MILWAUKEE — Actor and comedian Jim Gaffigan calls Milwaukee his “hometown in-law,” and in addition to it being a stop along his “Everything is Wonderful” stand-up tour, it’s also where his wife’s family lives.
“I love Wisconsin in general, but I truly have an affection for Milwaukee, and it's not just because this city has like a bar every block,” says Gaffigan.
Married to his wife, Jeannie Noth, for more than two decades, Gaffigan has been coming to Brew City for years. On many of those visits, he stops at Kinship Community Food Center. Vincent Noth, the center’s executive director, is Jeannie’s brother. But Gaffigan doesn’t just stop by as a celebrity; he and his family often volunteer and get their hands dirty.
With his trademark sense of humor, Gaffigan talks about instilling community and volunteerism in his children.
“You know, if you have children, you don't want them to be monsters, so you have them do things like my son Jack, one summer, helped out at Kinship. So we have an attachment to it, and we can kind of, we've seen firsthand the value of what Kinship provides to the community.”
Watch: Comedian Jim Gaffigan shares his love for Milwaukee
Adriana Mendez and I talked with Gaffigan at Kinship Cafe, inside the ThriveOn King building on Milwaukee’s North Side.
The cafe is an extension of Kinship Community Food Center, a place where every food order goes to support the mission of Kinship. The people who work there are part of the organization’s workforce employment readiness program, where they learn valuable skills and prepare for the future.
The cafe is just one of the many growth opportunities Gaffigan has seen in his years working with Kinship. He attributes the center’s growth to the hard work of the staff and the city.
“I think it's also the community of Milwaukee, whereas I'm biased, but I feel like Milwaukee is kind of the type of place that if there's an issue, they'll help out. You know, kind of, I'm a Midwesterner. I have this naive belief that, like, Midwesterners are more polite, kind of community based.”
Gaffigan’s comedy centers around his family, often his kids. But sometimes he takes a piece of his tour stops along with him.
Watch: Comedian Jim Gaffigan talks Milwaukee, SNL and weight loss
He says, “I've been here so much, like I in one special I had a joke about the Pfister Hotel, and I just put it in this special, and it's just, you know, maybe people in Wisconsin got it, but everyone's like, he's talking about this hotel... there's always an endless source of material in Wisconsin too.”
The recent 2024 election provided a lot of material for the writers at NBC’s "Saturday Night Live," where Gaffigan played Minnesota Gov. and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
“It was so bizarre. It was, I mean, it was so fun, but it's like, you don't realize particularly, I think, during a presidential election year, those opening, those cold opens that they have on SNL, which are always topical and political, it's like everyone sees every single one of them.”
Gaffigan is playing six shows at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater April 9-13.
Find ticket information here.
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