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When Heather McMahan isn’t finding an excuse to jet off to Europe—where she says “a weight is lifted off my shoulders” every time she touches back down on its soil—she’s hopping on a cruise. In fact, for her latest sailing she took over the entire ship to host a couple thousand fans in the Caribbean. This week, the comedian joins Lale in the studio to share tales from her Absolutely Knot cruise, explain why the Amalfi Coast is eternally healing to her, and chat about the joy she gets from performing in front of audiences in different parts of the US.
Lale Arikoglu: Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this is another episode of Women Who Travel. My guest this week is the actor, stand-up comedian and podcaster, Heather McMahan. There is probably nowhere in the world she loves more than Italy, and we'll certainly get to that later. In fact, I'm headed to Sicily in just a few weeks, but the day she came into our studio in New York, she was getting ready to perform at the Beacon Theater as part of her Bamboozled Tour. She's going to chat about her podcast Absolutely Not, her love of flying, her very own curated cruise and her friend Jane Fonda.
Heather McMahan: I started talking about politics on this leg of the tour. I called it the Bamboozled Tour because I think as women we've bamboozled ourselves, we feel bamboozled. So there's two sides to the coin. There's some women who think that they're doing everything, and then there's other women who don't think they're doing anything right. They're not doing enough. We put so much pressure on ourselves. We've also bamboozled ourselves into doing too much. We're all over overstimulated. Our cortisol's through the roof. We're all losing our minds. I'm sweating through this silk suit as we speak. It's like how do you find the happy balance and the happy medium of sisterhood, relationships, being a mom, figuring out what you want to do with your career. We're all just wearing a billion hats, and then we all have to put on this perfect face and show up on social media like we're the perfect PTA mom, and that's a lot.
So the conversations are varying, and I've been really shocked at the response, the positive response to a lot of the things that I'm saying on stage where women are like, yeah, we feel all the same anxiety, resentment, exhaustion that I'm sharing.
LA: You are very honest on your podcast.
HM: I am.
LA: Absolutely Not, I love it.
HM: Oh, thank you.
LA: You talk about everything from when you feel good, when you feel bad.
HM: Yes. My podcast is an absolute word vomit, if you will, of how I'm feeling. It's a stream of consciousness of what's going on in my life, what happened over the past weekend with my touring and wherever I've been in the world. I mean, as a touring comic, I am always on a plane, train, automobile, rental car, you name it, I've been on it, jet skis, all of it. So the podcast is just a safe space for me to regurgitate what has happened, and it's also like I have a hotline where people call in, but I live on the road, so I'm used to this life.
LA: Which sounds really glamorous.
HM: And it is the opposite. Yes, it is completely the opposite. I just hit a million miles on Delta, so I've flown a million miles, and my husband said... I was so proud of this accomplishment. I'm such a Delta brat. I love them.
LA: Was it just that your app updated or do you get balloons or some sort of fanfare at the gates?
HM: You get a fanfare-
LA: Oh, my God.
HM: ... and balloons at the gate. It was a big moment for me, and I'm an aviation nerd, so I was very excited about it, but my husband said, "Heather, frankly, we've spent so much money on Delta at this point you probably could have flown private." I don't know if this is that much of a bragging right, Dude, to say that you've flown a million miles, but yes, I'm an airline brat and I like what I like, but I try and have little moments where I make it as glamorous as it can be, but I spend most of my weekends in a dark theater backstage.
LA: Wait, how do you make it feel those, find those moments of glamour?
HM: Well, I obviously am always wearing something bedazzled or like a silky suit.
LA: You are looking bedazzled today.
HM: Thank you.
LA: The Prada bag that-
HM: The Prada bag.
LA: ... I made note of when you walked in.
HM: Yes. I bought this Prada bag when I got married in Italy, so I had to buy that in Florence. My comedy style is very a la Joan Rivers. I like to wear feathers and faux furs and glitter and sequins. I just love to be bedazzled on stage, so I get to wear a lot of fabulous stuff, but my day-to-day is I just have to have my creature comforts. I have my little bag of snacks, I've got all my... My carry-on is packed to a tee. I'm very specific in what I like.
LA: We will get more into the traveling, but your home is Atlanta?
HM: My home is Atlanta.
