Kathleen Madigan’s Comic Magic

NEWS & VIEWS

By David J. Spatz 

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Oct. 19, 2011

ATLANTIC CITY — It’s not that comedian  Kathleen Madigan isn’t grateful for the gig when she christens the new Showroom at the Golden Nugget on Saturday (Oct. 22). 

She knows it’s an honor to be the first performer to work the intimate, 450-seat venue that was once the Shell Showroom when the property was Trump Marina. 

But left to her own devices, Madigan would prefer to crack her jokes and spin her stories in a room that’s got some real history behind it. 

“I really love those old, cool, 1,200 to 1,500 seaters with the red seats that are very ornate” and were built back in the Art Deco era of the 1920s and ’30s, Madigan tells Atlantic City Weekly. 

“You find them in towns you wouldn’t even think would have a place like that,” she adds. “In the 1920s, this country had tons of money ... and you find these [theaters] in places like York, Pa.; Lancaster, Pa.; or the Count Basie [Theater in Red Bank], or the New Jersey State Theater [in New Brunswick]. I just did one of those old theaters in Saginaw, Michigan, and it was amazing. I think it’s just awesome that those places are being saved and not wrecked and replaced with something that’s sterile and boring.” 

Comedy seems to play better in the older rooms than in a newer performing-arts facility, she explains, because people seem to get into a better mood in a theater with some history behind it. 

“If you take a performing-arts theater in the Midwest that was built in 1990, sure, it’s new and it’s nice, but it’s also so sterile,” she explains. “There’s no soul there yet [and] that just takes time for a building to have a vibe or something.” 

The newer facilities generally don’t offer drink service during the shows, she adds, which means guests who want to wet their whistle have to wait until an intermission. 

“I’d rather they have a drink in the theater instead of having to go out at half time and get a drink,” Madigan says. “This isn’t the opera. Have a beer, I don’t care.” 

Though they may lack the soul and personality of a theater that’s nearly 100 years old, casino showrooms, new or old, usually aren’t “sterile and boring,” Madigan says.  

Much of that has to do with the fact that in a casino showroom, guests can usually have a drink during the show, even if it means getting the beverage at a bar outside the venue and bringing it in. Essentially, the more the audience drinks, the funnier Madigan’s material becomes, she says with a laugh during a recent phone call. 

Madigan, 46, has a pretty good frame of reference from which to draw her observations about various venues around the country. A seasoned road warrior, she’s been performing her comedy for more than 20 years and spends up to 300 days a year traveling from one gig to the next. 

She’s a veritable comedy machine, constantly writing slice-of-life observational material mostly for herself, but — when time permits — for a handful of other comics, too. 

Page: 1 2 |Next