Funny ladies

• By LISA TRAMONTANA
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Jul 10, 2009

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Looking for laughs can be a lot like mining for gold. If you know where to look, you just might hit the jackpot.

That's what Karen Morgan, Nancy Witter and Sherry Davey do every time they step on stage. These hilarious comediennes, who call themselves Mama’s Night Out, find humor all around them. They will share their stories, one-liners, jokes and observations at BREC’s Independence Park Theatre on Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m.

The three met when they were finalists on Nick at Nite’s Search for the Funniest Mom in America four years ago. During the downtime, they forged a friendship that morphed into Mama’s Night Out, a comedy act about parenthood, friendship, family, children, life in general — but definitely from a woman’s perspective.

“There was a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ during the taping of that show,” said Davey. “We were joking around, killing time, getting to know each other. We became good friends and at some point, we said, ‘you know, if we take this show on the road, maybe we can avoid raising our kids!’”

Eventually the three decided they would like to perform together, and now, they spend two weekends a month on the road sharing their stand-up routines with audiences all over the country.

Though they hail from completely different backgrounds, they somehow complement each other.

Morgan is a lawyer, born and raised in the South. The mother of three young children is also the author of You Might Be a Mama.

“I’m from Georgia,” she says, “and my husband is from Boston. So our children are bilingual. My little boy will be playing on the floor with his Hot Wheels and he’ll say, “Look y’aaall. I’m fixin’ to pahk the cah.’”

Davey, or “the sassy Brit” as she’s sometimes called, was born in the U.S. but spent most of her childhood in England.  Viewers of Comedy Central might recognize her from her appearances on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and Premium Blend. During her act, the mother of two often rails against sexist toys for little girls.

“Some of them are just plain evil,” she says. “Like the Easy Bake Oven. It’s bloody evil! You’re 3 years old and suddenly you’re under pressure to bake a cake for 30 people with a bloody lightbulb!”

Witter is a native New Yorker who has performed stand-up comedy for many years, not just in New York, but in Las Vegas and all over the country. She was a single mother for 20 years, and has two grown children. She jokes that she survived the experience thanks to comedy, alcohol and social services, and dreams of getting even with her kids someday.

Just kidding, of course.

Davey said people often believe the humor of MNO is aimed only at moms, but that’s not so. “It’s about so much more,” Davey said. “Our number one response is, ‘If I had known you were this funny, I’d have brought my husband.’”