“I dressed up,” she said.
The tennis shoes were fitting, as Stelling was constantly in motion during her performance, pausing occasionally to let a joke sink in with the audience — one that consistently rocked back and forth with laughter.
One member of the audience, Peter Heinz, said he frequently attends shows at the Comedy Attic.
He had seen clips of Stellings work and said he really enjoyed her full ?performance.
“Oh, she was great,” he said. “She was definitely on the upper end.”
Stelling said in an email to the Indiana Daily Student she has several reasons for returning to the Comedy Attic and has always enjoyed performing in Bloomington. She said she enjoys the size of the club, how it is intimate but still able to house more than 150 spectators.
“The people of Bloomington rule,” she said. “Wherever they’re from, the Comedy Attic audiences come out to have a good time. It’s all positive vibes, which makes my job very enjoyable.”
While some female comedians may be inclined to play on certain stereotypes or invoke vulgarity to get laughs, Stelling said she made the choice early in her career to avoid this breed of comedy. She said she wanted to be funny without relying on “lady-centric” ?material.
“Now that I’ve proven I can do that, I’m free to delve into nearly any topic,” ?she said.
Indeed, her topics of choice ranged from IKEA and baby talk to piñatas and Sprint.
Stelling said she likes that she can have a good time onstage at the Comedy Attic by playing around with the audience and introducing her new material. She said she will have some “Valentine’s Day weekend fodder” after having ended a long distance relationship with a man in Ohio — a man who’s name is tattooed on her back.
“I’ll take you through the many stages of being an unintentional, sweet serial monogamist,” she said.
“Valentine’s Day with Beth Stelling” will be at the Comedy Attic all weekend.
Stelling said she could see herself celebrating this Valentine’s Day weekend by getting lost in endless episodes of “Catfish” or by FaceTiming her mother and her mother’s boyfriend (her dog).
But she will also be on the lookout during this holiday of hearts and roses and romance, for chocolate.
“I might treat myself to a bag of crispy M&Ms if they still exist in Bloomington,” she said. “They seem to have dropped off the face of the planet in California. They probably replaced them all with kale.”
