeah. And I left it online and I've talked about it lots in podcasts to say I've now understand why I wouldn't. Yeah. Because I mean you say old things over your life, don't you, that you think, oh, I wouldn't say that. You wouldn't do that now. Yeah.

Sam Miklos 16:52

It was your first guy. I leave it there.

Georgie Carroll 16:54

I'm like, yeah, so if you go on YouTube, it's my first gig. Yeah. Um and then that was it from the first gig I was taken, and I was like, I didn't even know it could be a job then. I was like, this is never going away. This is insane. Why didn't you love like the You know when you make people laugh at a dinner party? Yeah. Like just eight people or in a staff room or in a night shift, and it you just the to make people feel like that was just and there was like a hundred of them all feeling like that at once.

Sam Miklos 17:23

And had you had that feeling um in healthcare when you were working, like were you the person who was like very different.

Georgie Carroll 17:29

I don't get the re I don't get the closeness and the connection that I got in nursing. I I missed that about nursing. I knew more about some people than I did about my mates.

Sam Miklos 17:38

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 17:39

You know, I really like that. Just the real rapport. Um yeah, and then then this is different. This is like different people every night. The purpose and worth of nursing is way better. Uh the pay and the applause of comedy is way better. Oh, and also doing what you're meant to do. So nursing was something I was meant to do. But you know, imagine let's make it about sport. So lots of people have sport as a dream, they want to be a cricket or a footballer. But to want to be it, and then to find out you're any way good at it, and then to find out you can have some kind of success at it, that never happens to people. I'm like, I the none of this is taken for granted. Yeah, totally. And it's exactly uh every time I thought, oh, don't do it, I'd think, why not me? And what would you tell your kids?

Sam Miklos 18:29

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 18:30

You would tell your kids, go do it.

Sam Miklos 18:32

Don't do it.

Kate Coomber 18:33

So how did it evolve and how did you get to nursing to to now this is full-time, you've left nursing. How did it happen? Nursing was really supportive.

Georgie Carroll 18:43

Considering I was on telly and in the hospital at the same time.

Kate Coomber 18:47

And it weren't like, don't say this, don't say that, like, because sometimes, you know, people are when they come in here, they're like, oh well, you know, yeah, I have to.

Sam Miklos 18:54

And how quick though then did you go from that stand-up comedy, that one first routine, to then open mic night to being on telly?

Speaker 19:01

Oh, that was probably about four or five years.

Georgie Carroll 19:04

Right. So I was like, in the first festival the year after, which is like an hour of your own stuff, um, and then that's pretty quick. I was gonna say, is that fast? I was good quick and got a lot of traction, and then I would say I really liked what I make very early, and then it's not really plateaued, but there's been no evolution. What you get now is still the same person you got at the beginning, whereas other comics might go through a few phases. Yeah. Um yeah, I think yeah, I'm still the same.

Kate Coomber 19:32

Well, when you started last night, I was like, I was just reading that. What you were talking about last night, I was like, I literally just heared you right then, so then you said you thought people just got up and talked.

Sam Miklos 19:41

So are your are the things that you talk about true? Because you were talking about your boys last night?

Georgie Carroll 19:46

Absolutely not. So maybe about my boys, it might be their friends, or if I'm gonna say one about them, I will ask them. And my older one is bang up for it. Although he works in this industry now, so he's a bit more mate, Mum, stop making me act to be so dumb, you know, and I'm like, alright. So he's a comedian as well now? No, he's he's back of house, so he's uh he's uh front of house and he's uh events planning and all of that. Yeah. Um and then the younger one is less likely to be talked about on stage, but in terms of the hospital stories that I tell, I have always been so cautious of never telling anything that's true. Now, people think every single one of my stories is true. I bet they do. I've got a story about a crayon and a penis. I've never found a crayon in a penis. Somebody somewhere will have put a crayon in a penis. Yeah, yeah. I found many things in penis. Yeah. Never a crayon. Yeah. So I would never say anything because somebody would know that I've nursed them and would know that I'm now laughing at it. And to be honest, I love an orgasm as much as the next filthy grub. If that was my way, I would stick a crayon in my penis, and I would be in hospital a lot.

Sam Miklos 20:48

Um so you know it's So do you so then do you then write and write and imagine?

