I had to massage the laughs out of my face after last night's Chelsea Peretti set at Helium. She did one bit about watching gymnastics at the Olympics that made me look like I was sporting a Jack Nicholson clothes-hanger-mouth mask. I think because I watched her in this Jane Fonda workout video, it made me really appreciate her impression of a tiny gymnast being pet by a bear of a Russian coach. I might have laugh/cried at one point—mascara ran. Her set was fantastic, but as is too often the case, some asshole was talking in the crowd, which kept throwing a wrench in her rhythm as she shut 'em down. Peretti's got kind of a mean girl approach—at least at first—repeatedly calling the audience garbage and talking up her stand-up. And because she's a slip of a thang in a pink '80s style hoodie that said "More, More, More," you still want to befriend her after the show so you can make her giggle her infectious giggle. Especially after she expresses her love of Lisa Nowak, the diaper-wearing astronaut-spurned astronaut ("She's a true American pioneer!"), then mimed her running around in a diaper ("I'm feeling things! I'm doing things!). So much funny stuff—turns out the Italian Jewish Peretti's a homebody, most comfortable covered in pillows and blankets and lurking on the internet, whose mom is constantly turning to look at her in movie theaters, desperate to see if she's having a good time and touching her thigh. This may have led to Peretti putting the moves on her mom. Anyhoo, go check her out! She's a damn funny lady (as you probably already know from her work on Louie, Parks & Rec, and appearances on the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast). Plus: The feature comic is Portland's 2012 Funniest Person Nathan Brannon, who've I've never seen before, and he's fantastic!

Chelsea Peretti, Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th, Fri-Sat 7:30 & 10 pm, $20-25