Dubliner McNally opens up the show in much the same way as many a stand-up, getting to know her audience, telling us a bit about her life and saying how awful it is to be a woman in her thirties back living with her mother. Conventional observational comedy, and some decent laughs.
But then things take a darker turn as she introduces us to the diet she was once on, the one that would make her more attractive, more successful, happier. Except it didn't of course, because she was suffering from bulimia which did huge damage to Joanne herself, and to the people in her life. It's an honest, weird, passionate, painful and sometimes funny story that takes the audience into the mind of an addict, all pretence and lies and delusion, through to the eventual admission that she had a problem, that she needed, and had to be ready to accept, help.
It's a powerful performance, and a valuable contribution to the understanding of an all too common mental health issue. Plus you'll never look at Louis Walsh the same way ever again.
If you want your comedy to be light and frothy this isn't the one for you. But anyone looking for a show that teaches them a bit more about life is well advised to see Bite Me.
Joanne McNally : Bite Me is in Assembly Roxy at 18.20 until 28 August.
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