Mammy Banter creator Serena Terry on her upcoming 'biggest tour to date'
"I am going back to Belfast to give the audience the strongest performance they can get from me"
Creator of online sensation Mammy Banter Serena Terry has given an insight into her upcoming tour.
The Derry woman is embarking on her biggest tour to date, with 23 shows announced across the UK and Ireland for 2026. Over the last 6 months, the comedian has tried and tested 22 different types of therapy.
This was in a bid to improve her physical and mental health and calm the chaos that comes with being a busy mum on the cusp of turning 40, resulting in some 'diverse, embarrassing and hilarious outcomes'.
On her new tour, Serena told Belfast Live: “This tour is basically, as a perimenopausal, closing in on 40, mentally unstable mum of two, I'm basically going to take audiences through my therapy journey over the last year. Spoiler alert, I'm still mentally unstable and perimenopausal, but it's really just about taking them through that journey.
“It's called 'Therapy' because when when we talk about therapy, it's very Americanized and we think, ‘oh, it's literally sitting talking to a counsellor or a trained therapist’, but that's just one type of therapy, that's talking therapy, but there's also medicinal therapies, there's behavioural, physical, all of that... any treatment that you think is going to help to improve your physical and your mental health.
“I've been on that journey to try and try out all these different types, but at the crux of it, vocalise how personally I am at the stage of my life - I'm a woman who, rather than just doing the obvious, the basic free stuff that's in front of us, like exercising, not drinking too much, not eating four Chineses a week, and not being chronically online - I source out all these other things that are maybe trending...
"You just go on that continuous loop of self-improvement, and then you give up... it just goes around and around. And that is essentially it.”
She added: “The journey has been absolutely mad. It's still ongoing but I've documented it and I'm continuing to document it as I go on. I'm not just talking at people, I'm not just telling them my story. I'm taking them through it and showing them clips at the same time to give them an experience of things.”
The Derry mum also told what audiences can expect including "embarrassing moments, sad moments, happy moments and moments that would turn your stomach".
Serena explained: “There's still elements of all the broad, relatable stuff like being a mum and being a wife and all of that, but it was more of a passion project for me because I was like, ‘I need to help myself anyway. Why not document this process and use it as a foundation for a show?'”
The Derry comedian is set to play a total of 23 shows during the tour, including the SSE Arena on Friday, May 15, 2026, Friday, April 24, at the Millennium Forum in Derry, and Friday, March 20, at the 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin.
Serena told Belfast Live: “I love playing in Derry, but obviously Belfast is the big house, it's an arena, who doesn't want to play an arena?
“Belfast last year. I can't remember anything about the show. I don't know who was talking or how the words were coming out of my mouth, I just completely underestimated it. Walking out on that stage and seeing that amount of people, the biggest show I did before that was 1000 people, and I've only been touring for two years.
“I think it was ignorance on my part. ‘I was like, no, it'll be grand, it'll be grand’, And I walked out on the stage and I was like, 'Oh holy s***'. Even backstage, I was like, ‘Why am I doing this? Why did I do this? Why did I agree to do this?’
“I am going back to Belfast to give the audience the strongest performance they can get from me… I'm excited about ending in Belfast.”
She added: “There's always nerves. I think if you don't have, if I don't have nerves, there's something wrong. It's good for adrenaline, but it's more about professional improvement for myself as well.
“I really want to come away from this tour saying that is the best tour I could have done. I'm always going to be growing.
“I am only doing it 3 years, but I always feel as if I'm a rookie, and I want this year to feel different. I want to feel more confident in myself.”
Looking back to when she started on social media to now having millions of follows, the Mammy Banter creator said “it’s mad”.
Serena told Belfast Live: “Absolutely bananas. You kind of normalise it, because the majority of my career is spent sitting in the house on my phone myself. It doesn't feel like real life. That was the main reason for going live. Obviously you're getting all this support from millions of people and you're reading lovely supportive comments, but you normalise it.
“I was like, ‘I need to go and do this for me' - to see people's faces for a start, to be social, and also to see if I can actually make people laugh in real life rather than from behind a camera, a script and a tightly edited sketch.”
Tickets for Serena Terry Therapy are available via www.ticketmaster.ie and www.serenaterry.com.
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