LA: Which I think, not to harp on about Delta, but I think is Delta's home too.
HM: It's Delta's hub, it sure is. I lived in New York forever. I lived in LA forever, and then during the pandemic, my husband, who was this born and raised New Yorker, ride or die, was like, "Yeah, you want to go to Georgia?" I thought, get a house with a pool. Sure, why not? So it's been honestly lovely and I have my studio down there, but I'm always back in the city and kind of everywhere.
LA: And Atlanta's a pretty cool city. I've never been, but I've heard fantastic things, especially when it comes to music, food, there's a lot going on there at the moment.
HM: It's a great vibe and people love to, I don't know, they'll just throw stones in Atlanta. We have so much entertainment there, great sports teams, amazing restaurants, and you have southern hospitality. So to me it's the capital of South. We have really warm, loving, fabulous people. Yes, I was born and raised there. I hadn't lived in Atlanta full time since I was a teenager, but it feels so good to be back and being on the road as much as I am it's nice to come back to some place that just really truly is home.
LA: Did you have to get reacquainted with it all over again? Find new friends, find your version of Atlanta?
HM: That's a great question. I actually moved into my childhood home, so no, I was right back where I started. No, I'm blessed that all of my best friends from growing up, they're all there and have established their lives, so we have a really great, wonderful group. But yeah, I joined my country club and I'm out there playing the Ladies 9-Hole with a bunch of 77-year-old women who have three Chardonnays and then hand you a cigarette. I'm in my element, so I definitely, whenever you go back to a place, I'm trying to make my current childhood home feel like my home. But yes, I feel blessed that I had a really good group of friends there to begin with.
LA: It must feel trippy. Last time I was home in London, I was working from the Condé Nast Traveler London office, and I was staying at my parents and I realized I was getting the same bus that I used to get to high school to go into the office, and my dad was waving me off on the front path. It was like I was going off to school.
HM: Yes, well, my mom lives with us and to this day I am 38 years old and she will still, if I'm taking a nap, she'll still knock on my door. I'm like, "Mom, if the door is closed, I need you just to respect my space." She won't do my laundry, but the laundry will be get put in a basket that then is at the bottom of the stairs and she'll yell up, Heather, come get your laundry. It's like I'm 13 again, and I did this to myself. There are days where I'm like, do we want to stay in this house? We love having my mom with us, but there are days where I'm like, I am going to lose my mind. Yeah.
LA: Have you found yourself exploring the South outside of Atlanta? Is that something that you started to scratch the surface of and maybe be, this was on my doorstep all along and I ran off to New York and then I've traveled everywhere and oh my God, there was so much here.
HM: Well, I actually went to school in Mississippi, so my college years were at the University of Mississippi, and I actually fell in love with Oxford so much that I bought a house there. So I consider myself southern, but Mississippi Southern and Georgia Southern are two different layers. So it's been really interesting to become part of that community in a way that was outside of my college years and to really dive into the south. There are some parts of the South where I'm like, this is actually a foreign country to me. But no, I mean I love going to Charleston. I love Nashville, Birmingham. I love being from the South. I love being in the South. There's just such a warmness to it, and I can usually have a good time no matter where I end up.
LA: What's the comedy scene like in the South?
HM: Well, it's interesting. I mean, obviously a lot of my audience is strongly female, and I think I've been able to tap into a voice where I say the things on stage that all the women in the south are saying at their country club while they're playing Mahjong, that they say privately to each other, but I'm just saying it very loudly and in a glitter suit. So that's been interesting. I like to open most of my tours and test out the material in clubs in Huntsville, Alabama. They have this great club there because Huntsville, Alabama is this, you're in a very conservative state, but Huntsville is such a cool town because you have so many of the people, engineers, scientists, doctors who work in the space field.
LA: How do you know when you're testing out material in Huntsville?
HM: You can hear it in the crowd. They either let you know that they like it, that they disagree with you, that they agree with you. That's something that is very addictive in comedy, you know right away. As an actress, when you audition, you either just never hear back or you eventually get producer notes or there's, you got to go through a long list of bullshit of people telling you yes or no. In comedy, you know right away, and I respect and appreciate that feedback and maybe if they don't say anything during the show, they'll come to you afterwards at a meet-and-greet and say, "I didn't agree with this", or "I loved that joke," or "Go harder here. We could handle it." But it's usually pretty immediate, which is a rush. And also there's nothing that an audience member or producer or director or anybody in this biz could tell me that my own mother hasn't already said, so I'm resilient because-
LA: She's knocking on your childhood bedroom door.
