Parenthood is pretty simple, according to comedian/actor Thea Vidale. ”Teenagers come with this disease called ‘entitlement,”’ the former Houstonian quips onstage. ”They think they’re entitled to stuff. But I have an inoculation that you can buy from me. It’s a wooden spoon and some ads for a job.”
Armed with her trademark super-long ninja fingernails, Vidale first found audiences in the 1980s on Houston’s far-flung comedy club stages like FM 1960’s Good Humor Bar and local comedy king Danny Martinez’s I-45 South-based Comedy Showcase. New owners Rachel Wegscheid and Becky and Ken Reed recently converted the Comedy Showcase into the Joke Joint. They present Vidale for five shows this weekend, complete with those legendary nails and that unapologetic sass.
Like many breakout comedians in the 1990s, Vidale starred in her own network television sitcom, appropriately titled Thea. Though Vidale did not enjoy the blistering success of female stand-up contemporaries of that era like Roseanne and Ellen, she nonetheless has become the queen of cameos, reliably popping up in small roles in vehicles ranging from Ugly Betty to the World Wrestling Federation’s Raw.
8 p.m. Thursday, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 11460 Fuqua. For information, call 281-481-1188 or visit jokejointcomedyshowcase.com. $16.
Thu., Oct. 10, 8 p.m.; Oct. 11-13, 8 & 10:30 p.m., 2013
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2012.