Live comedy returned to the Admiral Theater this fall with "Ladies of Laughter."

Featuring Seattle's best standup comics, the series ran through the month of September and benefited the Susan G. Komen Breast Foundation. If you have an appetite for edgy, no-holds-barred humor there was no place else to be. Case in point is Cathy Sorbo who headlined the Sept. 12 and 13 shows. Imagine Chris Rock with a healthy dose of estrogen or, better yet, the multi-talented Carol Burnett fast-talking her way through a parole board hearing and you have some idea of Sorbo's sweetly jaded, "I try to be good but is it really worth it?" take on the American dream ("You all remember the Easy Bake Oven...my first meth lab.").

Sorbo's style is distinctly physical. Her punch lines often come at the middle of her stories rather than the end, followed by a physical comedy routine that the keeps the laughter going long after she stops talking.

There seems to be no sentiment too cherished to be flipped upside down by Sorbo's humor. A sweet story about planning to start a family quickly morphs into the nightmare of being caught on a long train ride with some particularly obnoxious children and Cathy's husband trying to perform a self-vasectomy with a spork. And, her story about dating a mortician revealed some rather unexpected perks.

I sat down with Sorbo after her performance at the Admiral to talk about her experiences doing standup.

"I had always thought I would be a singer in a band," said Sorbo. "A woman saw us at a music club ... and she said you guys have got to come down to the Comedy Underground. We were getting a lot of love and attention at the comedy club. So we reformed the act."

Sorbo moved to San Francisco and started her solo career.

"I worked with some pretty big names now where I was opening for them. Sharing the stage with these people was a pretty exciting time, wild, hedonist...pretty fun! Then I got married."

(The Comedy scene) is always changing. I wish I could hang out at open mikes but I just can't do that any more. I've got a kid. That's where I am at night." But even family life finds its way into her routines. Faced with the awkward question from her very young daughter about why the dwarves in a Disney movie were crying after Snow White ate the poisoned apple, Sorbo's answer was pragmatic: "They lost their housekeeper, she could make stew from scratch."

I asked Sorbo about the physical comedy she weaves into her routines.

"I probably picked it up watching TV as a young child - a lot of slap sticky stuff, a lot of 'Three Stooges' and 'Carol Burnett' and 'I Love Lucy'. People like to watch funny faces and spazzy dances and funny walks."

My conversation with Cathy Sorbo continues with an audio recording of the interview on this website. Click on the following link to hear Cathy talk about her experiences as a comedienne. Go to http://hosted.robinsonnews.com/audio/CathySorbointerview.mp3 to hear Cathy talk about her experiences as a comedienne.

Bruce Bulloch may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com