Comedian Heather McMahan Can’t Get Enough of Italy and Cruises

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.