Georgie Carroll 20:54

Well I imagine, or there might be a sentence that I wanted to say at some point to somebody. Yeah. Like um Like to things you're environmentally. Chloroform. You know, and it'll just be a a sentence I've thought of wanting to say to somebody, and then I'll build a whole scenario around that. Right, yeah. But it will never be anything I actually did or said.

Kate Coomber 21:11

And is there any form of just making it up as you go along on stage? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. Yeah.

Sam Miklos 21:20

Yeah. Have you ever really bummed out?

Georgie Carroll 21:22

Of course. Yeah. What does that feel like? I forgive myself. I'm like, it's like the same as what would you want your kids to do? Yeah. It's like grow from it. I just like, so long as I wasn't lazy or drunk, that that's what it was. If you put the effort in and it bums out, it is what it is. Yeah, and it's not it's not life or death, is it?

Writing Jokes Without Crossing the Line

Sam Miklos 21:41

No. So, um looking at that lineup last night, and you've got so many like famous comedians in the world. Yeah. Is there anyone that you haven't met that you're like, oh god, I can't wait to meet such and such?

Georgie Carroll 21:56

Or No, and and it's not really the famous ones, it's more like Um I imagine this industry comedy like a sticker book. So there's venues and there's people and there's you know like all the ones I want. So for instance, I've got a lot of the venues I wanted to put in my sticker book. Yeah. But the big golden shiny one would be Madison Square Gardens. Right. Do you know what I mean? So I've done Opera House, I've done uh uh Leicester Square Theatre, I've done I've done loads of great venues, but like Madison Square Gardens is there, I'm waiting for that. It's a time frame, you reckon? Ah, just it just open. And Montreal Comedy Festival is one, but that's a dead festival now. It doesn't exist in the way that I wanted to do it. Right. But that would have been the main centre sticker. Yeah, yeah. You know, the double spread golden shiny sticker. Yes. And so and so some of the performers I want to meet, it's not necessarily famous. It'll be just like I really loved a poster and I want to know what they made, or I you know, it's that I've heard that they're great fun to be around. So yeah, it's just the peop the people side of it rather than the fame.

Sam Miklos 22:52

If you could sit at a dinner party with some some of the best comedians that make you laugh, who would they be?

Georgie Carroll 22:59

Uh Bob Mortimer would be there. Joe Lyset. Um, I don't know. Who would you have? I don't know. That's it. Like it's really interesting.

Sam Miklos 23:11

Like I was thinking about it.

Georgie Carroll 23:12

I don't think it's conducive to great conversation, so you're sticking a load of comedians around the table. That's what I wanted to know. It's probably not the best scenario for great conversation.

Kate Coomber 23:23

And you appear to be quite similar to who you are on stage. Like you are just you. I imagine that's not all comedians, and there is a la a lot of people who can get up and do a you know, a big thing.

Georgie Carroll 23:38

Very, very uh it's uh stacked, the roster is stacked with shy people. Yeah, that's interesting. Really shy people who sometimes don't have a lot of conversation game off stage, but have amazing brains on stage. Um and that's it's like it's what they're meant to be doing.

unknown 23:53

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 23:54

Yeah, and they're really good comics.

Sam Miklos 23:56

And are the crowds like when like globally, you know, you talked about you being in the UK everywhere. Are they different? Like can you use the set do you get different vibes?

Georgie Carroll 24:05

Um, like I don't you've worked in the NHS, so I'd say they're my the there's definitely pressure this to the Australian system, but not like the NHS. It is uh yeah, Dickensian in times in in how difficult it is over there. So I think because they're more under the pump, they are so ready to laugh when they come out. Yeah. Oh my god, they need it. Um is it more healthcare workers that were really appreciated? And if you say anything about management, they they they cheer and they stamp their feet and like so. You can tell people here a little bit more content. Um Did you ever do management in your nursing career? Never wanted to, never wanted to write a roster.

Kate Coomber 24:42

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 24:43

Never wanted to have people crying in my office.

Kate Coomber 24:45

No.

Georgie Carroll 24:46

Never wanted to do anything but bedside. Like And it does break my brain that it's a job where you can be at bedside because I've 18 years of proper nursing and then I sort of phased out and you just stay in the same band and don't get any real more money.

