Jen Kirkman brings clever commentary, comedy to Rex Theater

Jen Kirkman’s comedy is not easy to define.

The 44-year-old Los Angeles resident is comfortable on stage making observations about her life. She is divorced, in between relationships at the moment, childless by choice and riffs on all of that and more in her Netflix specials and appearances on late night talk shows.

She also has a few thoughts on dating younger men, cat-calling, bridging generational divides and growing up in Boston.

Sorry. I’m from Boston. It’s been revealed that was a regional thing. We just pronounce things however we want and don’t have the accent aigu on the last e. So....technically we pronounced a misspelled word correctly. ? ???? https://t.co/f7w1siKilF

— JEN KIRKMAN (@JenKirkman) March 31, 2019

Kirkman will perform at 8 p.m. April 24 at the Rex Theater in Pittsburgh.

“I don’t try to do a certain thing and say, ‘I’ll do jokes about that.’ I just do what comes naturally. … I’m a bit biographical, for sure,” she said in a recent telephone interview.

Kirkman has written two bestselling books, “I Can Barely Take Care of Myself” and “I Know What I’m Doing and Other Lies I Tell Myself.”

She wrote for the first two seasons of the Amazon Prime series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” has released two stand-up albums and has a weekly podcast, “I Seem Fun: The Diary of Jen Kirkman.”

But although she “got into comedy 22 years ago,” Kirkman jokes that her career “started 10 years ago.”

The comedy of music

Growing up, she recalls watching Carol Burnett and George Carlin.

“I loved sitcoms,” she says. “Moonlighting” (starring a young Bruce Willis) was a favorite, she says.

But music also was a pull. “I thought I was going to be in a band,” she says.

“My biggest influences were Morrissey and Robert Smith (The Cure). I devoured their lyrics and interviews. I thought they were so funny. I’m very self-deprecating and dark. … Funny musicians have probably shaped my comedy,” she says.

“Howard Stern was a big influence. I started listening to him during college. He would talk about his parents, therapy,” she says.

Halfway through college, where she was a drama and dance student, Kirkman began seeing comedy shows and felt drawn to the stage.

“I didn’t think I was funny enough, but I felt impatient. I wanted to do it. It felt like a calling. I thought I would regret it if I didn’t try it,” she says.

Open mic(s)

After joining an improv group after college, she began looking in Boston’s alternative weekly newspapers for open mic events.

She credits comedian Eugene Mirman, who voices a character in “Bob’s Burgers,” with giving her a start, directing her to “the back of a bar in 1997 in Cambridge, Mass.”

“I thought, ‘I’m good at this (telling jokes).’ Then I moved to New York City and it kicked my ass,” she says, laughing.

Kirkman compares doing stand-up to “going to college in front of everyone.”

She built an audience and, in 2008, became a panelist and writer for “Chelsea Lately.”

Taking a walk in the South one evening brought her comedy gold. A man in a truck slowed and asked if he could tell her something “creepy.”

As she contemplated her demise, he reassured her that he only wished to compliment her on her boots.

Like any good comedian, Kirkman turns that into a bit. She thoughtfully suggests that if men insist on randomly shouting at women, perhaps instead of commenting on their looks they could, say, compliment them on their independence and financial self-sufficiency.

Dealing with the peanut gallery

One comedic nightmare she has managed to dodge is heckling.

“I think that’s a little bit of a myth. ‘You suck’ and ‘Go home’ doesn’t happen often,” Kirkman says.

Sometimes, unfortunately, audience members will behave as if they are part of the show, she says.

Or there can be a low din of conversation, as if the performer is in the background on a television.

“That’s so heartbreaking,” she says.

Loving being live

Of her various entertainment mediums, Kirkman says stand-up is probably her favorite.

What can her live audiences expect? “I don’t do anything from my Netflix specials. I always do new material on the road,” she says.

Just 3 weeks to me in PITTSBURGH @RexTheater and then PHILADELPHIA @UnionTransfer

Get tickets today and tag your friend who has muted me.

PITTSBURGH: https://t.co/pvQasILRY0

PHILLY: https://t.co/UhmUKOvalR pic.twitter.com/goITMTsagl

— JEN KIRKMAN (@JenKirkman) April 3, 2019

“I’m talking a lot about my parents lately, Generation X, younger people. There is a lot of stuff about telling young people what it used to be like when we had student debt. I try to bridge the gap between Millennials and Generation X,” she says.

Where would she like to be in another five or 10 years? More of the same, but with a bigger audience, she says.

And there’s one perk she hopes her future holds: “I want to be such a successful comic that I have my own bus,” she says, laughing.