Comedy Fave Kathleen Madigan Tapes Special in Royal Oak

One of Mark Ridley’s best buds will be in town.

The owner of Royal Oak’s Comedy Castle will be front and center at the Royal Oak Music Theatre when his comedy pal, Kathleen Madigan, hits the stage this weekend with two sold out shows Saturday night. 

The St. Louis native, a regular at the Comedy Castle, is bringing her “Madigan Again” show to the Motor City to be filmed and edited for a yet to be determined TV broadcast.

Ridley and Madigan met nearly three decades back.

“I’ve been in business 34 years and brought her in as a headliner knowing just a little bit about her and it’s developed into an ongoing twice-a-year thing since then,” Ridley said.

Madigan is known to be a prolific writer and is constantly creating new material for herself and for other comedians and comedic events. But Ridley has a couple of favorite topics that she tackles.

“Anytime she starts talking about two things – her family and pop culture – she’s so in tune with pop culture and things that are on TV that she can go an hour just on that,” Ridley said.

The comedic friends also get together off stage and away from the rigors of touring. They recently took in the Masters Golf Tournament together, though there was no heckling, just strict silence on the hallowed greens amongst the crew that create giggles for a living.

“We’re all such avid golfers that we’re down there in the heaven of golf watching the professional of professionals. We’re all very quiet, in one spot watching golf for five hours,” Ridley said. “But we wait till dinner then we let our hair down. It’s a great time and she’s a good friend.”

Madigan, according to Ridley, is a big Motor City fan and loves the time she gets to spend here.

“Detroit loves her and has embraced her and she has said, ‘It’s like having a home-field advantage,’ by coming to Detroit. I was at her New York taping three years ago and she said her next special would be taped in Detroit.”

The seven-camera production will take out some of the seats in the Royal Oak Music Theatre but there will still be nearly 1,000 funny seats for the two shows on Saturday night. But don’t fret, if you don’t have a ticket, Madigan will be just a few streets over November 7-9 at the Comedy Castle. Tickets for that event will go on sale 90 days prior.

“We probably turned away enough people to do six or seven shows, but she did five shows in three nights,” Ridley said of her November appearance.

To beg for any possible leftover tickets for the "Madigan Again" show, check out www.royaloakmusictheatre.com. If they’re all gone, Ridley will save you a seat in November to see his bud, just get in line on August 7, he said.