Cathy Ladman brings stand-up show to District Live
When Cathy Ladman was a child, she found her parents’ comedy records and played them over and over in her bedroom. She memorized them. One night, her mother came to tuck her in, and at the end of saying prayers, Ladman recited excerpts from the 1961 classic, “Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors.” Though the word-for-word recitation jolted uneasy laughter from her mother, it foreshadowed a lifelong comedy career.
New York City native and 10-time “Tonight Show” guest comedian,” Cathy Ladman brings her self-effacing, selfreflective quick wit to the Hostess City for a down-to-earth night of high-spirited laughter. Her one-woman show kicks off 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, at District Live, 400 W. River Street, Savannah. Tickets are $25.
A few years after her early foray into comedy albums, Ladman was voted class clown, and by high school’s end, she was fully determined to be a comedian. A turning point came after a supportive instructor encouraged her to start performing. Ladman began telling jokes on stage when she was 25 years old.
“My comedy teacher said ‘you’re good to go’ after I’d taken a class. I went to Good Times, my first club in New York City, and did it,” recalled Ladman. “It was Comedy 101. I had a joke about ice cream, the kind that came in a bricklooking box, like Breyers. It had serving suggestions on it, and I thought that was ridiculous.”
Ladman’s comedy tends to lean into day-to-day minutiae, magnify it, then ask questions. As she refined her style, she found talking about herself, or referencing herself from the perspective of how the audience perceived her, was crucial for effective delivery and shared understanding with the audience.
“I was very thin as a young person and one joke I told back then played on that thinness,” said Ladman. “This was a big discovery because it helped me learn how to talk about myself, to be biographical and deal with myself in the way the audience is seeing me. Now, when I get off stage, the audience knows me much more, and that’s what I want. I connect to the audience by revealing who I am.”
A contemporary of Roseanne Barr, both women arrived in Los Angeles in 1985 pursuing comedy. And both were part of a mid-1980s cable TV special focused on women in comedy. The show
Show,” Ladman remembers her choice response to a pompous Johnny Carson comment.
“It was 1989, and I’d been at this for a while, working hard,” said Ladman. “Johnny enjoyed my set and after I finished asked how long I’d been doing this. I responded, ‘eight-and-a-half years.’ And he said, ‘you’re getting very good at this,’ to which, I shot back, ‘thanks, so are you.’ Everyone laughed. It was my gut response because of how condescending his comment was.”
Taken with her fast jab and no-nonsense demeanor, Carson asked Ladman back to the “Tonight Show.” She appeared nine more times on the show over the next decade.
These days Cathy Ladman’s comedy explores life past age 60. She looks at growing older, pokes fun at family issues and tackles relationships from a personal and understated perspective. She takes a swing at dating apps, especially scrutinizing questions posed as get-to-know-you icebreakers. The way Ladman constructs and delivers her material lends itself to a diverse, wideranging fanbase.
Though she’s been to Savannah before, it’s been several years. Ladman jokes, “I’ve generated all new cells since then. I’m a completely new person.” But she does recall the historic district and is eager to walk the cobblestones.
“I’m really looking forward to the architecture,” considered Ladman. “I’m arriving early and will have a little time to walk and see the city. The city’s history and design are fascinating, and I’m looking forward to being immersed in that, and of course, telling jokes.”