From UW-Green Bay to ‘Friends’ to ‘Colbert,’ actress/comedian Mary Gallagher comes full circle with Distinguished Alumni Award
Before Mary Gallagher made it big with a role on “Friends” and a stand-up gig on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” she first had to make it through a Saturday night opening for Sam Kinison in Green Bay.
As The Flying Napkins, she and friend Amy (Ketchum) Holterman — both 1990 graduates of the University Wisconsin-Green Bay — did comedy sketches at clubs around town back then. They made their debut at the former Embassy Suites (now Hyatt Regency), where Gallagher worked at the time, and often played gay bars, including Za’s in Green Bay and the Pivot Club in Appleton.
“It was Green Bay’s hottest, biggest all-female comedy duo,” she said. “It was the only comedy duo in Green Bay.”
