Heather McMahan’s ‘Farewell’ tour comes to Midwest City Thursday, Jan. 13

By Tonya Little
Midwest City Beacon

Comedian/actress Heather McMahan will be performing her particular brand of comedic flair at Rose State College’s Hudiburg Chevrolet Center in Midwest City on Thursday, Jan. 13.

A beloved standup comedian, Instagram storyteller and the best friend everyone wants, McMahan has seen her fandom skyrocket with fans and the industry falling for her voice, wit and southern charm. Last year McMahan debuted her podcast,Absolutely Not with Heather McMahan, which leapt into the top 10 on Apple iTunes on the day of the release. She currently stars in the Netflix holiday rom-com Love Hard alongside Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang, and is developing Good Grief with Peacock, a show based on her life. McMahan studied at UCB in Los Angeles and was a performing arts major at Ole Miss.

“I’ve never been to Oklahoma before, but I’m thrilled to come, I hear it’s a really cool town. Being on the road is pretty tedious. It’s tedious in the fact that you spend a lot of time traveling, and I see the beautiful insides of theaters, but I don’t always get to see the towns as much as I want. But I’m flying in a day early, so I’m hoping to hit some good foodie hot spots.,” said McMahan about visiting Oklahoma.

The tour is called the “Farewell” Tour, which McMahan says is an ongoing joke that started when she was on the Today Show and they asked what her tour would be called.

“They asked what are you going to call your tour? I said I guess the Farewell tour because I don’t know, it might be my last. It was a little joke. I had no idea. When you do comedy and you are in the clubs, you never know if it’s going to translate to a full theater tour, and then we sold everything out and it was just so overwhelming. I started this tour before the pandemic, and then 2020 hit and we had to reschedule all of my dates and some people say that I saw this coming, I didn’t, but it’s just been an ongoing joke. The Farewell tour may be going for 10 years,” said McMahan.

McMahan says her brand of comedy is really joyful storytelling based on her point of view and perspective in life and tends to be very self-deprecating as most of the jokes are on her. She said that it’s all about finding common ground, especially after all we’ve been through for the last two years.

“We’ve all been through this collective trauma, so it’s like we’ve got to laugh about it. Peel apart the layers of what happened to us all in the last two years, to be able to move through the heavy moments,” said McMahan.

Love Hard was the first major movie McMahan got to be a part of, which was filmed in Vancouver, Canada in the fall of 2020. She said seeing it do so well and be such a holiday hit on Netflix was the cherry on top of the whole experience.

“It was such a cool little treat to see this movie come to life. We were shooting during COVID and I didn’t even get to meet all the actors. I did my scenes and then you are trying to navigate getting to the set and all this stuff, so it was really cool to see it all come together. I’m really proud of it,” she said.

In addition to the new movie, the Farewell tour and her podcast, McMahan is currently working on scripts for shows she hopes will get picked up.

“I love my podcast. I love all the scripts I’m working on. The ball is rolling, you just got to see where it lands. It may roll off a cliff, but it just has to keep going,” she said.
McMahan, who recently got married in a 1970’s sequined animal print gown, said to not be alarmed if you arrive at the theater for her show and see many of the people there dressed in animal print, which is her staple.

“People come sometimes dressed up as my characters. They come dressed up as members of my family. People are so ingrained and just a part of my everyday life, and a part of my comedy is sharing funny bits about my family, funny bits about what I’ve been through. It’s a really cool community of people that just want to hang out and laugh. That’s the vibe,” she said.

McMahan says she feels really blessed to have two of her best friends on the road with her, and her husband being able to come to a lot of her shows. She said being back on the road for the tour last fall felt good to be back in theaters and see people in person again as safely as possible.

If you want to come out and have a good laugh with a great community of people, this is the place to do it. McMahan says she always encourages everyone, especially women, to come out by yourself if you have to and make new friends.

“I am just so grateful that for a living I just tell jokes and have this amazing community of people who are so supportive with me, and we just tell stories and have a great time. If you want to get away from the kids for a night, this is the place to do it,” said McMahan.

You can find out more information about McMahan and the tour on her website at www.heatherontour.com.