Living in the coolest borough of the greatest city in the world doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for location envy, but I can’t say I wasn’t a teensy bit peeved about our complete non-proximity to Wisconsin for the past year or so. That’s when I first encountered Mary Mack, the ridiculously charming and funny comedian who hails from the Badger State. While many women in comedy are seen as tomboys (Sarah Silverman) or sexualized lightning rods (Whitney Cummings, Chelsea Handler), Mack is so far away from any of that that not even the most determined jerkwad culture critic could box her polka band-joining, mandolin-playing, I-am-going-to-die-from-laughter comedic chops in. By extension of her “not giving a hoot” about the typical showbiz nonsense, however, she rarely tours anywhere east of the Mississippi—until Wyatt Cenac announced her as a part of this week’s Night Train lineup at Littlefield. Joining her are other greats like Jon Glaser, tickets here—V.R.
