Stand-up comedian has found ways to stand out

So far, Melanie Maloy's career highlights include being asked out by Weird Al Yankovic and being ridiculed by Howard Stern on the air after she made E!'s Top 50 Funniest People list.

Such is life when you're the greatest white dreadlocked female comic ever to come out of Greensburg.

"He was furious," she says of Stern, remembering how her friends called to tell her that the King of All Media was discussing the list on his radio show. He had been snubbed by E!, she says.

"I still have no idea how I made that list. He was so mad. I was getting all these phone calls. He was so mad. 'I've never heard of her. Who is Melanie Maloy?'"

She'd be hard to miss. Imagine Ani DiFranco had she chosen to pursue stand-up instead of music. Maloy says she is scheduled to appear on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" sometime in 2008. She recently sent a tape of her stuff to the "Late Show With David Letterman." They asked her for a second tape. And not because they lost the first one.

"People think that I have it so tough being a female comic," says Maloy, who opens a three-night stand tonight at The Funny Bone at Station Square. "It's the opposite. I'm a white girl with dreads. I stand out."

Maloy, the daughter of WDVE-FM deejay Jack Maloy, made her comedic debut at The Funny Bone. Her first time doing stand-up, she killed. The second time, she bombed.

She says she cried for four days.

"That's when I knew that I was going to be good at this," she says. "I've never failed at something so miserably and then gone back into it again. I wanted to get better so badly, and I've never been that passionate about anything."

Her mother, Lainie, actually nudged her into trying stand-up.

"When I graduated, I was waitressing, and I think she was afraid that I wasn't going to do anything creative," Maloy says. "She suggested I do stand-up, and I listened to her. I started doing the open mikes, and I'm so grateful to her."

Now she travels most of the year, doing shows. At the moment, she's phoning from Boise.

"People have no idea how hip Boise is," she says. "It's one of the coolest places, but people don't want me to say that. They don't want it to become like Portland or Denver."

She also credits veteran Pittsburgh comic Buzz Nutley, who would take her along during his tours of the hinterlands of Western Pennsylvania.

"He would take me to a fire hall when he was doing comedy," she says. "He would force me to do 20 minutes of material when I had, like, five. It was like throwing a baby into the water and making me swim. I owe him so much. He's the one who made me fearless."

Additional Information:

Melanie Maloy

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 and 10:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Admission: $5 Thursday; $15 plus two-beverage minimum Friday and Saturday

Where: The Funny Bone Station Square, South Side

Details: 412-281-3130