Kathleen Madigan feels Michigans pain.
I sell more tickets in Detroit than in any other place than my hometown, and I think thats because it has so much in common with St. Louis, the comedian said. You had the auto industry and we had the breweries, working-class jobs that paid well enough and included benefits.
Now were the murder capitals; we flip-flop every year. Its like One more person and we could have beat them! Its all kind of a reflection of whats going on, though youre building a new Chrysler plant.
Its a welcome change from the last time she took a ride through Detroit, passing mansions that looked more like crack houses, she said, with big signs that read Please dont burn these down on Halloween.
I wanted to say, Why not? she said. It seems as if theyd be doing the city a vor.
After more than 20 years in the business, Madigan says shes seen the bigger picture, and with that comes the realization that whats happening in her milys small corner of the country is true in Cleveland and hundreds of other places around the country.
&8226; Who: Kathleen Madigan: Gone Madigan
&8226; When: 7 p.m. Sunday
&8226; Where: Temple Theatre, 203 N. Washington, Saginaw
&8226; Tickets: $50 premier; $29
&8226; Info:templetheatre- or 989-754-SHOW
For 15 years, Id play a city for a week at a time, which really gave me time to check things out, she said. Id suggest the same to politicians. They travel, but they dont take time to see whats really happening.
Even with her ster paced schedule today, zooming in for a single night, I see whats being discussed, she said. Across the Midwest, half of the schools are closing,Nike soccer shoes but no one in politics is talking about education. Were putting out morons and then we get mad when we run into them at customer service.
Theres hope for America, but when we dont even answer our own phones anymore, you know somethings wrong. Jon Huntsman,nike air max shoes. whos running for president, is fluent in Chinese and that gets my vote. He can tell them The checks in the mail when they call looking for their money.
Its the sort of real-life humor she brings Sunday to the Temple Theatre in Saginaw, on the tail of the Showtime special, Gone Madigan, now available on DVD, and winning the SIRIUS Challenge Cup,nike outlet store. named by listeners as the radio services vorite comedian.
Forget the blue jokes; Its not in my make-up, she said, and it doesnt translate well to the late-night television shows that embrace her routine. In addition to her appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan OBrien, she won Last Comic Standing in 2004 and came back as a talent scout in 2007.
It was great because you reach people like my brother and his wife, who come home from work, eat, put their kids to sleep, catch Law and Order and maybe a few minutes of the news before going to bed.
I already had a following by the time I competed, but this added on a new audience. It was a nice bump.
Shes become a regular with another crowd off the beaten path, entertaining troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Theyre the best crowds of all, she said, adding that it helps when youre the only show in town. Well go to Afghanistan for Christmas and its freezing Nike mercurial vapor superfly, and you see people out there, four hours before the show, sitting in their chairs. Were so happy they showed up.
Theyre fighting a war thats kind of forgotten, Madigan said, and not even mentioned on a daily basis in the news anymore.
We have more than 100,000 people there, the population of Little Rock, doing their job and doing it for us, she said. I put on one of those 35-pound backpacks and fell over. Weve been there in the summer when the temperatures reach 120 degrees and theyre still wearing long sleeves and heavy flak jackets.
Its awful; if it was me, Id lay down and cry. Id rather storm the beaches in Normandy where you might get some wine and cheese at the end, or humor magazineinvade Germany and have some bratwurst and a beer. Here they have goat meat and something they tell you are eggs but you know they really arent.
Still, she said, the troops are so excited when they bring the tour, it makes it a lot of fun, even though it takes a few weeks to fully recover from the experience.
Its like a little city on the base, with people doing secretarial jobs and laundry and everything, she said. And they must have figured a way to sleep, though we havent yet.
Having fun is what brought Madigan into the business in the first place, a release with friends from her 9-to-5 job at a magazine following college.
After we were done doing magazine stuff, wed head for the comedy club, where they had an open mic, she said. I thought I can do that and then it became a way to make some extra money.
The hobby turned into a career.