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W W W. S A N TA B A R B A R A S E N T I N E L .CO M
with Mark Léisuré
Mark spends much of his time wandering Santa Barbara and environs, enjoying the simple things that come his way. A show here, a benefit there, he is generally out and about and typically has a good time. He says that he writes “when he feels the urge” and doesn’t want his identity known for fear of an experience that is “less than authentic.” So he remains at large, roaming the town, having fun. Be warned.
Chumash Casino Goes Madigan
“M
aybe I’m psycho,” Kathleen Madigan was saying over the telephone the other day. Not because she’s actually wondering about her own sanity, but just because the things that make the comedienne nervous don’t jibe with what most people might think. “I threw out the first pitch at a St. Louis Cardinals game and I almost threw up,” she explains. “Even though I played softball and was pretty good at it. Just throwing a ball in front of all those people freaked me out a lot more than anything I ever do on stage. I could talk for an hour without thinking about it.” Which is probably a good thing, since Madigan’s job involves doing a lot of talking to people. She’s one of the nation’s top female comics – although she’d just as soon prefer that you didn’t throw in the adjective, thank you very much, as in “I’m pretty sure I got treated the same way on the road, and if it turns out you paid the guys $100 a week more, I don’t want to know about it now!” – and she got there pretty much by doing the same thing night after night, just talking to people about her life, beginning way back when she was working as a bartender at a bowling alley, 30 years ago. “It was an open mike night, and I just did it for fun because we used to go over there to drink,” she recalls. “I didn’t think anything of it. It was like an outof-body experience. Like a car accident, but not a bad one. I remember doing a joke about Shirley MacLaine’s book Out on a Limb that was out then, and something about Catholic school. Now I wished I had taped it because I can’t remember much else. But I thought it was kind of fun. But I wasn’t very nervous because it didn’t bother me to get up and talk to people. Maybe I’m psycho.” Anyway, at the time, comedy seemed like a good career option for Madigan, who was working as a journalist (smart move to get out, Kathleen!) in St. Louis. “I wasn’t really very good. I was doing it by default because I couldn’t do math or science. And in the Midwest there are only five career options they tell you about. I could write a sentence but I wasn’t into it... And with journalism, you have to have a lot of passion for it, because it’s not great money or benefits.
Kathleen Madigan brings her stand-up routine to the Chumash Casino on Thursday, August 22.
Hmmm, I guess that sounds like comedy.” Madigan, who performs Thursday night, August 22, up at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, fought her way up the comedy ladder step by step, “Like a roller coaster when it’s climbing – chukka, chukka, chukka – no big break,” she says. She persevered through the tough times and then appeared on Leno, Letterman and Conan and eventually Last Comic Standing. She starred in two HBO specials, three Comedy Central specials, her hourlong Gone Madigan is in rotation on Showtime and CMT, and she has four CDs and two DVDs on her resumé. At this point, she’s one of the rare comics playing 1,500-seat arenas consistently. And she’s done it all never having written an actual joke. “It’s all from my life. Every single word that comes out of my mouth is true and really happened, almost wordfor-word the way I say it. I don’t even know how to write jokes. I just tell you what happened.” Like the recent time she spent two hours on the phone with Apple tech support without having her problem resolved. “At the end, [the rep] said ‘I can’t take it anymore! Why don’t you go take a class at the Apple Store at the mall.’ I’m like, ‘What? I didn’t pay attention in classes I paid for in college.’ So that will show up on stage. S*** like that.” Given that scenario, as you might imagine, Madigan has little use for podcasts, even though they’re all the
rage in comedy these days. “I tried it. I didn’t like it. I’m over it. You’re sitting in your basement and only a few hundred people listen to it. No. Not for me. If you want to bring your s*** to the bar and talk to me, OK maybe I’ll do it. Otherwise, no. It’s not real.” Neither, surprisingly, is Madigan interested in following other stand-ups’ path to greater success via a TV sitcom, even though her every-woman persona would be a perfect fit. “I’m really not interested,” she says. “There are so many people involved in the decisions and so many of them have no idea what they’re talking about. I love what I do. I get up and talk about my life, have a good time, and two hours later we’re done. That’s it. It’s life. I went with my friend who was a guest star on a show and we were there from 4-10:30 at night for a five-minute thing. What’s fun about that? I don’t get it. I can’t imagine doing that let alone a movie. Jesus God! I got other things to do. No thanks.” So by her own estimate there really isn’t much left for Madigan to conquer. She says she wouldn’t mind writing jokes for politicians if they’re willing to be self-deprecating – “If Hillary Clinton would only joke about her pants suit, she’d get elected so easily. Heck, I’d write for her for free.” – but Madigan says even that’s not a true goal. Because she doesn’t have any. “Oprah drove people crazy with vision boards and dream lists. No, no, no. It’s so much pressure. Jesus Christ! Just go have fun. And stop worrying about it. But maybe that’s just the Irish in me.”
Season Tickets In case you missed it, single tickets for UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 20132014 season went on sale last Saturday, but being as we’re in the dog days of summer, there’s a good chance you can still get your precious pair for nearly all the events. Some pretty cool stuff, too. And it starts with a bang with actor/ director Alan Alda (from M*A*S*H
fame) yakking it up at the Granada on October 1. Also in the clever/comedy vein: NPR’s Ira Glass is coming back as part of an unusual program called “One Radio Host, Two Dancers,” The Onion – Live (which had to cancel last season) will try again in November, Dave Barry talks at the Granada in January, The Second City performs “Happily Ever After” in February and Garrison Keillor is due in April. A&L covers classical, pop music, theater, dance, film and much more, so be sure to peruse the schedule (if you somehow didn’t receive two or three in the mail, they’re also at newsstands all over town).
Tales in the Valley Meanwhile, speaking of Santa Ynez, Tales from the Tavern has announced its next season of six singer-songwriter concerts up at the Maverick Saloon in the valley town. The slate includes returning roots rockers Dave Alvin and Ryan Bingham plus local resident Karla Bonoff. You might want to hurry here, too, since the series was 80 percent sold out even before they announced the artists last week. Now that’s trust!
Around Town This week, get wild and wacky with Josie Hyde as the Santa Barbara writeractress performs Ayahuasca Visions – her one-woman journey to self-discovery through the extract of the hallucinogenic vine – at Center Stage Theater Friday and Saturday, August 16 and 17... Ratchet up the reggae with Rebelution and Matisyahu at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Sunday, or take a trip down progressive jazz-rock’s memory lane with Steely Dan and the shockingly good opening act Deep Blue Organ Trio at the outdoor venue on Tuesday, August 20... Meanwhile the Memphis Music Fest at the Granada re-teams Stax soul survivors Eddie Floyd, Booker T. Jones, The BarKays and more for a show that should even get a man of leisure up and dancing in the aisles.
N A R R AT I V E J O U R N A L I S M F R O M T H E H E A RT O F S A N TA B A R B A R A
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