AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

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Feb. 5, 6, 7 at 8p.m.
Feb. 7, 8 at 2p.m.

The One-Two
Punch

Funny lady Wendy Liebman leaves 'em laughing.

"A stunning

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American

Ballet Theatre

SUZANNE CHESSLER

is dazzlin ,o -

Special to The Jewish News

-

C1.4(.1g0 S WI Times

Tickets From $

Call (313)

874-SING

Or TickctMasrcr at
( 248 ) 645-6666

DETROIT

The 1997-98 Dance Series is sponsored by

Li. CHRYSLER

vA7 FUND E

A CLOSER WALK WITH

Singing 20 of Her
Greatest Hits

• Dinner Packages

• Attic Gift Certificates

• For more info
call (248) 335 8101

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• Tickets $22 and $27

• Show Times: Thur., Fri. &
Sat. 7:30 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.

EXTENDED

Tickets available at the

7th House Box Office (248) 335-3540
and Ticketmaster (248) 645-6666

1/30
1998

96

THROUGH
FEBRUARY 15

No show Jan. 30 & 31

44h4 -57E,

match the best
Music Reviews in
.III Entertainment

liAll endy Liebman just
found out she can't have
children: "It's in my
lease," she says.
It's also in her comedy routine,
which takes center stage tonight
through Sunday at Joey's Comedy
Club in Dearborn.
"I've performed at Joey's twice
before," says Liebman, 36, who last
year was crowned Best Female Stand-
up Comic by Roseanne and Lily Tom-
lin at the American Comedy Awards.
'A lot of people I've known from
different parts of my life [in New York
and Los Angeles] show up in Dear-
born, and who would have thought I
would bump into old friends at Joey's?
"Last time, there was somebody
from high school. It was very weird
because I think I saw him sitting in
the audience. I sort of recognized him
because I don't think people change
that much, except I now have a few
gray-hairs. — on my chest."
Liebman's humor often sprouts
from two punch lines, the second
unexpected to catch people by sur-
prise.
"I love going to the mall because I
love to shop ... lift," Liebman tells her
crowds. "No, I would never do that ...
again."
Liebman's style evolved in front of
comedy club fans.
"I would say something and get a
laugh, and then there would be
silence," Liebman explains. "I couldn't
deal with the silence so I would add
something else. It would work, and
people started identifying me with
that."
Still, Liebman makes a point of not
telling all her jokes in the same way.
She believes they would be too pre-
dictable and boring.
"People say they have to listen
closely to my act because the funny
part is when they're not expecting it,"
she adds.
Liebman does not perform Jewish
jokes, although she believes the Jewish

.

experience lends itself to humor; being
funny, she thinks, can be a way to
gain acceptance.
Her focus is the female experience.
"I get away with more because I'm
a woman, which is ironic," says Lieb-
man, who is looking for a sensitive
man, someone who will cry when she
hits him.
"I can talk about men in a way I
don't think men are allowed to talk
about women, and I can get a little
spicy when I talk about sex. It's not
dirty; it's funny.
"Between being a performer and
having e-mail, I feel I'm connected to
everybody."
Liebman connected with a stand-
up career after graduating from
Wellesley and becoming a research
assistant at Harvard, where she
worked with a psychiatrist studying
the personality effects of chronic ill-
ness on children.
She was trying to turn around a
very serious and sometimes angry out-
look and had signed up for an adult
education class in comedy perfor-
mance.
"Toward my last year in college, I
started communicating more," she
says. "I dealt with my feelings of inad-
equacy by being funny and getting
attention that way.
"I think humor is a defense mecha-
nism that I used out of necessity to
cope with being maybe darker and
more depressive. It worked for me and
became my life."
Liebman introduced her comic tal-
ents at clubs in Massachusetts. In
1990, she won the Johnnie Walker
Red Comedy Competition semifinals
in Boston and competed in the finals
at California's Hollywood Improv.
The blossoming entertainer caught
the eye of the talent coordinator of
"The Tonight Show" and was invited
to be one of Johnny Carson's guests
the following week. The episode was
captured on a segment for CBS's "48
Hours."
Since then, Liebman has been a
regular with David Letterman and Jay
ONE-Two PUNCH on page 98