The entertaining psychiatrist: keynotes with real substance and genuine laughs

Watch Dr Jo on stage

The laughs, the silences and the substance underneath.

A rare find: a keynote speaker who is a psychiatrist, an author and a stand-up comedian

Dr Jo Prendergast delivers entertaining, engaging and informative keynotes shaped by more than 30 years of clinical mental health experience. A HarperCollins-commissioned author and award-winning stand-up comedian, she has platformed her ideas through her book When Life Sucks, extensive media interviews across NZ, Australia and the UK, and sold-out seasons at five Australasian comedy festivals.

Dr Jo trained at Otago Medical School and gained her Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Fellowship in Sydney before returning home to New Zealand. Since 1994, she has worked with teenagers and adults across public mental health services and private practice, building specialist expertise in burnout, severe childhood trauma and ADHD.

HarperCollins commissioned her first book, When Life Sucks, a frank, funny, practical guide to supporting teen mental health. It is now sold across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and she has appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live, The Project, TVNZ Breakfast, Channel 9 Today Extra, ABC Weekend Breakfast, RNZ Saturday Mornings and The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show, among many others.

Dr Jo also performs professionally as a stand-up comedian, with three solo shows: The Cool Mum, Cancer and Cartwheels and Dr Jo Prendergast is #coping. Her shows have sold out whole seasons at the Adelaide Fringe, NZICF and the Wellington, Dunedin and Nelson Fringes, with sold-out shows at the Melbourne and Brisbane Comedy Festivals and a 2024 Edinburgh Fringe debut at the Gilded Balloon.

Dr Jo is passionate about building human foundations for high performance: moving beyond heroics to sustain a resilient, productive workforce. Her three signature keynotes, Beyond Heroics, What Should I Say? and Rethinking Talent, draw on the clinical depth of a psychiatrist, the timing of a comedian, and her extensive lived experience of resilience through challenges. Dr Jo also has two corporate comedy keynotes developed from her solo touring comedy shows: Dr Jo Prendergast is #coping and Laughter is the Best Medicine.

Audiences laugh hard, think harder, and walk out with something they will actually use.