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Kathleen Madigan

"Best Female Club Comedian of The Year - 1996"

Kathleen Madigan won the American Comedy Awards "Best Female Club Comic." Her television credits include "Evening at the Improv," "Comedy on the Road," "Comic Strip Live," the HBO special "Women of the Night III," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Bob Hope's Ladies of Laughter," "Caroline's Comedy Hour" and "The Late Show with David Letterman."

Who did Jay Leno call one of America's funniest female comics on The Howard Stern Show? Who did Garry Shandling ask to be a contributing writer for the 2003/04 Emmy Awards? Who did Bob Costas say was one of his favorite comedians? Who was the only comic on NBC's Last Comic Standing to go unchallenged by her peers? Who was the only 5'2'', Mid-Missouri Hoop Shoot Champion - St. Louis native comedienne Kathleen Madigan.

She has landed commentary appearances on VH-I's 50 Greatest Celebrity Feuds, E! Entertainment's 100 Greatest Celebrity Oops!, Hollywood Squares, CMT, FOX Sports Net's The Best Damn Sports Show, Style TV's Style Court and is a contributing writer for US Weekly's Fashion Police.

Comedy Central is a popular venue for Kathleen's topical, sarcastic take on life's everyday occurrences. She landed her first pilot, The Couch, produced by Happy Days alumnus Henry Winkler. She starred in her own half-hour comedy special Comedy Central Presents: Kathleen Madigan and the USO Comedy Tour Special. She returned from Melbourne, Australia where she starred in the Comedy Central special The World Comedy Tour.

Idaho Press-Tribune -- Article and Review
John Fraley

Comedienne Kathleen Madigan is back in Idaho, and she just hopes her second visit isn't as dirty as her first.

In 1994, Madigan covered the prestigious Annual Spud Day for ESPN2's "Sportsnight," where the comic/sports reporter announced play-by-play on such events as a tug-of-war over a gigantic pit of potatoes mashed by a cement truck and a french-fry eating contest.

This time, the comedienne is performing stand-up at Boise's Funny Bone today through Sunday.

It should come as no wonder that Madigan crafted a sizable amount of sports-based material following her assignments with ESPN2; but of course, her sports slant may have been brought about partially by her male-dominated upbringing.

"I grew up with four brothers," she said in a recent phone interview, "so I was forced to watch sports. Once you kind of learn what football is, you kind of get addicted."

Apparently, once some television hosts experience the red-haired, freckled Madigan's routine, they kind of get addicted as well."

"The Tonight Show"'s Jay Leno invited her to his show on three separate occasions in 1994 alone.

Madigan's 1997 credits included a taped HBO one-woman comedy special. She also turned up three times on "Make Me Laugh," as well as appearing on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect."

The comic's unusual gigs of late include a performance in, of all places, Hong Kong last year, about which she said, "I couldn't believe they flew us over there, 'cause you've got, what, a billion Chinese -- and you're telling me none of them are funny?"

Madigan, who lives in Southern California, doesn't mind the change of pace that a prolonged weekend in Boise offers.

"To tell you the truth, I love it (Boise)," she said. "And I'd tell you if I didn't. It's one of the last cities left that still feels like a small town - but it's not."

Not as small as Shelley, at least.

Live Magazine - Up Next -- Article and Review
Diane Lander

Watching Kathleen Madigan perform must be what it was like watching Joe DiMaggio play baseball. The 1996 winner of the American Comedy Awards' Best Female Stand-Up is a natural. All five-foot-one of her oozes confidence as she glides past a cheering crowd to take the stage at the Improv in Los Angeles. Launching into her act -- a blend of cunning Jeff Foxworthy and Roseanne with heart -- Madigan waves her hands, points, brushes and slaps signals like a third-base coach. She begins by poking fun at "Star Search": "I would go on as a country singer, 'cause they always win." Twitters from the audience. "I even wrote my own country song: 'He Used to Hit Me but Now I Miss Him.'" The crowd laughs heartily. "Thank you for getting that," she says sincerely, "In Alabama, they're, like, 'Well, sang it!'" The place erupts.

This petite headliner recently hit success after a quartet of "Tonight Show" appearances and a star turn on the "Late Show with David Letterman." Though she's booked 35 weeks a year on the international comedy circuit, Madigan managed to squeeze in a set on the "HBO Comedy Half Hour," a special slated to run sometime this year. And last fall she released her first CD, titled "Live." A serious sports nut, Madigan also works as an on-air reporter for ESPN2. (She once covered a rattlesnake roundup in Texas.)

