By Peter Lindblad
It’s ladies’ night here at the Is This Thing On? blog. Well, actually, let’s just go ahead and make it a whole month, shall we?
High levels of estrogen-fueled funny have been detected in the area, with the sharp-as-a-tack Samantha Bee mixing up a 100-proof cocktail of savvy, sophisticated political commentary with a twist of raunchy humor and Kathleen Madigan bringing her “Boxed Wine & Tiny Banjos” tour to get audiences blind drunk on her earthy, relatable comedy grain alcohol. They are sort of an odd couple of comedy. Can two opposites share Madison without driving each other crazy? Of course. Why wouldn’t they?
With apologies to The Weather Girls, it’ll be raining men, too, in September. Just take a gander at all this comic beefcake coming our way. There’s the hilariously lewd and crude Nick Swardson at Appleton’s Skyline Comedy Club, Sept. 24, and the Ho-Chunk Casino in Baraboo, Sept. 23. At the Milwaukee Improv, side-splitting smooth criminal with a keyboard Craig Robinson will hit the stage Sept. 22-24 for five shows, and the disarmingly coy and glib Jon Lovitz graces the Brookfield club with his presence Sept. 28-Oct. 1 for four performances. And don’t sleep on the nonstop bullet train of laughs that is the high-energy Brad Williams, who is pulling into Madison’s Barrymore Theatre on Sept. 16 (read more here).
But it’s time to break some glass ceilings, especially in preparation for Nicole Byer doing her “Crowd Work” special taping at Comedy on State in Madison on Oct. 8. How cool is that?
The Orpheum Theatre – Madison
Kathleen Madigan (Sept. 22) – Even when she’s just “noodling” around, Madigan elicits laughs with her matter-of-fact irreverence, off-the-cuff brilliance and the kind of smart joke writing that rises above its trailer-park birth and graduates to drinking in dive bars. There’s no comedian you’d rather have a beer with. Trust me. And if you want to blow off your workout, she’d approve of your life decisions. Madigan’s been at this comedy thing for 33 years. She’s only getting better, as her last special “Hunting Bigfoot” on Amazon Prime proves. Speaking of “noodling,” one of her best bits is about a bizarre kind of hillbilly fishing that’s as weird as it is dangerous. You’ve got to hear this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cux05gOi-vc
About five years ago, I interviewed Madigan for a story in Out & About Wisconsin, and she loves Wisconsin. Get a load of this quote: “Yeah, it’s one of my favorite states, just an all-around, five-star state. I filmed a special there and Lewis Black came up for the week just to have fun. And then he opened the shows up, and we really said by the end of the week that we should go to a hospital for IVs … it’s just right up my alley, beer and brats and like all the bad things that I like. I mean, I’d much rather have on the way out of the airport a whole gift shop full of cheese (rather) than clothes or something. It’s just amazing. It’s really, really, really difficult to get good bratwurst out in the wild, out of Wisconsin. I’m serious. People underestimate, first of all, how delicious bratwurst is and then how hard it is once you leave.” We here in the Badger state never want to let her to go. Check out here website here: https://kathleenmadigan.com/
The Barrymore Theatre – Madison
Samantha Bee (Sept. 28) – Bee went “Full Frontal” after departing “The Daily Show,” where she had the longest tenure of any “Daily Show” correspondent, creating innovative, sharply satirical TV that ran on TBS for seven years and delighted in skewering whatever odd or hypocritical happenings that made the weekly news. Described as “fierce and fiery” by The New York Times, she was once featured in Time100: The Most Influential People, and the critically acclaimed gadfly’s bringing her “You’re Favorite Woman” tour to Madison. Here’s her farewell from “The Daily Show” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQMMrMkwspQ and if you want to see what else Bee’s up to, visit her website: https://www.samanthabee.com/
Milwaukee Improv (Milwaukee, or rather, Brookfield)
Just Nesh (Sept. 21) – Otherwise known as Taneshia Rice, Just Nesh is a rising star, a true force of nature overflowing with sunny charisma and righteously funny truth. Want to know what dating a man with sleep apnea is like? She tells it like it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7StWZoZA0TU. Having featured for the likes of Deray Davis, Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps and the aforementioned Craig Robinson, Just Nesh is a ball of fun energy, and you can keep tabs on her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/justnesh/
The Laughing Tap (Milwaukee)
Caitlin Peluffo (Sept. 29-30) – Expect the unexpected with this endearing, offbeat New York City goofball, who’s originally from San Francisco and has no filter. She used to discuss her dating life in shows she performed in her grandparents’ backyard. That must have been cringy, but in the best way possible. Relatively new on the scene, although she’s a familiar face at all the NYC clubs, Peluffo has appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and the “Late Late Show with James Corden.” And she’s expanded her reach, playing festivals across the land, while also hosting a weekly podcast for the past two years called “Good Time Gal.” A regular opener for Matteo Lane, Fortune Feimster, Maria Bamford and Brian Regan, Peluffo (https://www.caitlinpeluffo.com/home-1) is introducing herself to Wisconsin. She can work a crowd, and she likes short men. The jokes come at you fast, so keep up. See the freewheeling Peluffo in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcamfv9LER4.
Comedy on State (Madison)
Chastity Washington (Sept. 28-30) – Let’s start a petition to make Chastity Washington a household name. A favorite of this blog, Washington is a teacher, a native of the North Side of Milwaukee who’s appeared on HBO’s Def Jam and BET’s “ComicView.” Everybody loves the hysterical Chastity, whose versatile comedy has universal appeal, but fellow educators, parents and even students will probably love it more than anybody. She’s a storyteller whose use of imagery is next-level brilliant, and she excels at physical comedy, with a holster full of killer one-liners. Washington’s been working in comedy for 25 years without a blackboard or a net. Thoughts and prayers for teachers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdshpJRD_iA