Day: December 19, 2010

In "Gone Madigan," Kathleen Madigan's first hour-long stand-up set recorded for DVD since 2006, she proves that she remains one of the best women, if not the best, working on the stand-up comedy circuit. She does so simply by using her common-sense philosophy to analyze the madness that surrounds us. Of course, it helps to have the backing of another popular comedian in Lewis Black, who jokingly calls her "my BFF" before introducing her to the stage in New York City for the taping of "Gone Madigan" (it debuted over the weekend on Showtime, and will be available on DVD as of Jan. 11, 2011). After first ingratiating herself with the audience by acknowledging her perennial obsession with using WebMD to self-diagnose her imaginary diseases, Madigan notes that, much like Black, she has gone overseas several times to entertain the troops. In fact, Madigan and Black usually go on the same USO Tours together. Whereas Black talked on his most recent DVD about a gig on which they shared the bill with Vince Gill, Madigan poked fun at sharing bunk beds and troop visits with Kellie Pickler. "Kellie's hilarious, but she doesn't know why," Madigan noted. More impressively, Madigan took a look at the cityscape of Afghanistan, and after receiving a military briefing about how much American efforts have improved it, observed: "That's amazing. When we're done, we should...