HM: Yes, exactly. I had one of those moms who encouraged me and she's like, "Shoot for the moon, go for the stars." But she was also very real with me, and that's probably why I got into comedy. I just had a very funny family that they wouldn't let you get away with anything. So I'm used to having very blunt, honest people around me just letting you have it immediately, so I can handle it on stage
LA: After the break, what it takes to get some 2,000 people on a cruise ship and involve them in every activity.
We're back with comedian and podcaster, HM, a very different venue that you recently performed on, which is known for performers, great performers, all sorts of bands, musicians, comedians, pass through them, cruise ships.
HM: Insane.
LA: You worked with Norwegian to curate a cruise itinerary, and you performed.
HM: Yes.
LA: So this is wild to me that you entered the world of cruising.
HM: It was insane, and a lot of comics come up by performing on random cruise ships, but Norwegian said, "Hey, how about you rent out a ship, put 2,000 of your fans on and you get to curate the whole experience?" So we did four days on the open waters, went down to Nassau, Bahamas, stopped and did one port of call, and I got to bring all of my other comedy buddies, my favorite musicians, and we had it curated down to the last detail. There was an activity for everybody on that ship, and it was the most fun four days of my life. I had a very over-the-top Italian wedding over in Florence, and I'll say this was even more fun than my wedding. I don't even know how to describe it except it's like sorority rush meets field day at school, meets summer camp meets spring break. It was just incredible.
LA: What was your experience with cruises before? Did you love them? Were you curious of them? Were you skeptical of them? Had you done it before?
HM: Oh, let me tell you what, I was a kid cruiser. Okay. We grew up on every cruise ship and my favorite childhood memories were sitting in the hot tub on the Disney Cruise and my arms are out and I'm drinking a virgin pina colada, and I'm seven and a half, and I have all my friends from the Kids Club and we're excited, "Who's meeting Mickey and Minnie at dinner? We are." I mean, those were the days. So I grew up on cruise ships. I loved vacationing on cruises because there's something for everybody. So when they approached me about this opportunity, I thought, we absolutely have to do it.
I love curating vacations for people. If I did not do what I do now, which is entertain, I would be a travel advisor and I would be putting you in the best hotels in the world because that's what I love to do.
LA: And you'd be working with Condé Nast Traveler.
HM: Yes, I have been all over the world. I love to travel, and I think that's the entertainer side of me. When you come to one of my live shows or if you come on the cruise and you come have an experience, it's an experience from the moment you walk in the door. As soon as you walk in the theaters, you know the songs on the playlist, you're involved. You see the slideshow. You're a part of the world and the community, and that's what I love.
LA: Tell me a little bit about those four days. If you said you brought, what was it, 2,000 of your fans onto this ship? Who were the fans that came? Were they, I mean, obviously they are fans of yours, but are they also passionate cruise people and did it cross-
HM: No.
LA: Oh, so it was-
HM: A lot of virgins. A lot of cruise virgins, yes.
LA: Oh, very interesting.
HM: And it was really great because obviously there's a hesitation. If you've never been on a cruise, you're like, "Oh, I'm on the open waters. I don't know what to expect."
LA: "I'm trapped."
HM: Right, I'm trapped. No. So many people trusted me with their experience. They knew they were coming in for a very curated experience. And one of the cool things that was a little bit of feedback from Norwegian, they said, "We've never seen a group of people that participated more in every single activity than your group of fans." I mean, we were-
LA: What were the activities?
HM: We had flip cup tournaments, we had drag brunches, we had a Mr. Worldwide. I'm obsessed with Pitbull, the singer Pitbull. So we had a competition where people had to send in videos dressed as him and lip sync.
LA: Which is an internet phenomenon.
HM: Which I started, just so you know, I want it here on record. I started everyone dressing in drag as Pitbull years ago. So then I came out in full Pitbull, and the girls who were participating had no idea it was actually me until one of them recognized my wedding ring. And she's like, "Wait a minute, Heather, that's you.
