Kathleen Madigan doesn’t go out and seek comedy; it finds her.
“I don’t really sit down and write jokes, I just wait for things to happen,” said the 50-year-old comedian, who brings her “Mermaid Lady Tour” to the Rialto Theatre on April 7. “It seems to have a rhythm of itself and I don’t really worry about it.”
Take the current presidential race: Things seem to be happening too quickly for her to keep up with. By the time Madigan writes her jokes, she said, the candidates have done even more insane things.
Especially Donald Trump.
“Oh my God, I would have to do cocaine to get as much done as he does in a day,” said Madigan.
Along with pointing out the absurdities of politics, Madigan will bring some religion into her show, which she said will be evenly split between her classic material and new stuff.
Her current favorite joke to tell is a breakdown of the differences between Catholics and Christians.
Though raised Catholic, Madigan has never met the pope. But she knows what she would say to him if she did:
“I’d ask him if anyone calls him Frank,” she quipped.
And she might also talk about Mormons.
In a video available on YouTube, Madigan describes her visit to Salt Lake City, which she said operates a bit differently than Vatican City. On a tour of the city’s temples, she meets Bob, who has a hard time buying what the Book of Mormon is selling, and isn’t afraid to say so.
“That was all true, every word of it,” Madigan said.
While some of her comic colleagues have turned their laughs into box office success, she has no desire to seek out Hollywood. If someone ever made a movie about her life, however, Madigan thought Emma Stone would be best suited for the role.
“She seems funny, she seems to have a good sense of humor,” Madigan said. “Some people say I look like her aunt.”
Madigan also would cast Bernie Sanders to play her friend and fellow comedian Lewis Black because they’re both “very disheveled,” Madigan commented.
After more than two decades on stage, you shouldn’t expect to see any jitters from Madigan. She said she can’t remember performing in front of a rough crowd, and she has never been nervous before a show.
“It would make me nervous if all of a sudden in an airplane, the pilot died, and I had to fly it,” she said. “That would make me very nervous because very bad things could happen and I know I don’t know what I’m doing. But it’s comedy, nobody’s going to die here.”
