Kathleen Madigan is a breath of fresh air in the world of female comedians. In a time where women traditionally resort to self-deprecating humor or rely on the differences between the genders for the source of their comedy, Kathleen gives us actual comedy that has virtually nothing to do with her race or gender. She’s here to tell jokes and make you laugh.
Her consistency is what makes her so much fun to watch. The jokes keep coming and the audience keeps laughing throughout her 60 minute routine. Even though there aren’t very many belly laughs, she keeps you laughing mildly throughout and there are very few dry spells. In other words, she doesn’t hit any home runs with her jokes, but she hits dozens of singles. That’s meant to be a compliment because making someone do anything for 60 minutes, let alone laugh, is a tough challenge for anyone.
Madigan is very much an “I don’t care” comedian with a straightforward view on the world and what’s going on. She has no delusions of grandeur about how she looks, acts or thinks. That stance has been done before, but usually comedians err on the side of beating you over the head with it. With Kathleen, that’s just the way she is. It’s not her schtick, she just really has an honest way of looking at the world. She utilizes this viewpoint when she says things like “if God didn’t want us to eat cows, he should have made them harder to catch”. More often than not, I found myself agreeing with her, after I got done laughing at what she said.
All comedians these days have a tendency to get political and Madigan takes a few swipes at both parties, but she stays neutral for the most part. I liked her take on the Obama campaign’s “hope and change” slogan and the comparisons she made between the excess of hope in the younger generation and the void of hope in the older generations. But her funniest bit came early on when she was recounting a USO trip she made with Lewis Black, Kellie Pickler and Kid Rock. Granted, those three are ripe for plenty of jokes, but her impersonation of Pickler and insights into Kid Rock had me laughing out loud. She actually used voices very well for someone that’s not traditionally an impersonator. Any time she went into someone’s specific vernacular, I found myself chuckling.
As a fan of standup comedy, I can definitely say that Madigan is on my “must see” list for comedians I want to see in person. This particular routine was hilarious and one that I’ll definitely be watching again. If you haven’t seen anything from Madigan and you’re a fan of standup, I think you’ll be pleased with Kathleen Madigan.
Video (1080i HD, Widescreen): Video is fine, not much you can do for a stand-up comedian.
Audio (DTS-HD 5.1): I could hear everything she said so no problems here.
Interview (3:41): This is an interview with Kathleen Madigan herself, she’s pretty funny in this too and quite frankly it’s short enough that it’s worth a watch. Shows her going through her “process” of writing jokes.
Behind the Scenes (15:26): This is a little featurette showing Kathleen with her family, from picking them up at the airport to hanging out with her until she’s on-stage. Interesting to see where she came from and all but does drag on a little. Still short enough to not get really boring.