LA: Sleuthed you.
HM: Yeah, sleuthed me. And so we had a Pitbull competition. I mean, it was music every night. We had this amazing DJ. Shout out to DJ John Stamps. I said, "Hey, I want you to play 2005 from the windows to the walls. That's the kind of music I want. We would have dance parties till 2:30 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning.
LA: I mean, people go hard on cruise ships.
HM: People go hard on cruise ships. But it was cool because there was no judgment.
LA: Was it mostly women on the ship?
HM: There were a lot of women. We had a ton of the fabulous gays. They came out, we love them. And then we did have a lot of couples, and I say for the next cruise, if you're a single man, you should be on this cruise. Okay. You will have 10 girlfriends by the time you get off the ship.
Obviously a lot of women follow me on the internet and I speak to them directly, but then when they come to the shows, their husbands love to watch my specials with them and I'm speaking to everybody. My last special was all about me hustling and grinding and making more money than my husband, and I try and explain to the men why your wives, girlfriends, partners tick. I'm trying to explain it so that we can all come together. So it's a welcome environment for everyone.
LA: What did it feel like to create what sounds like a pretty safe space?
HM: It just felt cool that one, people trusted me to have that experience and getting to see people face-to-face. I've been touring for years and I meet wonderful folks at my shows, but to be able to spend four days with them on the open water sounds terrifying, but it was the best four days.
LA: I was going to ask what did it feel like to be just on for four days? Because usually you do a show and then you can decompress and you go back to your hotel or you go home, but presumably you were permitted to sleep on the cruise. But beyond that-
HM: But I didn't, honestly, I didn't rest for about five days and then I, but I don't know, you're just running on adrenaline.
It's like being at your wedding where you're saying hi to everybody and you want to give everybody your time. I was so grateful that people were there and having a blast. I participated in everything. I was at karaoke every night. So I would go do my show, we would have activations on the Lido deck every day, and then I was at the dance party till 2:30 A.M. Then I'd be at karaoke till 4:00 A.M. and then I would sleep till about 11:00 A.M. and then get up and put on Pitbull drag and do it all over again. It was insane.
LA: How was your voice by the end of it?
HM: Oh, I lost my voice the first day.
LA: Perfect.
HM: So I did learn. Now I know, and this was trial and error, I didn't know it was going to work. Everything went so smoothly except I lost my voice. So by day, [inaudible 00:16:59].
LA: Everything went so smoothly, but I lost my one key tool for performing.
HM: Well. It's okay because once mic'd, you can push through anything. And I'm an old-school theater kid, so I know I had my throat coat spray. I was doing the vocal warmups, but I did realize the first night I went too hard at karaoke till the wee hours of the morning, so I got to peel back just a little bit.
LA: Okay, wait, before we move on, what are your go-to karaoke songs?
HM: Ooh, okay. Anything from Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, that entire album. Incredible. Obviously Spice Girls. So I just need you to know you were sitting in the presence of the number one Spice Girls fan in the world.
LA: Oh, that's interesting because you are sitting in the presence of the number one Spice Girls fan in the world.
HM: Okay, perfect, perfect. Which Spice Girls were you growing up?
LA: Okay, so I was always told I was Posh, but I always wanted to be Baby. So I was very torn and now I look back and I actually, I would've wanted to be Sporty.
HM: Yes. I mean, honestly, the most comfortable. I was obviously Ginger. Okay, people think Baby, this blonde hair, it's not real. I was Ginger and when the Spice Girls broke up right before they came to do their U.S. Tour, so I want you to picture this. Little Baby Heather, it's fourth grade, this is about to be my first concert ever. I'm dressed head to toe Union Jack onesie my mom hand-stitched. I'm going to the Spice Girls concert, and in my fourth grade brain, I thought, well, of course Ginger, even though she's quit the band, she's going to still come to the Atlanta show because she knows I'm there.
LA: Well, yeah, I mean she wouldn't betray you.
