"I took a turn where I felt like I was not in my own body and I didn't know what I was going to say next."
Comedian and podcast host
Joanne McNally has shared her experience of an anxious "turn" while performing on stage.
Joanne joined Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ Radio this morning where she recounted feeling particularly anxious during a performance in Cork on her Prosecco Express tour last week.
She explained that she had a half bottle of wine before going on stage, and then three energy drinks in quick succession.
"I'm guessing that was also part of it," she said.
Joanne then explained how the anxiety took hold.
"I took a turn where I felt like I was not in my own body and I didn't know what I was going to say next," she said. "It was on stage. I could kind of feel it coming on and then my hands start shaking and I lose my words and I don't know where I am in the show."
"It was horrible," she added.
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Joanne told Ryan that at one stage she felt like she should just get off the stage.
Then, to make matters worse, Joanne was heckled by a member of the audience.
"Obviously I have been heckled but not to the point I've really taken any notice," the comedian said.
She then explained that she got completely lost in her set, and couldn't remember what she had just said or what she should say next, but she attempted to "power through" it.
She said: "I didn't want them to see that I was struggling with this going on. And then this young one shouts out, 'Where is this going?'
"I was genuinely about to go, 'I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine because I have no idea what's happening now."
Thankfully, another member of the audience helped Joanne find her place in the set by shouting out "space gins".
"I talk about having gins in the sky a lot," she said. "And then we just kind of carried on. This woman kind of saved it."
Joanne then pledged to not drink energy drinks before her set in the future.