Speaker 4 25:02

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 25:03

For all that, you know, you have to somehow climb in management to get the more money and Do you feel um now you've stopped nursing, you said you miss it.

Sam Miklos 25:11

Yeah. You've let your art progress. Do you feel like you can talk more freely about things or Nah. No.

Georgie Carroll 25:19

Nah, because I always did anyway. Like what the it's not the climate for firing staff.

Sam Miklos 25:23

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 25:24

And I'm never I'm never ever I hope I'm never cruel about a patient now. Even an imaginary patient. I might be a bit frustrated that they move very slowly, but I'll make it funny and about my adequaties rather than them being so painfully slow at doing stuff. I got the giggles when people were super slow at doing stuff, you know. So it was Um So I No, I think I probably I can probably stick to the code of conduct without even reading it. It's a fairly good set of rules, isn't it? Don't sleep with the patients, don't bitch about them in a pub.

Sam Miklos 25:56

Yeah, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 25:57

It's it's a really understandable set of rules. And it amazes me because I'll put on things, so I've got a clip, like I said, about a crown and a penis, and the amount of nurses that comment under it with what they've found in penis. And I'm like, don't do it. Please don't.

Speaker 26:11

You're gonna get so struck off. Because you did find that in a penis. Yeah.

unknown 26:16

Yep.

Sam Miklos 26:17

Yeah, stop and we find that like when we get our healthcare workers in here, and yeah, they're so they're so cautious about it.

Georgie Carroll 26:23

That's the wildest thing that you've seen, and they're like, nothing really. That's it, yeah. And if I do radio interviews and they say, uh, is there anything we can't ask you? I'm like, Yeah, just don't get to set me to say the funniest thing I've seen in hospital. Yeah. Because it might have been funny for me. Yeah, yeah. That got giggles at such bad shit. I'm not gonna say a real one, but you know, like um it's a story I heard, but I would have lost my shit. So it was somebody doing um a a GTS, so you have to look at their pupil. And fake eyes are a disc, they're not a ball, like you imagine. But yeah, that just she sneezed and it flew out, you know, like and that would that would get me. That would tickle me somewhat rotten if that happened.

Kate Coomber 27:01

Yeah, I could just picture you in a hospital, like nursing, and I can imagine there must be so many moments when you know you and the team are on the ward and then you do go into the staff room or whatever, and there must just be moments where you all just burst out laughing. Like everyone in life when you just go to the room.

Georgie Carroll 27:17

Yeah, I think in appraisals, because I I would do ever I think in the whole 18 years, I think I managed to dodge nearly every appraisal. I was so good at dodging appraisals, and not because I was fighting to turn anything bad, it was just like I've got the skill set I want. Yeah, shut up. Yeah, I'm doing the job. You know, like I I just thought it was ridiculous that I'd sit in front of another adult and go, This year I'm going to learn how to. I'm already doing enough. Yeah, yeah. You know, like that's how I felt about it. So I don't I think I probably had four in that whole time. I would switch jobs, I would anything to not have an appraisal. And um, yeah, I think they're nice if you want to if you're in a space where you want to grow, but I was raising a family, I was migrating, I was doing other things, and they're still doing a great job on the floor.

Speaker 4 27:58

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 27:59

And and so, um yeah, and the general feedback at all four, because they they knew that they weren't gonna make me do anything, uh, was we see people smile that we've never seen smile when you're in work, which is a really well if if that's what I bring to the team, that's that's better than me learning how to do bloody male catheterisation, even though I could do that.

Kate Coomber 28:18

And I think that um there's a lot of talk of like negativity in nursing and it's you know, nobody's gonna be able to do it. Or it's you know, I'm not sure.

Georgie Carroll 28:27

I was unbully unbullyable. People were uh when I went back to England and one of my old nurse managers said you were so hard to manage. And I was like, what? And she said I'd be telling you off, and you go, Oh, are you telling me off now? Like, like I was just not I was just like bulletproof. Yeah, yeah.

