Heather McDonald ditches Cub Scouts to party in Vegas
Many celebrities are scared to publicly say they party in Vegas. Not Heather McDonald. The “Chelsea Lately” star performs today at The Venetian, and she’s “bringing a bunch of girls.”
“We’re going to rip it up,” McDonald told me.
“We’re going to party. We’re going to go on the loop, or whatever that observational Linq thing is. We’re going to Tao (nightclub). We’re going to Lavo for dinner. It’s going to be insane.”
Then I said:
“I don’t know if you know this, but A) That’s a cliche, B) Bravo, and C) Vegas loves girls. So, if you bring a bunch of girls, that’s great.”
“Some are divorced. Some might be at the end of the weekend. We’re gonna see what happens,” McDonald joked.
She is not bringing her husband or kids, obviously.
“Listen to what the husband is doing,” McDonald said, sounding braggy. “He’s taking my two sons on a camping trip for Cub Scouts. Do you know how happy I am ‘Lipshtick’ booked me for the weekend so I can get out of camping with the Cub Scouts? It’s a dream come true.
“What do I want to do? Sleep on rocks in a tent? Or go be in a suite in The Venetian, and do stand-up and party with my girlfriends in Vegas?”
McDonald is headlining The Venetian’s all-ladies comedy series “Lipshtick,” along with Jessimae Peluso of “Girl Code.”
McDonald’s act is built around her life, her husband, her kids and her friends — but she also throws in funny impressions of celebrities.
Her YouTube impressions have a lot of Celine Dion, whom she loves. But she might pull any Celine-husband jokes, considering his health, she said.
McDonald used to do a great Amy Winehouse, but Winehouse died.
“I still reference her in my act,” McDonald said. “It was a really good impression, and I owned the wig. But I’m sorry. When she died, I got so many tweets about it, like, ‘Are you still going to do her?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think so, because the way I did her was her being wasted (on booze or drugs), and she died of an overdose.’”
However, McDonald is a comedian, so she still finds the tag for this Winehouse bit:
“I was bummed for her that she’s no longer on this Earth, but I was more bummed for me,” she joked.
Fortunately for McDonald, since she has done killer Kardashian jokes over the years, the Kardashians are still stalking the Earth for McDonald to mock.
McDonald has several kids and a husband, and she lives in Woodland Hills, Calif., where she was born and raised. So her family has been interviewed to be cast on TV, on “Wife Swap,” two different times, two different seasons.
But they didn’t make the cut, because TV executives value the lives of criminal lunatics, not regular families.
“My family is very much down-the-middle. We do our homework. We’re up every day at 6:30. In other ways, we’re unconventional. But for the most part, it’s a pretty normal family. There’s just not enough of an extreme.”
Her family has been approached by other reality shows. But they just can’t make the cut with casting agents seeking “crazy.”
“For my family, I have been pursued: ‘Would you consider doing a somewhat scripted reality show with your kids?’ ” McDonald said.
“To be honest, I don’t think my kids are that great. They’re too young, maybe.”
Besides, being on a reality show is “like jumping the shark,” she said. “Maybe on my way down, when they’re all 20-year-old losers living at my house.”
Doug Elfman’s column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/entertainment/reel.