HM: How could she do that? So the girls pop up. It's only the four of them. Hysterical. And my dad took me to the concert with all my girlfriends, and I remember he looked down at me and he goes, "I told you she wasn't coming." He had warned me about it and I couldn't handle it, but Geri, if you see this, I still love you. I love all the girls, and I'm telling you right now, if I, no I don't want to say. When the Spice Girls go back on tour for a reunion tour, that will be my Eras tour. I will be at every single show.
LA: Oh, absolutely. And I feel like I always hear these rumors that it's going to happen.
HM: It's like every three days.
LA: Dangle the carrot.
HM: Yes, it's every three days, The Spice Girls. I'm like, no, don't do that to me. But when, here's the thing, I promise you this. They go back on tour, we're jet-setting and we're going, I love them so much.
LA: Early cruise experiences might have shaped Heather as a young traveler, but so did impromptu flights with her dad who piloted his own plane. Coming up.
You are back with Women Who Travel. I get the impression from your podcast and all the different topics that you talk about, some of which are incredibly personal. There's a lot of reasons why you choose to travel. Talk to me a little bit about that, what it served you.
HM: I have a special place that I go to every summer, and that's Italy. It's a special secret little place that no one's ever been to, and I own the rights too. No, there's something about travel for me. I traveled a ton as a kid. I grew up in a family where my dad had a private pilot's license and he had this little King Air we would fly all over and that was just our lifestyle. On a Friday, he would pick us up from school, we'd throw three bathing suits in a duffel bag and we'd pop in a airplane and we would go somewhere.
LA: Wait, that's magical.
HM: Yeah, it's magical.
LA: Where did your dad take you?
HM: We would go to Hilton Head, we'd go to Charleston, South Carolina. We'd pop around to Florida. I mean, my dad even eventually flew... We would go down to the Turks and Caicos a lot. That was our place. We've been going to the Turks since they had limestone roads. And those memories for me, I've lost my dad since, but those memories for me will forever just be the most golden years of my life. So for me to be able to just get on an airplane and go somewhere to have that privilege and to be able to just travel the world is incredible. But back to your answer. I'm sorry. I love to go Italy every summer, it's healing. As soon as I get that first bite of Cacio e Pepe or Amatriciana, I'm a new person. I don't know what it is. That is my place. Those are my people. My family's from Sicily, but I'm just-
LA: I'm going to Sicily in four weeks.
HM: Oh, I got to walk you through everything.
LA: Please do.
HM: It's incredible. Sicily is truly not Italy. It's a different country. You just need to know that you're going to a totally different place. It is incredible. And I don't even mean to say they drive like assholes, but you will be clenching the side of your rental car because people drive, they're wilder than New Yorkers.
Every time I touch down in Europe, I just feel like there is a weight lifted off my shoulders. I'm a different person. I just feel the food is pure, the wine doesn't give me a hangover. I have a vacation cigarette and I go to Gucci and I'm like, who is she? I don't know.
LA: But this is my-
HM: That's healing for me. I'm trying to be inspiring. But you want to know what's healing. I'll tell you what's healing. Going to the Amalfi Coast, having Spaghetti alla Nerano and then maybe buying yourself a new pair of sunglasses at Gucci, that's healing, let's be honest.
LA: I also am convinced that wine in Europe doesn't give you a hangover like you said. And this is probably, this isn't an opinion I should be expressing on a podcast, but I'm convinced that the cigarettes aren't as bad.
HM: No, they aren't. And of course on the box it has a horrific photo-
LA: Oh, God.
HM: ... of just someone's mangled lungs and it's terrifying. And you're like, I shouldn't have this. But for some reason, one cigarette in Italy over a glass of Montenegro on the rocks, it just hits different. It really does.
LA: That is a beautiful scene you just described.
HM: Vacation cigs don't count. Okay, I'm just saying that.
LA: They don't.
HM: Vacation cigs don't count. And don't let your friends who are vaping 24/7 at every bar in New York City shame you when you have one vacation cig every nine months when you're in Europe. I don't want to hear it.
LA: I will be uttering that to myself in Sicily in a month.
HM: Oh, and everyone in Sicily is just chain-smoking.
LA: Well, that is the problem because then you see that and you're like, oh, it's fine to smoke. I can just smoke. And then you return from your vacation and-
HM: Yeah, and you've lost your voice day one.
LA: Yes.
