“I am sitting in my car because the building next to my apartment is on fire,” Belinda Carroll tells me on a phone call in advance of her stop at Memphis’ The Comedy Junt this Friday. “The building is abandoned. Nobody’s hurt at all. It started last night, and I got home from a gig and saw all these fire trucks.”
When she’s not sitting in her car watching fire trucks, Carroll spends time sitting in her car as it rides the roads between stops on her comedy tour. In fact, the Portland, Oregon-based performer will be bringing her Clown Car Album Tour to Memphis.
“You have to come to my show. It’s a joke in my act, and I’m not going to explain it at all,” Carroll says when asked about the tour’s “Clown Car” name. She does hint though. “I’m bringing friends,” she says, noting that she’ll have some fellow comedians in tow for the tour. “We all like each other so far.”
The tour is an 11-stop affair, with shows in Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, and Huntsville, Alabama, on Pride Weekend. “I am a member of the alphabet, so I’m a member of the LGBTQ community,” Carroll says, noting that she’s the founder of the Portland Queer Comedy Festival. “I do smart comedy. I talk politics, I talk dating.”
As if being a festival founder and comedian aren’t enough on the resumé, Carroll says she’s also a former blues singer, which is why she wanted to be sure to stop in Memphis. “I will be doing a little bit of singing in my act.”
How’s that for a carload of talent?
Belinda Carroll’s Clown Car Album Tour, The Comedy Junt, 4330 American Way, Friday, October 1st, 8-10 p.m., $15.