Renowned Jewish comedian will perform Dec. 18 at the Big Laughs Comedy Club in New Hope
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
Cathy Ladman, a veteran comedian and actress, has been quietly living among us, with her husband and their seven-year-old daughter, in south Minneapolis since last May. However, she will be returning soon to California, her home base for appearances on TV shows (The Tonight Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Brothers and Sisters, etc.), and travels for stand-up gigs.
Before the Queens, N.Y., native leaves the land of snow and ice, she will perform Dec. 18 at Wild Bill Bauer’s Big Laughs Comedy Club, which is located at the New Hope Cinema Grill.
Ladman, who has been doing stand-up for the past 29 years, talked with the Jewish World last week. She was at home, making applesauce for latkes.
“Since I ate my mother-in-law’s applesauce, I can’t eat store-bought applesauce anymore,” she confided.
In the run-up to the big interview with Ladman, Bauer warned the AJW in an e-mail that the comedian was not coping well with living in Minneapolis; he said she was “slowly losing her mind.”
“I’m okay,” Ladman reported. “I’m really okay now. I think I was losing my mind a couple of months ago. I wasn’t doing very well. When the weather started to change and the days started to get really short, I started to go downhill.”
It sounded like symptoms of SAD (seasonal affective disorder).
“Yeah, maybe I have that — I have a lot of things,” she responded. “So, just add it to the list.”
Cathy Ladman: It’s a tough gig being a comic.
Cathy Ladman: It’s a tough gig being a comic.While she deals with her mood disorder (the AJW staff physician recommended that she try full-spectrum light therapy), Ladman continues to perform in clubs and pursues acting roles.
She appeared in an episode of the hit AMC series Mad Men (as an actress hired for a publicity stunt promoting the ad agency’s client, a ham company).
“Wouldn’t I love to have a recurring role on Mad Men?” she commented, regarding her one-off job. “You know what? It’s the first time that I’ve ever done — and I’ve done a lot of acting — a role on a show that I was really, truly a fan of; so it was really thrilling.”
When I mention her role a while back on Curb Your Enthusiasm, she quickly amends her previous statement.
“Oh, actually, that’s a lie; I’m a fan of that show,” she noted, regarding the HBO comedy series.
Following a discussion of whether Larry David is a schlemiel (bungler) or a schlemazel (hapless person) — probably both — the discussion shifted to the Jews of the Twin Cities. Ladman, who has lived in New York and Los Angeles, mentioned that “Jews are all over” those cities. “But here, when you’re Jewish, for the most part, you either live in St. Louis Park, Highland Park or Golden Valley,” she said. “Am I right?”
Yes, and Plymouth and Mendota Heights, too.
The general comedy club-goer in the Twin Cities would probably perceive Ladman as an East Coast, possibly Jewish, type. She hopes that Jews come out in large numbers to her upcoming show; at the same time, she declares, “I’m not only a Jew, I’m also a person. It’s not like you’re coming to see Jewish comedy.”
Still, the Jewish World wouldn’t be writing about Ladman if she had renounced her Jewish heritage and refused to speak with the newspaper.
And she has a comedy album. “That’s right, I can plug that,” she recalled, about her CD for sale through her Web site, and wherever comedy records are sold. “It’s actually got a very catchy name: it’s called Cathy Ladman. Isn’t that sad?”
The snow was coming down in a fluffy blanket, around the Jewish World offices and by Ladman’s house.
“Oh wow, it really is snowing,” she observed. “‘Jews Who Like Snow’ — that could be the name of my show here.”
There have been a number of stories about male Jewish comedians in these pages, but I was unable to think of a single female Jewish comedian whom I’ve interviewed.
“We’re pretty much the same,” Ladman said, and suggested that the Jewish females of the species, Hebraic shpritzerus, might have slightly higher-pitched voices. “It’s a tough gig being a comic; but like so many gigs, it’s a man’s world.”
Ladman is a delightful interview subject and she’s really funny with her stand-up act. The show in New Hope is a good entertainment alternative; because, as she pointed out, this is a “very alienating time of year for Jews, you know, it’s a tough month; especially now we have Hanuka early, and then we’re in a sea of Christmas.”
On television over the next two weeks, it’s just a series of cheesy Christmas specials, featuring holiday songs written by the great Jewish tunesmiths of yesteryear.
“What’s on Saturday night? Nothing,” Ladman concurred.
***
Cathy Ladman will perform 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18 at Big Laughs Comedy Club in the New Hope Cinema Grill, 2749 Winnetka Ave. No., New Hope. For reservations, go to: newhopecinemagrill.com. For information, call 763-417-0017.
(American Jewish World, 12.10.10)
