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COMEDY NOTES
Provocative humor is her preference
By Nick A. Zaino III, Globe Correspondent | May 27, 2005
There are countless ways to make someone laugh, and Betsy Salkind knows most
of them. Want sarcastic wit? Political humor? Or maybe just a good animal
mime? Salkind, who on Sunday headlines the Women in Comedy show at Jimmy
Tingle's Off Broadway, can pull all that off and more.
Salkind especially relishes uncomfortable laughter, the kind elicited by her
one-woman satire, ''Anne Frank Superstar," about a network sitcom pitch
based on Frank's life, or her silent sketch piece about Andrea Yates, the
Texas woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001.
The more difficult the subject, the better.
Salkind is also noted for silly, physical comedy. She once landed a job
writing for Roseanne Barr, on the last season of her sitcom, because Barr
had heard of about one of Salkind's signature bits, of a squirrel eating a
cracker, and asked her to perform it at a party in LA.
''It's sort of riding that edge between talking about that darkest, most
serious stuff and just being a goofball," she says. ''It's always an
interesting ride for my audience."
Salkind views herself as the anti-Seinfeld, given his tendency to stick to
mundane topics. ''I don't do that," she says. ''There are a lot of people
who say, 'Just do the squirrel and don't do anything else,' because they're
happy with that, just funny and not at all provocative."
Pleasing the audience is the first job of the comedian, and Salkind doesn't
exempt herself from that. She tests the limits of each crowd and adjusts her
act accordingly, rather than trying to shock people up front with something
like the Yates piece. She has also changed her stage image somewhat to
soften the blows.
''Now I come onstage looking like a '50s housewife and have a very sweet,
quiet demeanor, so I'm not threatening in any way," she says, ''except these
things that are coming out of my mouth."
Salkind began brewing her mix of improv, sketch, and stand-up comedy in
Boston in the late '80s studying business at MIT. She had thought she might
be a serious actress, but says, ''everything I did kind of came out
slapstick."
Salkind was eventually drawn away from a career as a Federal Reserve Bank
examiner after classes at ImprovBoston and a stand-up career that evolved
from making fellow activists laugh at protests and rallies.
After leaving Boston for New York in 1993, Salkind landed in Los Angeles,
where she continues her comedy and activism. Club and theater work leaves
her days open to lobby the California Senate on behalf of groups trying to
prevent child abuse. Having faced hecklers in dark clubs, Salkind isn't shy
about facing down a politician or two.
''I can walk into anybody's office and talk about anything, and it doesn't
hurt to bring a little humor into it, too," she says. ''It is a performance
in a way."
In fact, Salkind is working on a one-woman show based on her lobbying
experiences for abused children. ''Of course," she says, ''it's a comedy."
She also hopes to bring Ethel, the hero of ''Anne Frank Superstar," to
television in an animated series, and has staged workshop performances of a
play where drug manufacturer Eli Lilly and a personified Depression battle
for the custody of a woman.
List these projects on her resume along with writing for Roseanne and
writing talk-show fodder for self-help guru Anthony Robbins, and even
Salkind has trouble describing her career. ''I kind of have to do what I
do," she says. ''I definitely see myself as an artist first, and I've never
tried to create what the industry wanted to see."
Women in Comedy, starring Betsy Salkind, Mary Beth Cowan, and Emily Singer,
is Sunday at 7 at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway, 255 Elm St., Somerville,
617-591-1616.
CHAPPELLE REVISITED
Until Dave Chappelle works out his return with Comedy Central, fans of
''Chappelle's Show" will have the complete second season, new on DVD this
week.
Along with characters like Black Gallagher and Wayne Brady's cameo (best use
of a guest star, ever), bonus features include more Charlie Murphy stories,
bloopers, and a Rick James interview. Bostonians might want to pick it up
for Chappelle's take on the Don Zimmer/Pedro Martinez dust-up in his
stand-up footage.
AROUND TOWN
John Gorka, a singer/songwriter known to tell a humorous story or two, joins
Jimmy Tingle tonight and tomorrow at the Off Broadway. . . . Gary Valentine,
a regular on CBS's ''King of Queens," is a last-minute addition to the
Comedy Connection's schedule tonight and tomorrow. . . . Paul D'Angelo
headlines the Roma in Haverhill tonight with Dave Rattigan, Steve Guilmette,
and Amy Tee.
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