The rise of this spunky 32-year-old St. Louis native, middle child of seven Irish-Catholic kids, has been markedly steady. Shortly after graduating from Southern Illinois University in 1987 with a degree in journalism, Madigan took a stab at stand-up. "I was working as a waitress, when I went to this comedy place on open-mike night and thought, 'Hey, I can do that,'" she says. "So on a dare, I did." She landed a day job as editor of the Missouri Athletic Club's Cherry Diamond newsletter, but continued performing comedy at night. "For 50 bucks and a T-bone, I opened at Hooters," she recalled.

The owners of St. Louis' Funny Bone Comedy Club saw her perform, offered her a gig, then sent her on an eight-week tour around the country. "It was a big deal to walk away from an assigned parking spot and health insurance," Madigan says. Her risk paid off, though: In 1991, following in the footsteps of Paula Poundstone and Ellen Degeneres, Madigan appeared on HBO's "Women of the Night III," a career-making showcase for female comics.

In the future, Madigan hopes to work in film and series television, then settle down in Ireland - as a sheep farmer. "Here's all you gotta do," she explains. "Get a bunch of sheep. Spray paint them on each side. Wait on the porch all winter with your sheepdog, Guinness. In the spring, send the dog up to get the sheep. Your job? Feed the dog."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Article and Review
Dick Richmond

Comedian Kathleen Madigan sat on the couch at her home in Des Peres and listened as her father, Jack Madigan, rhapsodized about her achievements. Among the many: On Friday night she will make her debut on the "Tonight" show.

Of course, this latest television appearance only caps an already impressive list including Bob Hope's NBC Thanksgiving special "Ladies of Laughter" and HBO's "Women of the Night." And she was once again nominated Best Female Club Comic at the annual American Comedy Awards this year.

But the particular accomplishment her lawyer father was glorifying at the moment happened in 1979, when Kathleen was 14 and working as a bus girl at a lodge at the Lake of the Ozarks. Apparently, the bus boys and bus girls at the lodge weren't cleaning up after themselves, so the general manager told them, "If you're going to act like pigs, you're going to eat like pigs."

"She told me that they had to eat off the floor," Jack said, his eyes flashing a bit with the fire of memory. "I said, 'Kathleen, you're in a non-union area of Missouri, but you don't have to tolerate that.'"

So she didn't. After seeking her father's advice on procedure, she organized her fellow workers and picked her moment, which happened to coincide with the busiest time of the day.

"She walked up to the general manager and said to him very nicely, 'Sir, we're not eating off the floor anymore.'"

When the boss disagreed, she and the other workers walked out.

"We were all fired," Kathleen said, her eyes rolling skyward as they often do when she's delivering a punch line.

"But they were all rehired," Jack remembered, glowing over the victory. "And they never had to eat off the floor again."

Vicki Madigan, Kathleen's mother, who had been quietly listening to the recitation, chimed in: "Jack didn't want her to have that job in the first place. I had my own seven children, plus two nieces and a nephew. Ten children altogether. I took them all out and got them jobs."

Coming from such a large family has its advantages, not the least of which is being able to use it as fodder for comic material. Kathleen has found much in hers.

"Mom and I gang up on Dad," Kathleen admitted, grinning.

"Jack is always complaining about her jokes about him," Vicki said. "He says if I didn't laugh at her, she'd quit doing it."

"Actually," Jack said, "in a family as big as this one, you have to have a sense of humor to survive. And Kathleen was always funny."

"And she has always wanted to be an entertainer," Vicki said. "She wanted to be a rock 'n' roll singer."

Or at least that was one possible career. She graduated from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville with a degree in journalism in 1987.

Explained Kathleen: "I'm the middle child - three older brothers and one younger, and two younger sisters."

"My brothers are so smart, I could never compete with them. So I picked journalism by process of elimination. I was lousy at math and hated science. When I finally narrowed my career possibilities down, it was either bowling or journalism."

She never mentioned whether she was a good bowler. But she did work for the North County Journal and edited the "Cherry Diamond," an in-house newsletter, for the Missouri Athletic Club.

She quit the job at MAC to become a full-time comic.

"I can write well enough, and I wasn't bad at the job. But I never really wanted to be a journalist."

"There were kids at SIU who volunteered to investigate toxic waste dumping in Southern Illinois. I looked at them as if they were out of their minds. First of all, I wouldn't know toxic waste if I stepped in it. More than that, I really had no interest. So I would do a salad bar feature or something like that."

