"When a musician stands on stage with a guitar, the audience is basically rootin' for ya. When a comedian stands in front of a microphone, the audience is basically 'Yeah, whatcha got? Make me laugh,'" notes local comedian Chris Elliott.

Yet time after time, Elliott and Mickey Blanchette, the yin and yang of Seacoast comedy, pull it off.

Three minutes into any story, Blanchette has the audience hanging on his every word. His stream-of-consciousness storytelling makes him sound like that crazy guy at the bus stop who turns out to be really funny and incredibly keen on the lives of dogs, the meaning of fortune cookies and the pitfalls of the corporate rat race.

Several years ago, one of his bits at Larry Simon's Beat Night caught Elliott's attention, and the two partnered on a play together. Now a little further down the road, they're each realizing that the hobby of being funny in front of a room full of people has turned into a habit, and maybe something more.

On Thursday, June 9 they've rented out the Press Room so each can record a live performance to CD. The night's open to all comers, though their audiences don't usually overlap.

Elliott has been making people laugh-and cringe-for longer than nearly anyone else on the Seacoast. The "jokin' word" half of the night, he finds his funny in pop culture and its underbelly. His willingness to discuss publicly what most of us usually avoid, and to make a joke of it, sets him apart from most other local comedians. He can be unnerving, unbalancing and genuinely offensive, in his live act and in his several local humor columns, and he can make you laugh while he's at it. His role models include Richard Pryor ("the greatest comedian who ever lived"), George Carlin and the man to whom "we all owe a debt of gratitude," Lenny Bruce.

A recent comparison of Ronald Reagan's pomaded hair to John F. Kennedy's top hat was funny; the observation that both lost their brains in office earned some nasty mail.

"There was no way in hell I was not going to print that one. It's a little bit of 'it's tough, it's offensive, but tough shit," to a degree," Elliott says. "If it's funny, it's going in, and beyond that (short of genuinely hurting someone), I honestly don't care.... There's very little that happens that you can't find comedy in.

He cites the example of The Onion's story on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in which God asks what part of "Thou shalt not kill" wasn't clear.

"You can mine comedy out of tragedy, but it has to be really funny. ... As long as your unique perception of it has comedic value, the simple fact of it having been born of tragedy does not disqualify it."

Mickey Blanchette's "spoken word" half of the evening will undoubtedly be gentler. Among his role models is Boston-area favorite Jack McCarthy, whose storytelling poetry style throws the same kinds of wordplay and plot curveballs you'll find in Blanchette's work. His set will include up to 15 of his titles, which are mostly truth, spiced up with a little fiction.

"I like the theatrical element of it," Blanchette says. "As an audience member, when someone tells a story really well, you start to feel like you're watching a movie right there. As a performer, you feel that connection. Something's working."

If you've spent any amount of time on the Seacoast or in downtown Portsmouth, you'll easily recognize some of the places and characters that populate his pieces.

Blanchette, who's also currently recording a CD with his band Shagbark and performs a few times a year in plays at the Players' Ring, says the fact that he's been doing this for four years has caught him by surprise. He'd thought of it as something he did for fun.

"I've always been a real blabbermouth," he says. As a child, he loved giving oral book reports. "I was an only child, a military brat, so I hung around a lot of adults before I was eight," he says. Telling stories was a good way to hold their attention.

"Some people tell me my stuff is comedy, but it's not in a traditional sense," he says. "I don't even know what to make of my stuff, except that I like it and it seems to work."

"Spoken Word, Jokin' Word" will take place at the Press Room, 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth on Thursday, June 9, 7-9 p.m.

laugh out loud

Inn on The Blues
Short Sands Beach, York
207-351-3221
Chris Elliot's Open Mouth, every Wednesday through the summer, featuring a short set by Elliott, followed by an open mike, then a featured professional act to close the night.

Shooter's Pub
10 Columbus Ave., Exeter
603-772-3856
comedy the first Saturday of the month
go early, since shows sometimes sell out; reservations are accepted, but not required; the club is now non-smoking.

Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Hampton Beach
603-929-4100
among the performers coming to the ocean-front venue this summer: Dan Cook on Friday, June 17; Brian Regan on Saturday, July 23; Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood on Saturday, July 30; Jim Breuer on Saturday, Aug. 13; and Lewis Black on Sunday, Aug. 21.

Riverworks, Newmarket
164 Main St., Newmarket
603-659-6119
look for comedy on the third Thursday of the month; acts rented from rentacomic.com.