Kathleen Madigan Gone Madigan

The first time I encountered the comic styling of Kathleen Madigan I was aimlessly channel surfing in the wee hours of the night. I stopped for a moment on Comedy Central after hearing an audience emit a roar of laughter. Curious, I had to pause to see what was up. Ms Madigan has the look of a normal, Irish Catholic housewife, the sort that helped populate the old neighborhood back in Brooklyn. I soon realized that at least for that night my channel surfing was over; I was quickly compelled to watch the entire performance. After that I began to notice this quick witted woman more frequently. Each time I watched her performer her stand up act I knew I Was in for some laughs. When I received her latest comedy concert, ‘Gone Madigan’ on Blu-ray and DVD I was anxious to see what she had in store. Suffice it to say I was not disappointed. You might think it is a waste of bandwidth to get a comedy special on Blu-ray but it is amazing how noticeable the difference is. Not only do the details of fabric texture, flesh tone and hair appear incredibly realistic but the audio has just the correct amount of reverberation so that you feel as if you are right there in the front row of the auditorium. Blu-ray literally pulls you into the room proving a firsthand experience that was not as conspicuous with the standard DVD edition. I performed a little experiment playing both editions back to back and the sound field expanded considerably with the high definition version. It is great to demonstrate the advantage of a lossless audio codex such as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.

Madigan reminds me of that mother of one of your friends you knew while growing up. Her house was always the one you drifted towards perpetually hanging out. She was the grown up who was quick to crack a joke and while not prone towards a never ending onslaught of profanity was not overly concerned about letting a dirty word or two slip out usually resulting in general snickering among the neighborhood boys and a disdainful scowl from our mothers. That is the appeal and the foundation of Madigan’s talent; she says what is on her mind and more times than not it happens to coincide with what the audience was thinking. Her first segment sneaks a little of that in as she describes a recent trip to entertain the troops in Afghanistan. Her group consisted of herself, Lewis Black, Kid Rock and American Idol Kelly Pickler. She paints Kelly as a bit of a blonde joke albeit more naïve than dumb. Their tour guide goes into all the roads, medical facilities and schools America has built since we invaded. Madigan muses that perhaps we should invade Detroit next. It’s a touch of political commentary innocuously slipped in that catches the viewer. She continues on in this vein discussing the National Guard and how no one thought they would leave their home state when they signed up. the very conservative minded may find her humor leaning a bit to the left but Madigan is unapologetic openly owning her opinions and the hilarious fashion she uses to present them.

Madigan displays an uncaring attitude but as evident by her contemporary political and social remarks it is obvious she is a highly intelligent, well informed woman. She devote a section of her routine to not caring noting how she was walking down a street in Canada with a lit cigarette in one hand and a hot dog in the other. Madigan was approached by someone with an environmental pamphlet wanting to talk about the future of the planet. Madigan pointed out that she obviously doesn’t care about herself so what made the other person think she would care about the content of the leaflet. Madigan visits an assortment of topics ranging from religion to health care. In a visit to Utah she went on tour of Mormon temples which provided ample fodder not only to lampoon their beliefs but to get a few zingers in on her own Roman Catholic upbringing. At least she’s unbiased in her remarks. She combines her distain for the restrictions of medical insurance with the heighten security at airports. Madigan suggest solving two problems at once by replacing the full body X-rays with a free CAT scan. She also offers a solution to illegal immigration; turn it into a reality show. There are plenty of immigrants working hard and also a lot of native born Americans who contribute nothing. She would vote in an illegal hiding in a garage who is actually a doctor and vote out the ‘Octo-Mom’. As she states these comments there is a part of your mind. On the other side of the coin some of her vocal impressions are stereotypical, politically incorrect and potentially offensive. The audience is into her which is not surprising since it was recorded in New York City's Gramercy Theater. She might not fare as well with a Bible belt audience but if you are in the mood for some outrageous comedy this disc is definitely worth checking out. The extras are limited to a behind the scenes featurette and a brief interview. On the Blu-ray both are presented in 480i.

Posted 01/12/11