Stand-up In 2014, after McNally had received treatment for bulimia and anorexia, director Una McKevitt invited her to perform in her new show, Singlehood, which was about a mixture of seven people discussing their love lives. At the time, McNally was unemployed but agreed to do the stageshow and recalled the joke which first established her as a stand-up comic: "I’ll stop you there – you know you’re bald? This conversation sounds like you think you’ve got a full head of hair."
Separated at Birth sold out
Vicar Street in May 2015 and went on a national tour around
Ireland. The two were guests on
The Late Late Show hosted by
Ryan Tubridy on
RTÉ One in March 2015. McNally supported Gallagher on his stand up tour
Concussion, around Ireland in 2015, and she was then signed by Irish comedy agency
Lisa Richards. She reunited with McKevitt to write a one-woman show about her bulimia, called
Bite Me. McNally performed
Bite Me at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in
Assembly Rooms in
Scotland August 2017. She performed her show Wine Tamer with success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and later also at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. She started touring her show "Prosecco Express" in 2022, in UK and Ireland. which included multiple sold out dates at Vicar Street in Dublin and the London Palladium. Her tour Pinotphile began in 2025, going across cities in UK and Ireland including Dublin, London and Manchester. Joanne is set to bring Pinotphile to Dublin's 3Arena in 2026, making her the first Irish female comedian to host a solo show on that iconic stage.
Television McNally was cast as the new co-host of
RTÉ2 satirical comedy sketch TV show
Republic of Telly in October 2015, replacing
Jennifer Maguire who left to star in the Irish comedy
Bridget & Eamon with
Bernard O'Shea. McNally quit the comedy show in June 2016. McNally was a semi finalist in ''
So You Think You're Funny and Funny Women''. She has performed at comedy festivals
Vodafone Comedy Festival,
Cat Laughs,
Galway Comedy Carnival,
Body & Soul Festival, Jestfest and Bray Comedy Festival. In April 2022, she appeared in Channel 4's
The Big Fat Quiz of Everything and then in 2026 she appeared in Channel 4's
The Big Fat Quiz of Telly. In September 2023, McNally co-presented
Joanne & Vogue’s Sex Drive with
Vogue Williams; a one-off special shown on
E4. McNally was a contestant on the seventeenth series of the
Channel 4 show
Taskmaster which premiered in March 2024. She finished in second place. McNally is set to appear on the
second series of
The Celebrity Traitors in autumn 2026.
Podcasts McNally co-hosts the award winning podcast
My Therapist Ghosted Me with Vogue Williams since April 2021. Her company, Prosecco Pig Ltd which produces the podcast posted a post-tax profit of €674,823 in 2025. McNally hosts the Joanne McNally Investigates for BBC Sounds which has had two series, the first was 'Who Replaced
Avril Lavigne?" and the second series was 'Did the Furbys Spy on Us?' Miranda Sawyer of
the Guardian reviewed the first series of the podcast: "Initially, I found the constant diversions a little trying, but that’s because I thought this was an investigative show. It’s not. It’s a comedy one." Hollie Richardson also of the
Guardian differed: "She’s not even a Lavigne fan, which only adds to the hilarity of her
Stacey Dooley-like ambitions." Fiona McCann host of the We Can’t Print This podcast and frequent contributor to the
Irish Times said of the podcast: "Who replaced Avril Lavigne? Who cares? It’s McNally, whose bawdy, brazen brand of genuine pulls the listener through a shaky premise on thin scaffolding with the sheer force of her personality, who turns out to be irreplaceable."
Writing McNally writes a monthly column for
Stellar magazine called "Jo's World". Her book of essays,
Femme Feral, is scheduled to be published in August 2026. == Personal life ==