HM: Yeah, everyone's smoking. Everyone's thin. Everybody is living their best life. They're all healthy. The nonna's lived to 300 years old. Their skins never look better. And you're like, all you're eating is pasta, drinking red wine, eating gelato and smoking cigs. So clearly we're doing it wrong. That's the thing. And I think because I travel so much for my job that you would think that I would just want to sit home. But if I sit home for longer than 48 hours, I start to itch and then I start to redecorate things in my house and my husband's like, "It is cheaper for us to go on vacation to Europe-"
LA: This is me.
HM: "... than for you to sit home because there'll be new furniture by Monday if I'm home on a Friday.
LA: Who do you like to travel with when you're actually on your spare time? Is it with your husband? Do you like traveling on your own? How are you putting these trips together?
HM: I am easy to travel on my own. I do it a lot for work. I don't need anybody to hold my hand. I am a travel pro, so I feel very comfortable traveling by myself. But when I have time off, I love to travel with my husband. He's truly my best friend. We have a blast together and his Italian is way better than mine, so I take him with me. But I also feel very lucky, on tour I get to travel with my best friends. My buddy Raymond opens for me. My friend Tina runs the show. So I am always surrounded by my besties and we've gotten to see the world together. I toured in Australia, New Zealand last year. That was the most incredible experience of my life. So I feel very blessed.
LA: Actually. Wait, tell me a little bit about Australia and New Zealand because we had another comedian, Catherine Cohen on-
HM: Oh, love her.
LA: ... about, it was probably six months a year ago, and she went there for the first time on tour and had a pretty transformative experience there.
HM: It was incredible. And let me tell you why. I will say the sense of humor on that side of the world is bellissima. You have to walk out on stage and they will cut right through your bullshit so quick. You have to go out there, call it as it is, and that's what they want. Aussie humor to me is very similar to British humor. The cheekier, the raunchier, the more dry, just go for it. They are craving your honesty. And I respect that a ton.
LA: I imagine when you're talking about certain women's stories and your own personal experiences as a woman, there is just a universality to it.
HM: Yes. When I go to different cities or different countries, I love to be out with the people and be like, "Tell me what's going on," and do crowd work and be like, "What is making you tick? What is the hardest thing you're going for that you're dealing with right now and you live in Melbourne? Tell me what you're going through because I want to be able to relate to it as well." So I think we are a lot more alike than we are different.
LA: What surprised you in those conversations? What were people telling you?
HM: I wasn't really surprised. I was just like, oh, we are literally all trying to do IVF at the same time. We're all freezing our eggs or we're all trying to get pregnant at the same time. We're all losing our mind. We're all in some sort of hair growth supplement because we're so stressed out that our hair's falling out. Everyone is truly trying to hold it together is what I have realized.
LA: I think both being in a similar place in our thirties, it feels like so many conversations I have is also about friends freezing eggs, friends going through IVF, and it is only one moment, none of us were talking about it and now it's like, I can't go for a drink with someone without it coming up in some context.
HM: Well, don't you feel like you didn't know what you didn't know until you didn't know and now you know and you're like, wait, how did all this happen? I froze my eggs during COVID because I had some time off from the road, had no idea I had low fertility. Had to do it three times for it to fail twice, and my husband and I were able to get one embryo on ice. And then they say the statistics of that embryo sticking one day is less than 0.4%. So you're constantly in this whirlwind of, I should have done this in my twenties. No one told me. And I think we're now all trying to be, my goal is to be proactive instead of reactive because in the entertainment biz, we're always trying to just keep our head above water, so I'll have to do more rounds of IVF to get more embryos. It's just crazy what you weren't taught growing up and what you didn't know. And now we're all at the age where we're like, oh shit, we got to get ourselves together.
LA: And I resent everyone who reminds me about a ticking clock. But then I'm also like, shit, shit.
HM: I know. I turned 38 this year and my mom had me at 40 and she's like, "You're going to be fine." I'm like, you had good eggs. You were smoking cigarettes and drinking wine every night when you were pregnant with me. And I'm over here taking my supplements and making sure I take melatonin to go to sleep and wearing an aura ring. And I'm like, how am I doing all the things that I think are healthy? And this is why I am telling you I will go to Europe and that's where I'll get pregnant. I will just relax. It's like once-
LA: The shoulders drop.
