Saturday with Norma Sheahan: 'I’m a fully certified lifestyle lunatic, no two days are the same'

Norma Sheahan’s ‘It’s Wine O’Clock’ tour is at The Cork Opera House on Thursday, January 22. Tickets from €28. corkoperahouse.ie.

08.00

My day starts when I go to bed the night before – usually sometime after midnight. Sleep is number one for me and the next day goes well if I’ve had a solid sleep. I get up seven or eight hours after I go to sleep and I’m blessed that I never need to get up and down to the bathroom during the night – praise Jesus and the donkey for that.

I’m not a breakfast person. I spend the first hour of each day hydrating with warm water or herbal teas, followed by a coffee.

11.00

Once I’m hydrated I couldn’t care whether my brunch on a Saturday is chocolate cake, porridge or eggs.

13.00

I’m a fully certified lifestyle lunatic. There are no two days that are the same in my life. To maintain some level of sanity, I try to do something for myself every day, which usually ends up being only five times a week, because the business of life takes it away from me.

The me-things include yoga, jogging, swimming and socialising. I became a yoga teacher last year and offer classes for free to friends and neighbours. Teaching yoga makes me shut up and focus for an hour. I got into yoga in my twenties because I think ‘use it or lose it’. I might go for a 5km rag-run along the seafront or swim 1.5 or 2km in the public pool. No phone, just breathing.

I’ll go for a coffee and a pier walk with friends in Dún Laoghaire near my home or go to watch my kids play GAA or hockey. I might drive to Cork to have a whiskey with my Dad in Buckley’s in Whitechurch.

16.00

On a show day, I’m not good company because I’m completely in my head all day. As preparation, I visualise every word, every step and every movement which takes me many hours.

17.00

I will eat very basic foods on show days so that I don’t get a dicky tummy on stage. Basic foods that you’d give to a baby – chicken, rice, white bread, bananas, apples, crackers and of course, chocolate. I don’t really go to restaurants all that much. That said, I am fond of Riggers South in Glasthule – give me one of their big plates of eggs, avocado and toast any day. My kids hate my cooking, which is great, because they tend to make their own food.

I will eat very basic foods on show days so that I don’t get a dicky tummy on stage.

18.30

When I arrive at the venue, I sometimes put my phone on airplane mode so that I don’t get messages from my kids looking for their mascara or the shoelace. 

I walk through the theatre space ensuring that every prop, light and microphone is in the right place. I do a sound check, and a last minute rehearsal to incorporate info from the local town and insights on the audience into my jokes.

20.00

I throw all the nerves and preparation out the window. I say ‘feck it!’ and I go for it.

I absolutely love being on stage, giving 200% and entertaining audiences. I’ve done it since I was a tiny kid in panto. It’s what I went to RADA for and it’s the thing I do best. I adore getting into characters like Shirley Valentine.

I’m most proud of my latest show, It’s Wine O’Clock. It’s two hours of stand-up comedy that’s very raw, very personal and possibly my biggest challenge to date. Thankfully, audiences are loving it.

23.00

After my performance I’ll usually treat myself to a packet of biscuits or a box of chocolates. I love Prosecco but I’m usually driving for between one and four hours to get home. I like the drive home after a show because I usually can’t fall asleep until around 1am anyway.

Most weekends are taken up with kids’ matches and sports, and collecting teenagers from discos. One of my daughters plays GAA with the Dublin team and another plays a lot of hockey with her school. They all love parties and discos and I don’t mind doing the pick-ups afterwards because I’m usually wide awake anyway. It’s also a great time to bond with them when they’re trapped in the car with me.

If I don’t have a gig on a Saturday, I would probably do my accounts or some marketing. I might focus on my social media content or record voiceovers in my studio at home. I could be doing tapings for auditions or screaming over rejections or learning lines for a film shoot or preparing ideas for my new podcast Fine Whine with Jennifer Zamparelli and Sharon Mannion. We all did years of Bridget & Eamon together so the slagging is mighty.

If I’m not working, I might go on a date night – oh là là! I don’t tend to watch much television or to read much in the evenings, as I’m far too wired, but I sleep like a log when I do go to bed because I’m high octane the other 17 hours of the day.

Norma Sheahan’s ‘It’s Wine O’Clock’ tour is at The Cork Opera House on Thursday, January 22. Tickets from €28. corkoperahouse.ie.