Moms just want to have fun
‘3 Blond Moms' perform family-friendly show at Bethesda Theatre
The "3 Blond Moms" are much more than peroxide pretties; in fact, one of them is a brunette.
"Cathy [Ladman] didn't get enough highlights," quips the trio's founder, Joanie Fagan, about her fellow cast member.
But the broad's sweet demeanor doesn't fool anybody. It soon becomes apparent that the three performers made it to Montgomery by pounding the comedy club pavement before ever sinking their polished pinkies into dirty diapers.
For 90 minutes, Fagan, Ladman and Beaumont Bacon use all their show-biz skills and muse on being wives and mothers. The act is reminiscent of Bill Cosby in his heyday, Fagan notes. And for folks looking for laughs, but leery of the seedy side of standup, she promises that "3 Blond Moms" won't make folks blush.
Ladman became a mom at 51, bringing a war-weary New York edge to her material. But she stays clear of her personal battle with anorexia, which she is making into a one-woman show.
Of course, as soon as cast member Bacon hears that Ladman is working on an anorexia show, she wisecracks, "I hope she isn't going to try it out at a dinner theater."
Bacon, who Fagan calls the most "energetic" of the comedians, became a stay-at-home mom after years of performing. Now she is working again, in "3 Blond Moms."
The moms don't bring up the nasty side of marriage — divorce and dangerous dalliances. Instead, they focus on "what moms talk about, and not just kids, but also fitting in at PTA meetings and diets," Fagan explains.
And while one of Ladman's clean bits was censored on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," she insists, "There was nothing scatological about the [colonoscopy] joke. I just talked about finally being able to lie down and rest." She promises this won't happen in Bethesda.
In fact, real-life situations are the trio's inspiration. About "90 percent of what we say is true, and the rest is exaggeration," Fagan notes.
Fagan, who was once a cast member on "The Drew Carey Show," has no trouble interweaving her life into her act, especially since marrying into her Cleveland-born husband's large family. Crafting is her mother-in-law's favorite pastime, and she is in constant competition.
"I'm one craft project away from snapping," she says.
Although Fagan was born and raised in Brentwood, Calif., she likes to think of herself as Midwestern, with her plaid outfits and her Bedazzler always ready. As for her husband's four sisters, "I made them bridesmaids at my wedding and then they all got pregnant. Dressed in green bridesmaids dresses, they looked like pine trees. I told them I was going to line them up according to their trimester."
Fagan dreamed up "3 Blond Women" while doing standup.
"I noticed that when I talked about my kids, people would lean in and listen," she recalls. "I realized I could fill a niche."
At first, Fagan dubbed the trio Hottie, Nasty and Perky. When she realized the act was attracting a "wholesome crowd," and while she expected to be forever perky, she decided to tone down the moms' descriptives. Now, Ladman is earthy, and Bacon is feisty. Hair color also has lost its significance as performers are replaced, but this fact upset one Texas reviewer.
"He thought the show was great, but couldn't get over the fact we had one brunette," Fagan notes.
The women, who range in age from 35 to 55, all began doing comedy in the 1980s and '90s, when comedy clubs and standup were at their heyday.
"Everyone was starting, and you couldn't walk two feet without stumbling over another comedy club," Bacon remembers.
Fagan's career began during her student days at the University of Southern California; she booked other comedy acts as well. Soon, she was traveling around the country, once performing at 15 college campuses in 15 days.
"I would get in my car, drive six hours, do an hour and do it all over the next day. I'd never let my child do that now," she confesses.
Ladman's comedy career began early when she and her first boyfriend, Jerry Seinfeld, whom she met on a teen trip to Israel, decided they wanted to be comedians. For a short time, she took a slight detour, teaching 8th-grade English in Philadelphia. She "finally got up the nerve to perform at Grandma Minnie's Comedy Club."
Soon afterward, Ladman was trying her luck in Los Angeles, but lasted only four months.
"My fears and demons got in the way," Ladman says.
She returned to New York and ran into her ex-boyfriend, who was now performing on "The Tonight Show."
Seinfeld persuaded her to keep trying, and after taking classes and going to open mics, she "never looked back."
During those early years she recalls performing seven days a week and feels "lucky to [have] come into comedy when it was burgeoning."
Bacon likes to say she became a standup comic after seeing "the light and I had to do five minutes." For comedy club newbies, she is referring to the colored lights that give comedians the green light to perform and tell them when to exit the stage. Working in Houston, she was a song-and-dance girl until she tried improvisational theater, and soon traveled the country as part of a touring company. Honing her ensemble skills, Bacon headed to Chicago, becoming the first female director for the Groundlings, working with Kathy Griffin and George McGrath.
"I thought sketch comedy was so beneath me, and I thought doing it was whoring out," Bacon says. Gradually, she saw the error of her ways, and became hooked.
"I didn't care about drunks or hecklers. I wanted to test a joke. I just plowed right through; I wanted to get the bit out there and hear the audience's response," she says.
Besides, "it was the heyday of comedy. We were dropping acid and playing Frisbee," Bacon jokes.
A few decades later, finding humor in her "9,000-year-old marriage" is easy. Still, with 10- and 7-year-olds, she's happy to report she is through with diaper duty.
The comedy business has changed. With the advent of cable TV, finding stage time can be nearly impossible. In Los Angeles, comedians line up for hours waiting to get on stage for open mic nights, Bacon says.
So, of course, for these moms, a chance to kvetch with other parents just might be the beginning of a not-for-blonds-only support group.
"3 Blond Moms" will perform June 17 through June 28 at The Bethesda Theatre, 7719 Wisconsin Ave. Show times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 to $50 and are on sale at www. Ticketmaster.com, or call 202-397-SEAT. For more information and for groups of 10 or more, call 301-657-7827, ext. 107.
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