Kate Coomber 28:45

And so what is the I you were talking to um a nurse on your podcast recently, Lizzie, which I really enjoyed. Oh, Lizzie Barrett, most beautiful thing, and you talked about it. Yeah, I got the podcast for Swab, that's right, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 28:56

So that just fired that back on. She's a she's a belter, she told me a story and she won't mind me telling you now that we're because it's so general. Because even she, even though she's been out of the games for 20 years, she's like, no, we just don't talk about them. We don't it's their it's their moment, not ours. She was talking about how in Resources she used to let the family watch. So I went for a coffee with her. Yeah, she's a good old little chain smoker in the back garden. Um very funny and very clever. Um and I was like, that's weird, I would always make them leave in a resource, you know. It's like okay, we we don't need them seeing this car crash. Yeah. She was like, no, I would say one person can be in the room, the rest of you stand at the door. She said, and I thought it was really important for them to see that we've done everything we can and that we're also broken when someone dies. And I was like, God, yeah, that would be.

Sam Miklos 29:48

That's a really interesting perspective, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 29:51

Someone I'm related to is very bitter about some hospital treatment, and I just think that I know that they didn't do nothing in their own. If you saw that the lens that they went to, you wouldn't think that they killed him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's really interesting speaking to the old nurses, they're so cool.

Sam Miklos 30:06

Do you think, like, you know, if you think about those days and they lived in the nursing quarters and trained together and are we taking ourselves too seriously now?

Georgie Carroll 30:14

Or yeah, you couldn't give me a curfew though. They had a curfew. Yeah. You couldn't you couldn't tell. You couldn't tell a 20-year-old today that you've got to be in at nine and you've got gotta um do you I think you can still prank each other at work. I don't think you could quite throw each other in the bath and throw a g spray cream on 'em and all of that like we used to. But was that a nice feeling when it happened? Probably not.

Sam Miklos 30:42

Yeah. So we've evolved, but there's But still the real daggy fun that we've always had.

Georgie Carroll 30:46

You know, if someone's getting married, you're making the PP into wedding gear and doing the wedding at work before they go, and you know. Um Yeah, I I still think the c I still think there's loads of fun in it.

Sam Miklos 30:58

Yeah.

Kate Coomber 30:59

You talk about the three stages of nursing. Yeah. It went viral. It really did. For people who might not be familiar with you yet, talk to us about that.

Georgie Carroll 31:08

Oh, hop on YouTube and have a look.

Kate Coomber 31:10

But it's um And what why did it go viral?

Georgie Carroll 31:13

Why did it go viral? It was a time in history. It was COVID, so it was right at the start of COVID, it was International Nurses Day, and it was a good bit of stand-up. Yeah. So every and it was a s a pat on the back for nurses, so it everybody shared it with their nursemate to say, We we love you, go out there, do us proud, you know, like so. Yeah, it's a that must have felt so good. It was mental good. It was mental. So I'm sat there, my comedy world has disappeared. I'm having to work back in the hospital. Yeah. And then I'm sat at home and you just see it. So it went seven million in a day, and you see the numbers just going like that. And I was like, what's happening? It's so hard to tell your teenagers you cannot get self-esteem from social media when they're seeing it. And they're watching it. Because I felt good for all weeks. Yeah, I bet. Yeah, but it's basically, you know, it's it's the evolution of nerds. It's the evolution of nurses, it's dolphin, the babies. They're good, everyone loves a dolphin. Yeah. Everybody nurses. Everyone just loves the dolphin. And they're so happy and beautiful to look at and so playful, and yeah, and but they can only squeak for help and they can't rescue anything. Yeah, and then and then it goes on to like the penguins, so anywhere up to 30 years is the penguins. We are still gorgeous, but from a distance, um, you know, and if you get up close, we're a bit gnarled. It's a he it's a long, frosty winter sometimes. The three decades are epic. Yeah. And so if you get up close, we're all a bit gnarled. We're all missing an eye or a tit.

Speaker 32:42

You know, like there's always something going on.

Georgie Carroll 32:44

Yeah. Um so many bold nurses, you know what I mean? It's a hectic, yeah, yeah. It's a hectic few decades that really takes its toll on people. And we're called the penguins because we waddle in with planta fasciitis or a bad back or all the other things. And then and then it's the orcas at the end, the majestic beasts. So anyone over 30 years. And I commend you if you are someone who has done it more than 30 years, still loves it. If you don't love it, find something else, you know, like because you're the odd one but. You know, you know, if you keep them in captivity, the orcas turn and they start killing the killing the owners, you know. Like you need the the orcas need to be free and they need to be allowed to do what they want to do, and they don't really need to be governed. They know more than the rest of the hospital cut together. You know, they are so nurturing and so intelligent, but they do look like they'll kill things. Um and so, yeah, I really commend you. If you if you are 30 years plus in nursing, still enjoy it, still bring something, still don't say things like, Oh, the new ones don't know what they're doing. You didn't either.

