‘Intellectual but Loud’ Jane Uses Pain in Patter

Have you noticed how mechanized modern life has become? Martha Jane has.

“When I’m desperate, I call the hot line. I dial (800) 976-NUTS, and I get this special recording,” she says, assuming friendly, operator-like tones: “If you want to kill a family member or a close neighbor, press or dial 1. If you’re a victim of a multiple personality, press 2, 3, 4, and 5 . . . . “

The Boston-born, 6-foot-tall, red-haired comedian, who plays the recurring role of Mrs. Luby on the TV series “Lenny,” will appear at the Laff Stop in Newport Beach tonight and Friday through Sunday on a bill headlined by Tim Jones.

She has been described as a cross between Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler.

“In other words,” she says, “I’m intellectual but loud.”

Like many comedians, she prefers to tap personal experiences in writing her act. “There’s that famous Lenny Bruce quote when he goes into the Chinese restaurant and the waiter says, ‘It’s too bad about your divorce.’ Lenny says, ‘Yeah, but I needed 10 new minutes.’

“The thing about comedy,” Jane continues, “is you can channel intense pain into very funny bits. Those are the things that people relate to the most. If you talk about shopping at the mall, that’s cute but it’s not meaningful. When I do the joke about the hot line, a lot of people are feeling intense pain and depression, and everywhere you go things are mechanized. You have to be on hold just to talk to a recording.”

Jane has appeared on such syndicated TV shows as “Comic Strip Live” and “Comedy Express.” Under Special Skills on her resume, she lists dancing, various and sundry dialects and pie throwing. There’s one credit under Recordings: Backup screaming on Sam Kinison’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

Her comedy heroes include Tomlin, Jackie Gleason and Margaret Dumont (Groucho Marx’s movie foil). She apparently inherited her love of comedy from her father: “Even though everyone in my family went to college and is very intellectual, my dad would actually say ‘OK, kids, put down your homework, Jonathan Winters is on.’ ”

A modern-dance major at Harvard, Jane moved to Los Angeles in 1978, where she did a “variety of dumb office jobs” and wrote unproduced screenplays for musicals “with lots of dancing in them.

“Somebody read one of my screenplays and said, ‘You should do comedy.’ So I did.”

It’s not easy being a female comic, however.

“It’s very difficult for women,” she says, recalling the time six years ago when she called a club owner to say she’d like to send him a tape of her act. The owner wasn’t interested. “We had a woman in here last year,” he said, “but she didn’t do very well.”

“They all worry we’re going to tell emasculating jokes, which is so silly,” Jane says.

One of her favorite stories is of the time back in the early ‘80s when she was just starting, and she was booked into a club for a week. She did quite well on opening night but received a call from the club the next morning.

“They said they were going to pay me for the whole week, but don’t come back. I was devastated,” she recalls. “I was in tears, crying all the way over to pick up the money.”

Jane asked the woman who worked for the club owner why he fired her. “Your act is great,” the woman said, “but you look exactly like the owner’s ex-wife, and he can’t stand the sight of you.”

The club finally went out of business.

“Actually,” Jane says, “a lot of people look like his ex-wife.”

Martha Jane and Tim Jones perform Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., Friday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., Saturday at 8, 10 and 11:45 p.m. and Sunday at 8:30 p.m. at the Laff Stop, 2122 S.E. Bristol St., Newport Beach. Admission: $7 to $10. Information: (714) 852-8762.