With stories about having a jelly jar stuck up his ass, and a rant that merges his mild case of cerebral palsy with "shit porn," it's become gradually clear that Portlander Lonnie Bruhn is a standup comedian who doesn't hold back. His act is so relentlessly dirty that few comedy clubs will even book him, though thankfully for us, Sabala's isn't one of them--after a long hiatus, he has a big ol' show there this Saturday with fellow X-rated comics, Susanna Lee and Joe Fontenot. If the event catches on, they hope to take their Trashmouth Comedy Tour on the road.

How does your cerebral palsy inform your comedy?

Oh, I have a 10-minute act on cerebral palsy. It used to be a little bit too cute and cuddly, so I rewrote it with this angle that there're people out there who want to help people who are handicapped, but they really only make it more difficult for us. I used to get to that bit and feel like, "here's the part where I tell you about my disease," and hate it--but now I really like it. It feels a lot more true.

What's your new material like?

I'm kicking it up a notch on the filth. This time I just really wanted to go all out with honest and brutal stuff.

What's the filthiest thing you've ever said onstage?

I do a bit about porn and one of the things I talk about are the different kinds--I say I like midget porn of course and then talk about how there's no cripple porn. But they have porn where people shit on each other for two hours. My shit porn bit is pretty raunchy--it's all about how the [porn stars] are rubbing it on each other and getting it in their hair. And then I come in and want them to do cripple porn and they say, "what are you, some kind of perv?"

How do the audiences react to that kind of, well, shit?

I get more hassle from other comics than from audiences. A lot [of comics] tell me I'm not going to get anywhere doing what I do, and I say, "well, is it funny?" And they say, "yeah, but the industry doesn't like it," and I say, "well, that's all that matters." I may be a very poor man my whole life, but at least myself and my audiences will think I'm funny.