Kathleen Madigan

Kathleen Madigan transformed herself within a decade from a waitress and newspaper reporter based in St. Louis, Missouri, into a globally recognized stand-up performer whose professional résumé rivaled those of far more seasoned acts. After earning a journalism degree from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, she impulsively stepped onto the stage for the first time and began testing material at open-mike venues throughout the city. She walked away from her day job two years afterward and organized a route across the South and Midwest that established her as a full-time comedian by age 24 in 1989. Her engaging manner and precise comic timing quickly made her popular among club audiences, resulting in a Best Female Comedian honor from the American Comedy Awards in 1996.

That same personal appeal and inventive material soon drew interest from network casting directors, leading to appearances on national programs such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. She independently issued a concert recording called Live in 2003. The following year she joined the cast of the second season of Last Comic Standing, where she failed to reach the final round yet acquired a broader following that prompted Warner Bros. to sign her; the label put out her album In Other Words in the first months of 2006.

Her profile expanded further during the early 2010s with the broadcast of the specials Gone Madigan in 2011 and Madigan Again in 2013, each of which also appeared in audio form. She maintained a steady schedule of live dates and television spots, one of which occurred on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In 2016 she issued the filmed and recorded concert Bothering Jesus.