• About
  • Jewish Community Directory
  • Subscription Information
  • Contact Us
American Jewish World
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
No Result
View All Result
Morning News
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts

Born for Stand-up

mordecai by mordecai
May 23, 2020
in Arts
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Veteran comedian Cathy Ladman brings her act to St. Paul Club
By Erin Elliott

For Cathy Ladman, nothing is off limits in her stand-up comedy routine: not her age, her family or her interfaith marriage. “My husband and I are very different,” Ladman says in her act.

READ ALSO

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

“I’m from New York and I’m Jewish. He’s from Minnesota and was raised Swedish Covenant. I don’t even know what that is; I think he made it up. But I think all religions are the same — they’re basically guilt with different holidays.”

Ladman performed two shows at This Place Is a Joke Comedy Club in St. Paul two weeks ago. She will return to the stage there for four more shows July 25-26 and Aug. 1-2.

“I love the Twin Cities and I’m really looking forward to working for these audiences here,” Ladman told the AJW prior to her first St. Paul performance. “They’re great audiences. It’s a great cultured and unjaded city.”

The Twin Cities are also where Ladman met her husband, Minneapolis native Tom Frykman, who is a former stand-up comedian. The two crossed paths at the Comedy Gallery in 1989. Ladman knew that she wanted to perform comedy from a very early age. At eight, she was particularly interested in her parents’ comedy albums, including Vaughn Meader’s The First Family (S’more Entertainment) and Mike Nichols and Elaine May Examine Doctors (Island Def Jam).

“I memorized the Nichols and May album,” Ladman said. “I memorized every single band, every track on the album. At night when I would go to sleep, my mom would come in and I’d say my prayers and I’d do a selection off the album for her.” By the time she was 13, Ladman had already decided to become a professional stand-up comic. She started her career just before she turned 26. “I started at a great time, I started in 1981,” Ladman said. “Comedy was really coming into a big boom then. There was no comedy on TV except, of course, for The Tonight Show and the late night shows. A lot of people would come to clubs. The audiences were great back then. It was sort of a fringe form, standup, and then it started to come in to its own.”

At Catch a Rising Star in New York, Ladman worked with a varied group of performers — many of them Jewish — including Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Elayne Boosler, Richard Belzer, Gilbert Gottfried, Carol Leifer, Marjorie Gross and Paul Reiser.

“There was such good stuff to watch,” Ladman said. “It was just thoroughly inspiring, entertaining and exciting.”

Ladman appeared on The Tonight Show nine times and was the only female comic to appear on the last two Johnny Carson Tonight Show Anniversary shows. She had her own HBO One Night Stand comedy special and was awarded the American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-Up Comic in 1992.

Most recently, Ladman was one of the three finalists in Nick at Nite’s “Funniest Mom in America.” She has guest starred on several television shows, including Just Shoot Me, Everybody Loves Raymond and Caroline in the City, and recently shot an episode for ABC’s Brothers and Sisters that will air later this fall.

Ladman has appeared in movies like White Oleander and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. And though her role was cut from 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War, Ladman did get to work with the film’s director — Mike Nichols.

“Working with Mike Nichols, whom I listened to and memorized his work from when I was a little kid, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him and doing one of the bits with him that I used to do for my mother at night, was an amazing, surreal experience,” Ladman said. “That experience was probably the most full-circle experience I’ve ever had.”

She has also appeared in live Broadway run of The JAP Show: The Princesses of Comedy. She is currently working on a one-woman autobiographical show titled Does This Show Make Me Look Fat, which highlights Ladman’s struggle with an eating disorder.

“It’s really personal and it’s not all funny at all, but it’s definitely going to be funny at times,” she said. “That’s something that I want to take around to theaters and colleges, especially to younger women… I feel like it’s some way I can be of service, not that making people laugh
is not being of service, but just on a different level.”

Over her 27-year career, Ladman said her goals have changed. “At one point, it used to be, ‘If I could get on The Tonight Show, then that would be it,’” Ladman said. “It’s like anything. You have a goal, you reach it and as you’re reaching it, you develop other goals you want to reach. I remember way back, early, like in my first year of stand-up, doing these little tiny rooms in New York, and getting on the 104 bus going up Broadway and somebody recognized me… I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’ve arrived.’”

Ladman’s focus is also on her fiveyear-old daughter, whom she and Frykman adopted from China. In her show, Ladman talks a lot about her daughter — whom she described as “innately funny” — as well as other members of her family.

“The characters in my family are very strong, the personalities are very strong,” Ladman said. “They’re colorful. I don’t know if I talk about them so much as stereotypical Jews as much as I talk about them as
individuals… There are definitely characteristics about my family that are typically Jewish from New York,
but they’re not just cookie-cutter — or hamantaschen cutter.”

 

***

Ladman will perform 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 25-26 and Aug. 1-2 at This Place is Joke, which is located inside the Holiday Inn, 2201 Burns Ave., St. Paul (near the 3M headquarters on I-94).

Tickets are $15; call 651-789-4503 or visit: www.thisplaceisajoke.com.

For information, visit: www.cathyladman.com.

Related Posts

Not Great Britain’s finest hour
Books & Literature

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022
Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’
Theater & Performing Arts

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

December 11, 2022
Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes
Books & Literature

Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

November 13, 2022
Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks
Visual Arts

Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks

November 13, 2022
Strange journey of a prophet
Books & Literature

Strange journey of a prophet

October 18, 2022
‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life
Theater & Performing Arts

‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life

October 18, 2022
Next Post

Travels in the exotic Midwest: Chicago

RECENT ARTICLES

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

January 22, 2023
On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

January 22, 2023
​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

January 20, 2023
In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

December 23, 2022
Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022

About

Since 1912 the AJW has served as an important news resource for the Jewish community. The Jewish World unites the main Jewish communities in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as those in Duluth, Rochester and smaller cities, and bridges the divides between the various Jewish religious streams.

Quick Links

  • About the AJW
  • Advertising Information
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Subscription Information
  • Jewish Community Directory

Contact Us

The American Jewish World
3249 Hennepin Ave., Suite 245
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Tel: 612.824.0030 / Fax: 612.823.0753
editor@ajwnews.com

  • Buy JNews
  • Landing Page
  • Documentation
  • Support Forum

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
  • News
  • Food
  • Health & Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.