one4review | On 21, Aug 2023

This chatty-lady Nurse Georgie is a hoot and can create some proper giggles over much needed uncomfortable procedures. When I am not writing reviews, I am a nurse – a Clinical Educator and I therefore will be coming from a different angle than someone who is not in healthcare. Unlike the was doctor now comedian Adam Kay, Georgie is a bit livelier and less political. Although I felt she really did miss a golden opportunity to slate the chap in the front row from the Bank of England.

An absolute master of banter, Georgie has created a platform for healthcare storytelling so colourfully funny she’ll get you to cope with any grizzly procedure. She’s that nurse on shift that would have come out with that hilarious one liner that would have kept even me going during a gruelling and undervalued 13-hour shift on a busy surgical ward. She reminisces with the audience, who were predominantly healthcare workers, on the first time she inserted a catheter. Looking around the room there were a lot of nods of agreement with her tales of calamities and triumphs.

While we lapped up all the nurse station gossip, this no-nonsense nurse-comedian goes on to tell us in Australia they tie patients to the bed, to be honest I was slightly uncomfortable with the idea, and I wasn’t sure I found this part as funny. She also observes a spectrum of nurses from those who are blessed with youth and beauty to ones that looks like old hedgehogs. This tickled me as it’s just observational comedy at this point, but some felt it wasn’t that good of a representation; also, men are nurses too I wonder what she would say about them and others.

That said, Georgie creates a great show for all, and yes somethings she shares with us some nitty gritty stuff, but I feel she makes a fair attempt to shed some light humour onto a profession that is very misunderstood from outsiders. The vastness of this career is amazing, it’s both a science and an art and Georgie tells us there is a lot to laugh about, because if we don’t laugh there may be tears instead.

****
Reviewed by Jen
Assembly George Square Studios (Studio 5)
August 21-27 at 1930