Written by Melinda Wittstock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Misadventures trapped in too-tight Spanx on date night with hubby\u2026 Yearning for the bygone romance of dry humping\u2026 Mortifying her teenage son with the sort of motherly efficiency that peaks publicly when a football helmet full of \u201ccougar underwear\u201d tumbles out of a packed suitcase at the airline check-in counter\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes the best \u201cjuicy scoops\u201d in Heather McDonald\u2019s hit podcast are the one\u2019s about her own life as a mom, wife, and standup comic. “Oh, there’s <\/span>nothing <\/span><\/i>that I haven’t shared,” she says. And for the rest, there\u2019s always Desperate Housewives, Bachelorettes, Lori Loughlin, or Megan Markle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Raw, spontaneous and unfiltered, Heather\u2019s loyal listeners hang on her every word \u2013 and follow her to her live standup gigs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never ever miss an episode,\u201d I hear a young woman say breathlessly to her friends at a nearby table at Washington DC\u2019s City Winery where McDonald is poised to take the stage for 90 minutes of hilarious stories, celebrity gossip, and her \u201cBarbie\u201d impressions of the <\/span>Real Housewives<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The women are giggling and one-upping each other as they share anecdotes from their favorite <\/span>Juicy Scoop<\/span><\/i> episodes.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m lost without it,\u201d says another. \u201cShe\u2019s so real, authentic. I love her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald turned to podcasting in 2015 when her Hollywood acting, writing and producing gigs started drying up.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cI literally said, \u2018Well I don’t have anything going on in TV, I guess it’s time for a podcast\u2019,\u201d says McDonald, who wrote, produced and appeared regularly on E\u2019s <\/span>Chelsea Lately<\/span><\/i> for its entire 7-year run, and along the way honed her standup and starred her own hit Showtime special, <\/span>I Don’t Mean to Brag<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t know of anyone making any money in podcasting, and I go, \u2018Oh well, who cares if don’t make any money. This will give me something to look forward to every Monday\u2019.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Juicy Scoop<\/span><\/i> now boasts 40 million downloads, a slew of lucrative sponsors, and more than 12,000 5-Star rave reviews.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And more than something she can look forward to, <\/span>The Juicy Scoop<\/span><\/i> podcast has become a spontaneous \u2018writing room\u2019 to test out, practice, and hone the material that often ends up in her standup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole reason I started doing the podcast is that I knew it would help to sell my live standup shows. And it really did. And then I realized I really liked it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald launched with what proved a viral, download-building strategy with a nightmarishly funny serialized story told in 10-minute cliffhanger segments over 47 episodes called \u201cSerial Sister.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a real nightmare, just crazy,\u201d says McDonald. \u201cShe was threatening me, saying, \u2018I’m going to tell everybody I’m going to go to E! News or something\u2019. Now, I’m not Meghan Markle, but she was basically like a Samantha Markle, okay, coming after me.”<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald decided to tell the whole story from beginning to end. \u201cI’m going to get the people hooked so that they keep coming back and listen to my podcast. And that\u2019s exactly what happened.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Her raw authenticity has endeared her to her viral fanbase, who tune in to hear her share without shame the dysfunctional dynamics of her Irish Catholic family, an argument with a girlfriend, or what she calls the \u201cnot great moments\u201d in her 19-year-old marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to know that there is no secret in my life that someone could reveal or screw me or whatever.\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n

Her 3 kids are also rich material for her podcast, along with the hilarious observations about reality stars, celebrities, and the sort of stupid criminals that end up on Dateline.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not as profitable to have boys and exploit them. Kris Jenner put them all in bikinis and look at them now!\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald was only 6 when she discovered her true destiny.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible to make someone laugh on their very worst day. That\u2019s what I want in life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a little girl, McDonald had been watching a call-in show with Eddie Murphy when a mom called in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018My son died a couple of years ago, and the day he died I said, I’ll never laugh again.\u2019 And that night she turned on <\/span>Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i> and saw Eddie Murphy being Gumby\u2026 and she laughed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some 400+ episodes in, McDonald says podcasting has enabled \u201cthe most overwhelming response\u201d with story after story from people finding solace from painful moments in their lives in her comedy riffs and all those \u201cjuicy scoops\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey come up to me after my shows,\u201d says McDonald, \u201csharing stories of tragedy and hardship and how my podcast gave solace.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

There was the mom in Boston, she says, who had to drive 5 hours every day to get her young son to treatment for his leukemia, now in remission.\u00a0 \u201cShe came to me and she goes, \u2018We listen to <\/span>The Juicy Scoop<\/span><\/i>, now he still gets in the car and he’s like, Mommy, what’s the Juicy Scoop?”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald has also turned her fans and friends into correspondents, crowdsourcing her podcast with their own tips and scoops.<\/span><\/p>\n

She says she\u2019s \u201cobsessed\u201d with the college admissions scandal \u2013 \u201cI like to remember where I was the day it broke\u201d \u2013 McDonald uses a tip from a California friend in her 90-minute standup gig.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe said FBI trucks are like coming on lawns and people are getting arrested at Trader Joe’s, and I called her and she’s like, \u2018It’s a greatest day of my life. I hate these assholes.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Oh, amazing, just bring me any inside juicy scoop you can get.\u2019 So sure enough, a few days later she did some investigative work, and she’s like, \u2018OMG this singer guy was the ringleader\u2026 and a single mom didn\u2019t have the money like the rest of the people in that neighborhood, and the rumor is allegedly that she apparently was sleeping with the singer guy to get her kid into college.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Wow, that’s an amazing mother, my God. And what a full circle when you think about it, you use your vagina to push him out. And now you’re going to use your vagina again to push him the fuck out of the house.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

McDonald says the key to success in podcasting is to be consistent, don\u2019t skip weeks, and publish on a consistent schedule. \u201cI treat <\/span>Juicy Scoop<\/span><\/i> the way I treated Chelsea Lately, a TV show.\u00a0 I think that’s why the most successful podcasters came from journalism, TV or strong comedy backgrounds.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Complimented as much for her interviewing skills as her spontaneous and unfiltered riffs, McDonald also advises: “Make sure you’re excited to do it and it’s something that will enrich you and your listeners\u2019 lives, and do it for as long as you’re feeling it.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald is \u201cfeeling it\u201d and her enthusiasm, energy and quick wit is proving addictive.<\/span><\/p>\n

March 2020 Issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Melinda Wittstock.   Misadventures trapped in too-tight Spanx on date night with hubby\u2026 Yearning for the bygone romance of dry humping\u2026 Mortifying her teenage son with the sort of motherly efficiency that peaks publicly when a football helmet full of \u201ccougar underwear\u201d tumbles out of a packed suitcase at the airline check-in counter\u2026 Sometimes the best \u201cjuicy scoops\u201d in Heather McDonald\u2019s hit podcast are the one\u2019s about her own life as a mom, wife, and standup comic. “Oh, there’s nothing that I haven’t shared,” she says. And for the rest, there\u2019s always Desperate Housewives, Bachelorettes, Lori Loughlin, or<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":13194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[167,3698,3700,3697,3699,3543,3701,3695,3696],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n