The Melrose Messenger

Hometown Comedian Julie Nolan Hosts Residency at Knights of Columbus

By Ellen Putnam

Melrose native Julie Nolan, who is familiar to many Melrosians from her work on MMTV and her comedy shows in the area, will be launching a new series of monthly comedy shows at the Knights of Columbus. At each show, she will perform alongside another comedian, and part of the proceeds from each show will go to a local charity. The first show will be on Saturday, January 25th at 7pm and will benefit the Melrose Police Relief Corporation.

Growing up in Melrose as one of six children, Nolan explained that she always wanted to be a performer. “I saw Shirley Temple on TV, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve gotta get there.’” Nolan did some performing in college, and worked at WEEI Sports Radio early in her career, but when her children were born, she put her dreams of performing on hold. “I told myself, ‘you’ve been a dreamer, now you’ve got to buckle up and take care of these kids.’”

It was only after her kids were in school that Nolan returned in earnest to performing. A friend suggested Nolan join a boot camp class, and in the class, Nolan met Mary Beth McAteer Margolis, who invited her to host a show on MMTV. “It gave me the chance to practice and learn to be in front of a camera,” Nolan recalled, “but it wasn’t creative enough for me.” What she really wanted to do, Nolan realized, was to write her own material. “It got to be a discussion in boot camp class: we were doing jumping jacks, and Mary Beth said, ‘why don’t you do your own show?’”

And so the Julie Nolan Show was born, and ran for seven seasons on MMTV. “I probably would have continued, but for the pandemic,” Nolan explained. “I can’t go back,” she told herself then. “I need something new. I can’t act like the world didn’t just fall apart.”

Nolan also took on the role of Aunt Petunia on After-Hours with T.C. Restani on MMTV, and later created her own variety show in the role. “Aunt Petunia is a very fun character to play,” said Nolan, “she’s just a disaster.” While Aunt Petunia is currently on pause, Nolan assured, “she’ll be coming back at some point, I just don’t know when.”

Nolan’s work on MMTV was what eventually encouraged her to try out live comedy. “When my talk show started to have live studio audiences,” she explained, “I realized just how powerful it is to do something live and really see how things land with an audience.” Then, in 2015, Nolan did her first open mic night at Giggles Comedy Club on Route 1. “It was a five minute set. I was number 14 out of like 17 people. It was pouring rain. I remember thinking that I must really want this, because I could be in my jammies watching TV or something, but nope!”

“From there,” Nolan continued, “I’ve been chipping away at it. I did a lot of fundraisers at first, just to get stage time.” Nolan’s first solo show was at J.J. Grimsby & Co, where she had worked as a waitress in her twenties. “We almost had to cancel it,” she recalled, “because we hadn’t sold enough tickets. But I went on social media to promote it, and we sold out!” Nerves made Nolan talk faster than she had practiced, and only twenty minutes into the forty-five minute set, she found she had gone through everything she had prepared. “I said, ‘I’ve gotta go get my book,’ I went upstairs, and I came back a few minutes later with my joke book, my glasses, and a glass of wine. People thought it was just part of the set. They loved it!”

Since then, Nolan has been building her reputation as a performer, in Melrose and beyond. “People started coming to see me,” she said. “Especially in Melrose, since I grew up here, I draw a pretty good crowd.” Her show upstairs at The Rising Eagle drew so many people, Nolan recalled, “it had to have been a fire hazard.”

Describing her shows, Nolan said, “My humor is clean, and it’s self-deprecating. I talk a lot about my upbringing, growing up in the 70s. People can relate to a lot of that. I have jokes in there about being a mom, there’s plenty of good stuff there. The best nights are when you get to a place where you get so calm you just improv, you’re in the zone.”

All the same, stand-up comedy can be a challenging field for women to break into. “It’s still very much seen as a man’s career,” Nolan observed.

When Matt Fanikos came up with the idea of the Melrose Comedy Bar upstairs at the Knights of Columbus, it inspired Nolan to start thinking about doing her own monthly residency there. For each show in the residency, Nolan will work with a different comedian. “They aren’t opening for me,” she emphasized, “we’re there together, doing a show.”

“Melrose has such great restaurants,” Nolan added, “so I didn’t pick one restaurant over another” for the show’s venue. “I’m hoping that people will go out to eat and make a night of it.”

There will also be a cash bar and a DJ, and some of the proceeds from each show will go to a different charity. The proceeds from January’s show will go to the Melrose Police Relief Corporation, which provides emergency relief and support for Melrose police officers and their families. February’s show will support Melrose Kind, and March’s proceeds will support Greater Boston Habitat for Humanity.

“It’s been fun,” Nolan reflected. “I’m sure Hollywood will be calling.”

You can learn more about Nolan's upcoming residency and buy tickets on her website.

Posted January 13th, 2024