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<p>&#8220;No, paw-paw, no. You&#8217;re done. You&#8216;re going home now,&#8221; Kathleen Madigan said in a recent comedy routine, illustrating how she would have tried to persuade an elderly senator not to run for-re-election, especially after &#8220;at one point he took imaginary glasses off of his head and returned them to his head.&#8221;</p><p>Retired Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah, who is 84, did leave office at the beginning of January &#8212; probably not because of the comedian&#8217;s advice &#8212; but the tenure of older folks still involved in politics has struck a chord with Madigan, who will bring what reviewers call her &#8220;all killer, no filler&#8221; and &#8220;sensibly straightforward, sassy and sharp&#8221; brand of humor to the F.M. Kirby Center on March 23.</p><p>&#8220;Literally, we are being governed by a Florida bridge club and nobody seems to care,&#8221; she has lamented, pointing out that Dianne Feinstein, D-California, is 85 and &#8220;Nancy Pelosi &#8212; I don&#8217;t know how old she is but I know her teeth don&#8217;t fit right.&#8221;</p><p>President Trump is 72, and Madison points to his age as the reason he might cite a goal of strengthening the coal industry.</p><p>&#8220;You know why you think that, paw-paw?&#8221; she said. &#8220;Because you&#8217;re old.&#8221;</p><p>&#8221;I have met 20 million millennials on the road and I have not met one that I think would be excited to be a coal miner,&#8221; she said, adjusting her voice to imitate a younger persona: &#8220;Wait, what? You want me to get in a roller coaster in the daytime and go in the earth to get rocks. Will my phone work down there? Because I won&#8217;t do it if I can&#8217;t Snapchat.&#8221;</p><p>Listening to her routine, which had been part of a Late Show With Stephen Colbert episode from early September, made this reporter wonder, did Madigan grow up calling anyone paw-paw? Perhaps as a term of endearment?</p><p>&#8220;No,&#8221; she clarified in a telephone interview earlier this week. &#8220;I&#8217;m just saying that in a most disparaging way.&#8221;</p><p>People who grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, as she did, tended not to call their grandfathers paw-paw. We agreed it has more of a Southern ring to it.</p><p>If you&#8217;d like a dose of Madigan&#8217;s comedy before she comes to Wilkes-Barre for her &#8220;Hot Dogs and Angels&#8221; show at the Kirby, you could listen to &#8220;Bothering Jesus,&#8221; her hour-long routine that is available on Netflix.</p><p>The first of those intriguing titles would take too long to explain, Madigan said, though she admits to being a fan of hot dogs and a believer in angels.</p><p>As for &#8220;Bothering Jesus,&#8221; that refers to a bit in the Netflix routine about growing up in a Catholic school where the teachers advised her not to &#8220;bother Jesus&#8221; with every little concern but to approach &#8220;a laundry list of other people first,&#8221; including her guardian angel, a saint or Jesus&#8217; mother. &#8220;Give Mary a shout.&#8221;</p><p>Realizing we had Catholic grade school backgrounds in common, separated by only five years, I had made a laundry list of my own, hoping to compare potentially humorous memories. Did her class genuflect in sync, at the sound of a hand-held &#8220;clicker&#8221; when a nun led them into church? Did they have spelling bees in their classrooms? Was basketball the major afterschool activity?</p><p>No, no and, basically, Madigan played sports, but not at her school.</p><p>So we chatted a little about how much Madigan enjoys golfing and fishing, how she&#8217;s a &#8220;Midwestern, lakey kind of person,&#8221; despite the copperheads and cottonmouths you might find at lakes in the Midwest.</p><p>The comedian enjoys hanging out with her family and said her many siblings don&#8217;t mind if they end up in one of her routines. &#8220;They&#8217;re totally good sports about it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But they all have their own lives so they&#8217;re not fully paying attention.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Comedian Kathleen Madigan, who has won the American Comedy Award for &#8216;Best Female Comedian&#8217; and the Phyllis Diller award for &#8216;Best Female Comedian,&#8221; will bring her humor to the F.M. Kirby Center on March 23. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_kathleen.jpg</photo0><caption0>Comedian Kathleen Madigan, who has won the American Comedy Award for &#8216;Best Female Comedian&#8217; and the Phyllis Diller award for &#8216;Best Female Comedian,&#8221; will bring her humor to the F.M. Kirby Center on March 23. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo | Luzena Adams </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Comedian&#8217;s &#8216;Hot Dogs and Angels&#8217; tour will visit March 23</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>Who: </strong>Comedian Kathleen Madigan</p><p><strong>What:</strong> &#8216;Hot Dogs and Angels&#8217; tour</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. March 23. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-826-1100</p></factboxMeta></div>

Kathleen Madigan bringing ‘sassy and sharp’ humor to Kirby Center