Nurse Georgie Carroll on Infectious: 'This level of ego is usually found in teen boys or world leaders'
From NHS wards to Fringe stages, the UK-born former nurse brings 20 years of frontline experience to her new show
Nurse Georgie Carroll came to comedy late, after a 20-year career in healthcare. But she’s made up for lost time as an internationally touring stand-up and former Fringe Best Comedy award winner who’s currently developing a loosely autobiographical sitcom for ABC. Naturally gregarious, indiscreet and an assured storyteller, UK-born Carroll attributes her skills to life experience and innate relatability.
‘I have the right amount of ego for a 50-year-old woman that has saved lives, made humans and been on telly,’ she states. ‘This level of ego is usually found in teen boys or world leaders. But I think it’s more at home in me. It suits my stories because I want the audience to celebrate themselves and a lot of my audience is me.’
Notwithstanding some ‘survivor’s guilt’ about having left nursing at a time when the vocation has anecdotally become ‘harder and harder’, Carroll reckons her audiences are up to 70% healthcare professionals. And, in creating new show Infectious about ‘people being people, and how enjoyable they are, especially the freaky bits’, she wouldn’t have it any other way because medics ‘hunt in packs, love a laugh, are good sorts and have no idea what day it is, so weekdays sell like weekends.’
Nurse Georgie Carroll: Infectious, The Garden Of Unearthly Delights, 13 February–22 March, times vary.