Catholic Comedian Promotes
‘New Evangelization’
By Denis
Grasska
SAN DIEGO — Some people seem to think that taking
their faith seriously and having a sense of humor about life are mutually
exclusive.
To them, Catholic comedian Judy McDonald says, “You’ve got
to be kidding me!”
“Everything we have is from God and, of course, God gave us
a sense of humor,” said McDonald, 37, a lifelong member of St. Francis of
Assisi Parish in Vista. “He gave us this ability to laugh at certain things,
because He thinks certain things are funny.”
Referencing one of the Holy Father’s many comments about
Christian joy, she said, “I don’t understand theology as much as I would like
to, but I think ‘theology of laughter’ is something Pope Francis is into.”
McDonald sees her stand-up routines as a way of
participating in what Blessed John Paul II called “the new evangelization,” the
Church’s effort to re-evangelize those who have heard the Gospel but have
rejected it or turned away from it, perhaps because of poor catechesis.
When hired for a gig, she said, event organizers typically
are interested not only in her comedy chops, but also in whether she is able to
“deliver the message.” On stage, the Gospel is not something that is
ham-fistedly tacked on to the end of an otherwise secular routine. From the
outset, her audiences know that she is “a Catholic comedian,” she said, and her
comedy and her Catholic message go hand in hand.
“Laughter is the great communicator,” she said. “It just
drops barriers, and people relax.”
She explained that, if the audience accepts that she has
been honest with them about funny and embarrassing moments in her own life,
like the time she accidentally got ashes in a kid’s eye on Ash Wednesday
— a second-grader who “had to wear a pirate patch for a couple weeks
after” — then they know that she would never lie about something as
important as Jesus’ love for them.
The openness and authenticity of her comedy gives her
credibility in the eyes of her audience.
Just as good priests use their homilies to explain the
Gospel through the prism of their own life experiences, she said, good
comedians devote much of their stand-up routines to simply talking about their
own lives.
A professional comedian for about 20 years, McDonald
describes her comedic style as “very observational.” If Robin Williams and Bob
Newhart adopted a child together, she quipped, “I think it would be me ... but
less hairy.”
McDonald’s first foray into stand-up comedy came
unexpectedly in 1994, during her freshman year at the University of San Diego.
She was serving in student government at the time. A comedian had been invited
to perform on campus, but the warm-up act had not arrived. She was asked to
fill in.
“I was too dumb and young to be scared,” she recalled, “and
I talked and they laughed.”
The $50 she received for her performance convinced her that
she might have stumbled upon a potential career. She began performing regularly
as an opening act on campus and, later that year, she made her debut at The
Comedy Store in Hollywood, where she received a standing ovation.
At one point, she was driving up to The Comedy Store as many
as three times a week to perform.
Since her graduation from USD in 1999, McDonald has worked
in Catholic youth and young adult ministry as well as comedy. While working for
The Gathering, a multi-parish Catholic youth ministry in La Jolla, from
2000-2003, she also was performing at The Comedy Store in La Jolla.
“It was cool because I really started to minister to comedians,”
she said, noting that many comedy performers are “just really depressed people”
and in need of such outreach.
McDonald herself suffers from depression and post-traumatic
stress disorder and, for the past year and a half, has been assisted by a service
dog named Daisy. The 4-year-old yellow Labrador retriever even accompanies her
on stage.
Highlights of McDonald’s career include appearing on
comedian Dennis Miller’s CNBC show and opening for such comedians as Paula
Poundstone, Caroline Rhea and Mark Curry.
Since 2003, McDonald has taken her comedy on the road,
traveling throughout the world and appearing at Catholic parishes, youth
conferences, retreats and other forums. For the past three years, she has also
had a part-time job maintaining her parish’s Web site.
The product of a churchgoing Irish-German family, McDonald
said that her parish pastors have always been like “older brothers” to her,
that she and her mother both have keys to the parish church, and that she
suspects that her mother “sweats holy water.” (Her mother is also her manager,
a position for which she does not get paid; McDonald quips, “She’ll get her
reward in heaven.”)
McDonald prides herself on being “a clean comedian” who does
not use “F-bombs” or other crude language in her act. Admitting that she once
may have used the word “damn” on stage, she said, “That is technically in the
Bible.” (Based on that criterion, she suggests that “whore of Babylon” and
“ass” might also qualify for the list of Bible-friendly cusswords.)
As a comedian, McDonald does not just want to make people
laugh. She wants her comedy to be “healing” as well.
“If I can make someone who hasn’t laughed in several years
laugh ... that is the best gift in the world for me,” she said.
When her shows are over, she gladly sticks around to chat
with anyone who wants to speak with her.
“That’s what I’m there for,” she said.
As for how long she will continue as a professional
comedian, McDonald said, “I tell God all the time, ‘If You want me to continue
doing this, get me more shows; if You want me to stop, stop the phone from
ringing.’ But the phone keeps ringing, so I keep going.”
For more information on McDonald and her comedy, visit
www.judymcdonald.net.
The Southern Cross
