‘Queen of Comedy’ says stand-ups provoke thought, not online buffoonery

It’s weirder than ever, being a standup comedian. When Sommore’s plane lands at McCarran Airport, the first thing she sees are billboards for other acts competing for ticket sales.

Sommore (one of the “Queens of Comedy”) performs Saturday and Sunday at the Suncoast hotel ($18-$44). So she looks at “all the lights and glitziness” of rival billboards and wonders:

“Where am I going to fit in with this?”

After that, she meets fans, and they might ask her again why doesn’t post videos on YouTube for their free viewing pleasure, because that’s what so many entertainers do now, they just give away product.

“People ask all the time, ‘Why don’t you do videos and stuff?’ ‘Naaah. I’m good,’” she says.

“If I want to keep my value as a standup comedian, I don’t want to do videos on YouTube. I want people to come and see my perspective on things,” she said. “I value a live performance.”

Stand-ups are also dealing with people’s confused ideas of contemporary comedy, which is this:

People who go to comedy shows sometimes expect to see the kind of silly, goofball comedy dominating American comedy, a trend that began with “Napoleon Dynamite” and continues with wacky people who perform only online.

“There are comedians now that are just Internet comedians. They do skits,” Sommore says. “It’s very clownish. It’s very buffoonery. And that’s cool, because it has its place.

“But people sometimes forget that comedians don’t have to be clowns. It’s our job to provoke thought,” Sommore says. “I’m not a silly comedian. I don’t want people laughing at me. I want people laughing with me.”

I told her I’m just glad people still spend money to see comedians live on stage.

“Oh, my goodness. Who you tellin’? That’s the thing that’s, like, wow,” she said.

Sommore gave me a scoop: She and her comedy friends will reunite next year to shoot “Queens of Comedy Behind Bars,” a nine-part series that infuses stand-up acts with interviews conducted with women exiting prison.

But at the moment, she’s just getting ready to gamble on roulette, eat well, shop, and visit New Jersey relatives who live here.

“It’s always weird when people say, ‘I’m moving to Vegas.’ You always think, ‘Who are you running from?’”

Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. Find him on Twitter: @VegasAnonymous.