Stand-up comedy queen Kathleen Madigan has been performing regularly on the Las Vegas Strip for years now, and is beyond excited to return to her current Vegas headquarters, the Aces of Comedy series at The Mirage. While some comedians hit the road again as soon as possible after last year’s entertainment shutdown, Madigan held off until she was ready, staying busy by launching a comfy new podcast called Madigan’s Pubcast.
How does it feel to be coming back to Las Vegas for the first time in a long time?
It’s so exciting, because I love everything about The Mirage. As much fun as it is to have the show, I really miss video poker. I haven’t been in a casino since (the pandemic) started. The Mirage is my favorite. It is the perfect-size casino, and I do all the stuff, the gambling, I go to the pool, and it feels like the most manageable one. Some casinos are so damn big. I did a corporate gig once at Mandalay Bay and oh my god. It was a really nice room, but I had to ask, do you have anything less nice that’s a little closer to Earth?
Traveling isn’t just a big part of your job, you actually enjoy it. Was it tough to be stuck in one place for a long period of time over the last year and a half?
I was fine with it. I have a place in Missouri and a place in Nashville, on two different lakes, and the stuff I want to do outside, fishing, golf, hiking, it was all open anyway. I went to a few places I’ve never had time to go, like Muscle Shoals to see those great recording studios. I did weird stuff that was safe and available. And I have a house I’m never in, so it was nice to live in it for a while. Every day was, “I wonder what’s in this closet? Oh, I put this here four years ago.”
The name of your tour is Do You Have Any Ranch? Can you explain that a bit?
My sister has a friend who has these two teenage girls, and they all came to Nashville to go out on the lake and do stuff, and I didn’t know them that well, but for three days, no matter what I said to them, all they would do is look at me and say, “Yeah, so do you have any ranch?” It was so dismissive of the fact that I’m speaking to you. But also, like I said to my sister, I don’t remember a time when my brain was so empty of thought and worry that all I could think of was salad dressing. Then I went to get them the ranch, and the following day it was, “Yeah, do you have any more ranch?” Where did it go? You ate that whole thing? So it became this thing. Now whenever my sister or I just can’t take any more, when you’re just over it, we just say, “Yeah, do you have any ranch?”
That was something you discussed on your podcast, Madigan’s Pubcast, which you started last year as well.
I told that story on the podcast and people started sending in ranch things. I mean, I’ll have some with chicken wings, but I don’t usually buy it. Did you know there are, like, 20 million kinds of ranch? This country has really lost its mind with ranch. There are only maybe five kinds of blue cheese dressing, comparatively.
But yeah, the podcast, I never would have done it any other time, but I thought this was a way to at least stay in touch with people. It’s been fun, and the YouTube comments we get do feel like communicating, even though it’s still online. It’s really just what happens when I go to my lake bar and see my idiot friends who are always there, and it’s just what we would talk about.
Do you think audiences have a greater appreciation for live comedy now that they had to go without for a while?
I don’t know, because I waited longer than the youngsters did (to perform again). There’s a club in Nashville I’ve been (playing) since June, but there’s a lot of (comedians) who had been there for a long time so it was normal to them when it wasn’t to me. I’m just glad I can still make 25-year-olds laugh. I was worried about that, because performing was like, half of these jokes are about you. And I’m not sure they know that; maybe it’s not registering that I’m actually making fun of you.
The Mirage, Aug. 6, 16+, 702.792.7777
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