Maria Wojciechowski

Local comedy club, or dive bar, Lincoln’s in the old Port in Portland, is a ” find it if you can,” down a side street, totally without a sign,  sort of place.  We went down to see it on Aug. 16, of a sweet summer Portland evening. We really had to go down a stair case,  down an old cobble stone street near the warf.   Maria, an old student, who isn’t old at all came from N.Y. on a Thursday night  to exercise her craft in Portland.  She wrote and said she has a boyfriend in tow, but the real issue is that she’s still at it:  telling jokes, moving in wacky manner when required, and explaining her views upon life after graduation.  Well I say graduation, because she was a student at the University of South Alabama, and because she is genuinely a winning, warm, goof-ball.  Great to see her again.  She has a vulnerable open soul which plays well among what last night was a similarly aged audience.  They see her fear, her frustration, and her courage.  She makes comedy out of where she comes from, and who she is as a result of that.  A dancer, singer, comic, who says she doesn’t do any of these things well.  She does have the courage to stand up in front of people, and say she’ll make them laugh.  A really tough task, sometimes we’re reminded of how much is learned when seeing how material “plays.”  These stand-up folks, like Maria, are beyond brave.