Most comics struggle for years before they make it onto a national TV talk show, if they ever make it at all. But Chicagoan Orly K.G. managed to score a plum spot on the “Kelly Clarkson Show” after less than a year, complete with a half-hour, one-on-one pre-show comedy coaching session with Jay Leno and a ninety-second performance to present her zingers to a nationwide audience.
The reason for the appearance was an interview she did with fellow Chicago comics Lia Berman and Colleen Brennan in October 2022 to promote “The Bad Momz of Comedy.” The collective, led by Orly K.G. and drawing on more than eighty Chicago-area comic moms for its showcases, has produced more than twenty-five performances at top Chicago bars and restaurants along with shows at Zanies.
Jeanie Doogan
This Saturday, March 9, they’ll be hitting the stage at Chief O’Neill’s Pub and Restaurant for a special “Irish Momz of Comedy” show from 4pm to 6pm that comic Jeanie Doogan hopes will hold a special appeal to people looking for a fun event that won’t ruin their sleep schedules.
“I love that it’s around the theme of St. Patrick’s Day, and we have Irish backgrounds, so we bring that into it and good comedy that’s relatable,” says Doogan, who has become a popular local fixture as well as in New York and Las Vegas through her fifteen years in the business. “Also this show is from four to six and that is amazing because that means parents or people who don’t want to be out late can come out, have laughs, still go out to eat and be home by eight. There’s no better way to spend a weekend than laughing.”
Orly K.G.
Orly Telisman, who performs as Orly K.G., runs her own PR firm, but she took a comedy class in 2021 and found that “it fills my soul and I had to do more of it.” But when she went to open mics to perform, she often found that she was the only woman her age, or married with children.
So she decided to create her own stage opportunities by forming the Bad Momz, starting with shows for PTA fundraisers. Its popularity soon grew to include a show at Theater on the Lake that drew 180 during “one of the biggest snowstorms Chicago had all year”; followed by 275 to the Sandwich Opera House in Sandwich, Illinois; then 205 attendees at the Zanies Rosemont club right before the Super Bowl.
“I wanted a place to do comedy for people my own age and with the same lived experiences of being a mom, being married, trying to work and just be a human being,” explains Orly. “I wrote an op-ed for Chicago Parent magazine and a producer on Kelly Clarkson read it and invited us on.
“I wasn’t even doing comedy for a year, and now we’re booked all over and I’ve asked comics from all over the Chicago area to be in shows. I talk about what I live: A husband, a dog and the most frightening thing there is—a thirty-year mortgage.”
The “Bad” moniker can be taken two ways: either a comical dig at moms who can’t live up to the impossible ideal of perfect motherhood, or denoting a somewhat naughty approach. Orly says the show is “PG-13, but dips its toe into R-rated,” and Doogan finds it refreshing that they aren’t required to be sweet and pristine.
“Sometimes when shows are booking women, you get that double standard put on you to be clean, when that’s not applied with men,” says Doogan. “I don’t like calling myself clean even though I mostly am, because it’s a standard pushed on women and not men.”
Orly notes that “female comics normally make up fifty percent of a comedy club’s audience, but only fifteen percent of the lineups.” She’s working to correct that imbalance with Bad Momz and Saturday’s “Irish Momz of Comedy.”
“If a woman goes out with her friends and has a good time, it really does invigorate her and makes her a better human, more fun to be with,” she says. “It breaks the monotony. I assume men have similar things, but I’m answering the call for the ladies.”
“The Irish Momz of Comedy,” featuring Orly K.G., Colleen Brennan, Maggie Hughes DePalo and Jeanie Doogan, is on stage from 4pm-6pm on Saturday, March 9 at Chief O’Neill’s Pub and Restaurant, 3471 North Elston. Tickets are $25 in advance, no tickets at the door; visit tickettailor.com/events/chicagocomedyworks/1132110 for more information.
