She’s the most unlikely comedian on the stand-up circuit.

At 75, Grandma Lee has been disarming audiences with her often ribald-comedy for a little more 10 years.

My favorite line, the one that made her a finalist in 2009’s “America’s Got Talent” – her college-student daughter said “I ain’t a virgin anymore” and Grandma Lee deadpans “After all that tuition money, you still say ‘ain’t’?”

Comedy guru Joe Sanfelippo, owner of Bonkerz Comedy Club chain, has taken the sad-sack comedian under his guidance, becoming her manager.

She has appeared several times at the Bonkerz at Palace Station and will have a month-long engagement there this month – through May 29 (the show is dark on Sundays).

“We’re so excited to have Grandma Lee at Bonkerz for all of May,” said Sanfelippo. “It’s a great chance for her fans to see her in an intimate venue and hear the jokes she couldn’t do on television.”

Grandma Lee was doing comedy long before “America’s Got Talent.”

“I dreamed about it as kid, being a comedian,” says Grandma Lee, who was born in Oklahoma City.

But it was a dream that remained unfulfilled until late in life.

After graduating from Otterbein College in Ohio, she married a Marine, Ben Strong, and spent the next 20 years or so raising their four children and traveling the world.

She eventually settled in Jacksonville, Fla., where she worked as a telephone operator until she turned 63 and the company bought her out.

Grandma Lee began going to comedy clubs and her life-long interest in stand-up was rekindled.

After her husband died in 995, she pursued the career in earnest.

“I went to an open mike night at a local comedy club, and that was it,” she says.

In 1997 she hit the road and her star has been rising ever sense.

“I was successful almost immediately,” she says. “I just had to perfect my timing. I talked a little fast in the beginning.”

She writes her own material and follows her on path.

“My comedy is patterned after no one,” she says. “It’s based on truth, though exaggerated a little.”

Grandma Lee played Vegas before she became a household name thanks to television.

“I worked a lot of clubs – the Plaza, Lady Luck, Casino Royale,” she says.

She works most of the time.

“I get bored when I’m not working,” she says. “After a couple of days off, I’m ready to get back onstage.”

Now that she found her niche in life, she has no thoughts of slowing down.

“I will do this from now on,” she says.

Grandma Lee is continuously on the look-out for new opportunities.

The job offers aren’t coming fast enough to suit the indefatigable Grandma.

“I’m in kind of a holding pattern right now,” she says.

After Las Vegas, she heads to Virginia and Minnesota.

“Then I guess I’ll just sit back and wait,” she says.

But probably not for long.

This is one grandmother who eschews knitting, rocking chairs and canning.

She’d much rather be telling dirty jokes than cleaning house.

Who: Grandma Lee

Where: Bonkerz Comedy Club, Palace Station

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Tickets: $29.95 ($10 off for Nevada residents)

by Jerry Fink

thejerryfink.com

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