Speaker 4 33:44

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 33:44

You know, they're it this is not a common sense job. Yeah. It's a it's a learnt culture practice. It's and if you go in another hospital, they don't do it like you do it. So it's like you just do it your way. So yeah, if if the if somebody's been doing it forever. I met a nurse who was she'd nursed for 70 years. So get that 70. In the UK, she's still nursing. She was when I was there. 70. So she trained at 15, 16, so it wasn't a degree back then, but then she did that later on. She was just like um in a boarding school for boy for boys, just as their grandma type thing. So I don't think there's a right nursing component now. I think she was just a a a maternal figure. Yeah. I think she probably ended a career there. Yeah, she just lived there, you know. But yeah, she was really cool.

Kate Coomber 34:32

That's just a cool and nursing home.

Georgie Carroll 34:34

Yeah, that's right. Who wouldn't want to be surrounded by young boys? Yeah.

Sam Miklos 34:40

So we've got your podcast, The Swap. Yeah. CMR are now sponsoring the podcast, and season four is kicking off. Yes. Why did you start a podcast?

Speaker 34:49

So this is season four, so I did a podcast back in the day.

Georgie Carroll 34:53

One, because um I tour so extensively that I probably only hit your town once every two years nowadays. Because there's a few countries in the mix. And so I think it's nice to have a free bit of content where I'm still in your ears when I can't sell you a ticket. Yeah. You know, so I think that's a really nice thing to do. Two um I've had other projects on the go, so I didn't really have space in my brain for that for a while. But then all of a sudden I came back and I was like, I don't nurse anymore, so I would love to keep in touch with the ones that do. And something I've uh realised is it doesn't have to be your whole personality. When I was a nurse, it was everything. And I it that that can be a good thing or it can not be a good thing. So it was so now I talk on the swab to nurses about who they are, not what they do. So we've got great ones. I've got a tr a deaf trans nurse on this week. Uh so he's so deaf, he works in cardiac, so deaf that no one's noticed he's trans yet. Because the deaf the fact that he can't answer a phone is getting on their nerves more than anything else. Yeah. So yeah, and he's really cool. Um I got an OnlyFans nurse. Yes. Uh so she'll be on later this season.

Sam Miklos 36:11

So it's similar to you, I guess, comedy and nursing. Yeah, she's very funny.

Georgie Carroll 36:15

Creative careers. She was a n she was a stripper for 20 years before she took up nursing, and she still earns way more from sex work than she does from nursing. She just always wanted to be a nurse as well. So does it good on it? Yeah, she just wanted to be one. And I reckon she's really good at it. So yeah. So yeah, it's just about who we are, and um yeah, it's silly. It's really no, it's really funny.

Kate Coomber 36:38

And I think for anyone who works in healthcare who might be going to work, it's a good quick listen.

Georgie Carroll 36:44

That's it, because I don't listen to podcasts. I was like, what do I want mindstand? Like, and I was like, when I got the producer, I was like, it's gotta be snappy. Like we're good, we're busy people. Yeah.

Sam Miklos 36:54

We are.

Georgie Carroll 36:54

So what's we are busy?

Sam Miklos 36:56

What's next for you? Like, are you do you tour around constantly on the road to national? Two thirds of a year.

Speaker 37:02

Yep. Um my boys are grown. Does your husband come with you ever? Yeah, sometimes it doesn't come on tour tour because it's surprisingly disciplined, is tour.

Georgie Carroll 37:12

So I have to be in bed for a nap every afternoon, I have to exercise every day, I have to eat two fruits and five vegetables.

Sam Miklos 37:18

Yeah, how do you get energized together? Because you are like full of energy coming up.