"I thought the MAC job was fine, figuring I would work there until I found something that paid better. But I kept thinking, 'This is so boring.'"

Despite being the punch line of some of her jokes, it was Jack Madigan who first encouraged his daughter to try an open-mike night at a comedy club. He knew he had a funny girl on his hands.

In 1989, she took his advice and the following week was offered $50 for five minutes of making the audience laugh. It was the easiest money she had ever made in her life.

It didn't take long for her to start performing regularly at the Funny Bone in St. Louis, where she quickly graduated to featured act - the one that opens for the headliner.

"After that, I went out on the road, playing a lot of B clubs," Kathleen said, "making maybe $200 a week."

Jack said that by then he was in a position to help. "I told her to go for it. I'd back her."

To call her rise in comedy meteoric would be to understate the situation. Lots of entertainers have been working twice as long as she has and not accomplished half as much.

"That's because there are comparatively few female comics out there," she said, modestly. "I'm not surprised that I get work, because Al Canal [manager of the West Port Funny Bone] will make phone calls for me all over the country."

"Then, too, since there is a shortage of female comics, I think if they find a woman who doesn't spend an hour male bashing or talking about her boyfriend or woman things, they think she has something to say. It is that particular element that makes me stand out."

"I'd like to think that most of the things that pop into my brain would not be over anyone's head. In fact, if you can't follow my act, you have a serious attention problem," she said, laughing again.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Deborah Bradley

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."

Mid-County Journal - Article and Review
Steve Richardson

Comedian Kathleen Madigan thinks she'll wind up going to hell. In fact, she's counting on it. Why? "Because I'll finally get to meet Madonna," she says, as the sold-out crowd at the Westport Funny Bone roars. "I do hope she goes to Heaven, though. I'm counting on her to set the curve."

Madigan was working extra hard during a recent stint at the Funny Bone - not only because she was battling a cold, but because she had family and friends in the audience.

"You don't want to screw up in front of people you know," she jokes.

Born and raised right here in St. Louis - Florissant, to be exact - Madigan is one of the fastest-rising comediennes on the comedy circuit. But like most comedians, Madigan started modestly.

"I watched open-mike night one night and thought, 'I can do that,'" Madigan said. After about a year of doing open-mike nights at local clubs, a fellow comedian got her a gig opening at the South County Funny Bone in 1989. She made $50 for 10 minutes of work. "I remember thinking what easy money it was," she says.

Not long after that, Madigan left her full-time job as an editor of the Missouri Athletic Club's publication, "Cherry Diamond," and began doing stand-up for a living. She quickly became one of the most in-demand "middles" -- the industry term for the second comedian in a three-performer night of comedy.

Now, at the age of 27, Madigan is the headline act everywhere she goes. Madigan has delivered her jokes in comedy clubs across the country. She has been on such television shows as Bob Hope's "Ladies of Laughter," "Comic Strip Live," "Evening at the Improv" and "Women Of The Night III."

Madigan recently learned she was nominated for the Best Female Club Comic award at the American Comedy Awards which airs in March. She also received a nomination last year - when she was "middling" most of the year - but lost to Cathy Ladman.

"I don't have anything planned to say if I win because I don't think I'll win it," Madigan says. "I didn't have anything planned last year, either."

But the modest Madigan may be surprised when the envelope is opened this year. Her shows sell out regularly across the country, proving that she is one of the most popular acts around.

A by-product of her popularity is that she is on the road a lot - 45 weeks in 1992. But you won't hear her complaining.

"I get bored if I'm in one place too long," Madigan says. "I mean, you gotta love the job. The hours are great. I work about one hour a day, and I get to play golf all day long."

But, she said, it's always fun to come back to her home, which is now in Des Peres.

"I like being back here and seeing everybody, but I really do like traveling and visiting all the cities," she said.

Some other bits from Madigan's repertoire:

-- "The last bus I rode there were 65 people on it, and I was the last one on. As I looked around I thought, I should call 'Unsolved Mysteries' and tell them, 'Hey, I found everybody.'"

-- "Yeah, I get those maternal feelings sometimes, like when I'm laying on the couch and can't reach the remote control. I think, 'Yeah, a kid would be real nice right now.'"

-- "Don't read "Cosmopolitan" for the advice. They told me that if I want to meet a man, I should go to the Laundromat. Yeah, like I wanna be 50 and dating a guy who can't afford a dryer."

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