Comedian Joanne McNally looks back: ‘In my 20s, my bulimia was spiralling out of control. My breakdown was the making of me’

The Irish standup and writer on three-day benders, her accidental comedy career, and her feral stage persona

Born in County Roscommon in 1983 and raised in Dublin, Joanne McNally is a standup comedian and writer. Her breakthrough came with the one-woman show Bite Me, and her subsequent tour, Prosecco Express, included a 78-night run at Dublin’s Vicar Street. She co-hosts the hit podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me with Vogue Williams. Her standup show Pinotphile is touring Ireland and the UK until December. She hosts Unacceptable with Ed Gamble and Richard Ayoade on TLC.

I’m three and in the garden of my Aunty Joan’s house in Dublin, in knee-high socks with those little black crossbar brogues everyone had, a white polo neck and little bows in my hair.