Her smoky voice suits the antiquated image of the caustic journalist, her original profession.
"I'm often mistaken for a 14-year-old boy," quips comedian Kathleen Madigan, who will perform at the Dallas Improv tonight through July 5.
Madigan is just in from London, where she's been taping a show with Wayne Cotter, the host of "Comic Strip Live," for the Comedy Channel. Jet-lagged at an Atlanta hotel, she hazily discusses her transition from journalist to comedian.
"I hate day jobs," says Madigan. "It's too early in the morning."
She graduated from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville with a journalism degree. She says she hated math and science and lacked the patience to teach.
"So if you [fail] at everything else, what else is there?" she says.
Once graduated she tried the dreaded day job writing features for a wire service in St. Louis and then editing a business journal, "The Cherry Diamond." After about three years, she decided it wasn't for her.
On a whim, like so many comedians, she tried open mike night at a club in her hometown, St. Louis. But she wasn't smitten by the craft immediately.
"I would've never gone back if it wasn't for a guy who offered me 50 bucks and a T-bone if I'd perform at Hooters," Madigan says. "I figured this was an easy way to make money."
From there things moved quickly. She quit her day job in August 1989 and took a six-week stint around the country working the nightclub circuit for The Funny Bone. She hasn't stopped working.
When asked if she plans to do standup comedy long term, she replies in her flippant style, "My family asks me that same question. 'Are you still doing that comedy stuff?' No I just landed an HBO special and I'm going to quit now."
Madigan's comedy has the strong bite of Paula Poundstone with a unique touch of her own. She's one of the few female comedians who tackles sports humor from a non-female stance.
"A lot of women do the 'I hate sports act' or the dumb blond routine," says Madigan. "I try to write the joke so if a guy says it ... it doesn't make any difference."
For now, she says, the nightclub circuit suits her fine, but she confides her long-term goal is to have Buddy Hackett's job at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas -- "make a million dollars a year, work Monday and Tuesday and play golf the rest of the week."
She says she wouldn't mind a job on a sitcom either, but as she points out she's not yet living in Los Angeles and taking acting classes.
Her last trip to L.A., to tape her third episode for Fox's "Comic Strip Live," didn't encourage the young comedian to pack. Because of the riots and the citywide curfew, the taping had to be rescheduled (the segment aired Saturday on KDAF Channel 33).
Jokingly, she recalls, "I watched the riots from Orange County as if it was in another country. It was really awful, my friends and I were all grounded for the night."
But if she did make it to the City of Angels, finding a decent sitcom might be difficult. She says she doesn't care for much of what's on television. "ALF! What was that all about? There were grown adults depressed for a week when it was canceled."
At 26, she misses the bite of "old" series such as "All in the Family" and "M*A*S*H." But she does admit to liking "The Bob Newhart Show," "Saturday Night Live" and "Unsolved Mysteries."
She says she watches the latter just in case Hackett's job doesn't become available. Perhaps Robert Stack will say, "She should be 26 now and is the lost heir to $40 million which is sitting in a Kansas City bank."
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