Ex-nurse quits job to become stand up
A FORMER nurse has got comedy fans in stitches after swapping her bedside manner for the stand-up circuit.
Louise Stokes quit the health service after being bullied, but insists she’s having the last laugh by turning the jibes in to material for her routine.
The 48-year-old is already hitting funny bones on Birmingham’s laughter scene with performances as a “chav poet” and other characters including a singing, bully-plagued goth.
And mum of four Louise will have the chance to make a name for herself among some of the nation’s funniest men and women when she takes the spotlight in a competition which has launched some of the country’s best-known comedians.
“When I left the NHS a few years ago, I never dreamed that it could do anything like this because my self-esteem was so low,” said Louise, from Handsworth Wood.
“I spotted a couple of adverts, one for theatre extras and one for drama classes, and decided to do something new and that gave me a lot of confidence.
“I had been writing poetry which I performed at some spoken word nights a couple of years ago and somebody suggested I gave stand-up a try.
“I’ve really taken to it and love being on stage.
“I’ve completely changed my life after having no reason to think that I would ever leave the health service.”
Louise left her job as a psychiatric nurse at Birmingham’s Child and Adolescent Unit in Kings Heath in 2000, and between raising her four sons, aged 17, 10 and 15-year-old twins, has penned two books, passed a course in theatre management and set up a theatre company.
But she said she had taken the most satisfaction from performing stand-up and has high hopes of winning when she takes to the stage at the So You Think You’re Funny competition heats at the Edinburgh Festival next month.