Georgie Carroll 37:22

Yeah, I just want I just want this to be like I say, this is never taken for granted. So I don't ever want to be too tired to be there. Or and I just every night I imagine is an opening night. Yeah. Like and I get that a lot of my audience don't go out very often. Yeah. Especially with their colleagues. Yes. You know, so it's really cool that they're all there and I just want to make it shiny every night. So no, he doesn't come too often. I got a mum who's started with uh dementia. So it's kind of getting my head round what that is and where again, what do you want your kids to do is a big question I ask with that. If I had it, what would I want them to do?

Speaker 4 37:56

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 37:56

So it's like I would want them to be aware but not stop their lives. I would want them to enjoy me. Yeah. Rather than just do my admin. Yeah. Yeah. You know, all of that kind of stuff. So yeah. And I it it's very different having it in the family than nursing it. Nursing it, I used to enjoy it and finding it less enjoyable when it's someone I love.

Sam Miklos 38:17

Yeah, I was about to ask you that because you talked about old people and working in aged care and loving that and then to have that now with your mum.

Georgie Carroll 38:24

She's around the corner. Well, I hope she is. She could be fucking anywhere right now. I've got her own family, I'm afraid. Yeah. Um, yes. So uh yeah, it's it's it's different. It's different, and it's just that it's constantly you have to have an everyday goal of enjoy. Yeah, don't parent. Yeah. Uh I'm learning stuff all the time that I didn't know when I nursed it. Like I hadn't realised how much insight it robs from people. How so? Right, so she thinks she's doing fine at shit. So then it looks like I'm parenting when I know it's not. And it might be a small thing like cleanliness, and I know she liked it cleanliness. Yeah. Yeah. So now it's like, oh, it's fine. And I'm like, is it? Is it? Yeah, yeah, so it's that. You know, just learning how to be this now. But she she had a horrible childhood and then made mine wonderful. And then she was horrible to her mum, so I'm trying to change that bit of the cycle. You know, like that, I'll try and change that bit for her so that she hasn't got so she's got someone there. Yeah. She's lucky to have you.

Speaker 39:31

Ah, yeah, me uh. Yeah, she's a nice person. Yeah.

Kate Coomber 39:35

Well, look, thank you so much for coming in. Now, typically, with every episode, we make a small donation to a charity of our guest choice. Now I heard on one of your podcasts that charities, you know, here there and you talked about donating blood. Is there a charity that we can donate to today? No, I would like to just put a call out. I would like to put a call out.

Georgie Carroll 39:55

If you I mean you lot do enough with your time anyway, you healthcare workers. But um, yeah, just keep spreading the word about donating blood. I think I've I've worked for that many charities that I'm now suspicious of 'em.

Sam Miklos 40:06

Yep.

Georgie Carroll 40:07

That I'm like, I just don't know which ones are good or not good anymore. We need to go and do it.

Sam Miklos 40:11

Yeah, yeah.

Georgie Carroll 40:12

Uh so it's just like, yeah, just um you can set up a team for CMR.

Sam Miklos 40:15

Yeah.

Georgie Carroll 40:16

So that everybody that donates under CMR is then logged in. You can say, we've donated 500 pints of blood done plasma. Plasma you can do really often. Blood's a bit more of a a spaced out one. But yeah, and register as an organ donor, so that would be my thing. So I don't want your money, I want your organs, I want your blood. Yep. Uh yes, go go and do that.

Sam Miklos 40:34

Well, we will make sure to give our organs and our blood to you. Georgie, thank you so much for your time coming in. Um, we can see you this week still in Brisbane. That's right.

Speaker 40:44

I'm on a bri So if this goes out this week, you can't. Yeah, let's see if we can get it out. Yeah, because you'll be able to get it in Brisbane. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Yeah, and I'm probably back in some of because you're all over the country. We are, you can't.

Georgie Carroll 40:54

Just go on GeorgieCarroll.com. That's what we will do. So go on the Swab. Um, if you think you're somebody who wants to be on the Swab podcast, we just love like I say. If you stick you have to love nursey, and you have to be doing something else that you really love or have a weird backstory.

Sam Miklos 41:09

Yep. Uh yes. Fantastic. Thank you. It's a real pleasure.

Georgie Carroll 41:14

Cool.

Kate Coomber 41:20

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we meet, who for centuries have shared ancient methods of healing and cared for their communities. We pay our respects to elders past and present.