'Blonde Mom' creator gives motherhood a punchline
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So three Blonde Moms walk into a room ...
Waiting for a punch line?
Me too.
If you’re a mom or just plain know a mom, I’m told you’ll appreciate the comedy show, “3 Blonde Moms,” coming Saturday to the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake.
It’s described as a “semi-scripted PG-13 stand-up comedy show jam-packed full of hysterical material about being a mom, having a mom, kids, schools, husbands, neighbors, in-laws and more.”
Intrigued, I talked with the creator and Blonde Mom, Joanie Fagan.
If you were a fan of the “Drew Carey Show,” you might remember Fagan as Faith, the president of the Optimists Club. She’s also appeared in several films, including “Angels in the Outfield.”
A stand-up comedian, Fagan warmed up audiences for at least 20 TV shows, including “Frasier” and “Will and Grace.”
She started talking about being a mom, something comedians weren’t really doing at the time. The audience loved it. So Fagan recruited two moms quite different than herself.
“My first cast was Haughty, Nasty and Perky,” Fagan said. “It’s like we were the comedy Spice Moms. Nasty was too nasty, and Haughty wanted to have another child.”
So the show now features Beaumont Bacon, who played one of Renee Zellweger’s office friends in “Jerry Maguire” and had her own one-woman comedy act called “Raging Beau.” The third mom is Stephanie Hodge from “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and the movie “Yes Man.”
Fagan describes herself as a perky, Stepford Wife wanna-be.
“I’m trying to be perfect, but about to snap from all the crafts,” she said. “I’m one craft away from snapping, and I’m fueled by Starbucks.”
Yes, she’s funny, but sees how important a show like hers can be.
“A lot of moms feel isolated, like they’re all just going though it themselves,” she said. “We’re all going through the same things and we’re all doing the best we can. ... We tend to run on empty a lot and we don’t even realize it because it’s so constant. (The show) lifts your spirit,” she said. “It renews your sense of every thing’s OK, and we can laugh at all this and enjoy the journey.”
In the show, Fagan talks about everything from hearing her neighbors speaking Spanish through her baby monitor – “I was like, ‘Oh, my baby’s bilingual’” – to trying to lose weight after pregnancy – “I tried yoga, but I went down-dog and I never got back up-dog.”
A fan of the physical comedy of Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball, she described one of her favorite skits in which her counterpart, Bacon, talks about the lingerie her husband buys her. She holds up the microphone chord, saying, “This is what he got me. I think I need a large.”
She describes the show as based on happy, joyous things, not anything “cynical or bitter.”
Things like Chuck E. Cheese with all of its tokens and bells that go off when you win.
“I think it’s teaching our kids how to gamble,” Fagan said.
And the Tooth Fairy leaving her daughter’s friend $20, a Hannah Montana CD and fairy dust all over.
“I think as parents we have to get on the same page about everything,” she said. “The Tooth Fairy is one of them. ... If the Tooth Fairy is going to raise the bar for other Tooth Fairies, she needs to call.”
For more information on the show, visit www.3blondemoms.com. For tickets, visit www.rauecenter.org. The show begins at 7:30 p.m., and tickets cost $37, $34 and $31.