HM: The shoulders drop, I lose 10 pounds. Next thing you know I'm pregnant with twins. I think everyone's IVF, it's the same price so if you could spend the money to either do IVF or just go to Italy for two weeks and you'll probably get knocked up, because you'll finally relax. And that's what it is, we're so wound tight. We're trying to chase the goal and the dream and doing all these things that we never relax. I mean, obviously easier said than done, but that's why I take off. I am very specific and my team knows I will work to the bone from January to June, but damn it, you better give me three weeks in the summer just to turn my brain off and turn my phone off. And that is what I give myself.
LA: When you are planning those three weeks, I mean clearly you're going to Europe.
HM: Yes.
LA: Italy.
HM: Well, actually this year we're going to Portugal and Majorca. We're switching it up a little bit. I will get to Italy for Christmas. Don't worry, I will see my friends and family in Florence. But yes, I'm going to go to Portugal.
LA: Have you been before?
HM: I haven't been.
LA: Oh, that's so exciting.
HM: Well, and because everybody in my travel space was like, "Heather, you have to branch out." I've been all over the world and I've done a lot of Europe that they were like, there's places you need to see, so we're going to go to Portugal. I'm very excited about that. And then do a little bit of Majorca.
LA: How do you go about planning and going into a trip when you haven't been to a place before? Do you have any hacks or approaches to how you do it? Do you just fly by the seat of your pants? Are you very organized?
HM: When it comes to my vacations, here's the deal. I work so much and I look forward to this so much that I don't want a moment to be wasted, so I like to plan the hotels, the travel. I get such a joy off of following other travel content creators. And then I like to curate the whole trip. And when I find a good spot, I keep meticulous notes. And then if you DM me or you text me or call me, once I go to a place and I meet the people, I will go back and I love to have that familiarity. Or just like the family. There's a restaurant in Rome called Il Falchetto. I am obsessed with them. They are my family now. And I have a place called Il Parione in Florence. And these, I mean, I go back and visit these people once or twice a year. They're just my people. They feed me. If you feed me, I will come back and I will shout it from the rooftops that everybody needs to go there.
LA: I wanted to ask one question because I have to know, which is you are friends with Jane Fonda.
HM: I am. She's my girl.
LA: How did that come to be? I can't think of someone in Hollywood I would be more fascinated to talk to.
HM: Let me tell you about Jane. So Jane reached out to me because I had moved back to Atlanta. She has this incredible organization called GCAP, which is a foundation she started in Georgia to help educate the youth to prevent teen pregnancy. And she asked me to host her birthday that would coincide with her charity organization. I said, "Are you kidding me? I'd be honored." I'm just the local Atlanta girl. And then we just had this quick friendship and I adore her. And so every year I go back and I host this charity dinner that coincides with her birthday, and she's just the best. She's come on my podcast. I know if I needed to, I could email her or text her or call her tomorrow. And she's just so wise, so funny. That's the thing about Jane. She is on it. She's so fricking funny. She's sharp. She just says it like it is. And I find that level of tenacity, personality. Well, you know what's also great is that you have these women in your life who were just, I know if I had any question about anything in the world, no matter what I was going through, Jane would give me great, sound, wonderful, authentic, honest advice. And that's so refreshing just to have somebody to look up to like that. So I'm very grateful for her.
LA: If people want to follow along with your tour, where you're playing next, find out more about the cruise in 2027, where can they find you?
HM: Follow me at heatherontour.com for any information about where I'll be out in the world. And if you want to follow my travels, find me on Instagram and TikTok, @heatherkmcahon.
LA: Heather, this is so fun.
HM: Oh, thank you for having me.
LA: Thank you so much.
HM: Oh my gosh. I don't know why it's so intimidating. It's so serene, and you have such a calm face and you're so smart and [inaudible 00:31:55] and I'm over here [inaudible 00:31:57].
LA: Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu and you can find me on Instagram @lalehhanna. Our engineer is Pran Bandi. And special thanks to Jake Lummus for engineering support. Our show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner is our producer, Stephanie Kariuki, our executive producer and Chris Bannon is head of Condé Nast Global Audio.