When I was in my twenties, I went to a ton of rock concerts. With the exception of Elvis, the Who and the Beatles, I think I probably saw just about everybody I really wanted to see, some of them twice.

Heck, I saw Linda Ronstadt three times, Jimmy Buffett twice and the Beach Boys four times, if you count the 2009 L.A. County Fair. For the most part, though, I'm past my rock concert years. I think I saw more road company performances of Broadway shows in the 1990s than I did concerts.

But in 2009, my kids gave me tickets to see comedian Jim Gaffigan, who did a wonderful show at the Grove Theater in Anaheim. For some reason -- and it's odd because I love stand-up comedy -- I hadn't really been to many shows. Gaffigan is hilarious, but the one comedian I enjoy even more these days is Kathleen Madigan.

I bought tickets to see her in Anaheim late last summer, but the traffic was horrible and I missed the show.

Boy, that was annoying.

[caption id="attachment_843" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Kathleen Madigan"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/BDDefinitionKathleenMadigan-1-1080-600x338.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-843" title="BDDefinitionKathleenMadigan-1-1080-600x338" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/BDDefinitionKathleenMadigan-1-1080-600x338-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" /></a>[/caption]

But imagine my joy at checking her Website recently and seeing that she was scheduled to perform at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta on Friday night, Feb. 11.

Tickets were available, tickets were purchased.

It was a pretty great show, and one of the nice surprises was that even though it's part of the same tour  chronicled on her DVD "Gone Madigan," only about 50 percent of the material was stuff I already knew from the DVD. She always seems to have new material, although she certainly has some old favorites -- think Oprah and Larry King -- that are always funny.

Anyway, it was great. A fun Friday night, and since we don't get out all that often, a welcome change.