Joanne McNally: ‘I feel very lucky but there’s still a lot more to do’

By Lynn Rusk, Press Association

Irish comedian Joanne McNally has reflected on her success, saying there is still much she hopes to achieve.

The 43-year-old comedian, known for her bold and confessional style, is currently on a world tour with her stand-up show Pinotphile and is also appearing on new comedy panel show Unacceptable.

McNally moved to London during the Covid-19 pandemic to further her comedy career.

With the live comedy circuit largely shut down at the time, she and fellow Irish presenter Vogue Williams launched hit podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me, which went on to become a major success.

She has become one of Ireland’s most successful female comedians and is set to become the first Irish female comic to headline Dublin’s 3Arena this December.

“I maybe didn’t expect to grow so quickly but I wasn’t messing around,” McNally told the Press Association, when asked about her rapid rise to success.

“I don’t have a partner, I don’t have kids, I don’t have a dog. This is all I do, and I’m obsessed with it.

“So I knew that once I got a sniff that I could make it work for myself and make a living from it, I just put my foot to the gas and kept going and I will keep going. I would have kept going regardless because I love it.

She added: “I think I had the opportunity to put everything into it, and I did. I’m not saying other people don’t, but I do think I’ve made some personal sacrifices to do it, because I think, as a woman in particular, if you’re trying to maintain a relationship or have kids and all that, having a career that takes up all your time isn’t really sustainable.

“So, yeah, I feel very lucky, but there’s still a lot more to do.”

McNally, who is relatively new to the panel-show circuit, joins actor and comedian Richard Ayoade as a team captain on Unacceptable.

The six-part series, hosted by comedian and podcaster Ed Gamble, sees comedians battling it out to convince a studio audience of some outrageous opinions.

McNally said that, although she has built a successful career without appearing on panel shows, she believes there is now a resurgence of innovative comedy formats on television.

“Because I’ve managed to build a career for myself without a huge amount of telly, I hadn’t really felt that panel shows were the be-all and end-all of TV the way they once were,” she said.

“But I think if you make something good, people will watch. And there does seem to be a bit of a resurgence now, particularly in different styles of comedy shows like Last One Laughing. It’s a completely different style of show and it’s amazing.

“And I think Unacceptable, if I may say so ourselves, there is nothing really like it.

“It’s an unusual format, it’s kind of zeitgeisty in a way, because there is a kind of tension sometimes with what can you say and what you can’t say.

“Where this is so tongue in cheek with these ludicrous opinions that if they clipped up on YouTube and did us dirty, we’d be cancelled immediately, because you’re saying mental stuff, but obviously we know that.

“And I think that’s maybe why people enjoy watching it, that you’re kind of saying technically unacceptable opinions, but it’s all in good spirit.”

Unacceptable premieres on TLC on Sunday, July 5th.