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KEARNEY — Comedian Victoria Jackson has a recipe for her stand-up routine: “I say funny things, and then people laugh.”

The former Saturday Night Live cast member might have left out a few steps in what she does on stage, but she also understands that people come to a comedy show to laugh, and she’s happy to oblige.

“I tell a lot of jokes about being married to a policeman and how opposite we are,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Miami while walking her dog. “I also play a lot of ukulele songs about adultery, death, bimbos in bikinis and I do impressions. I’ve been doing stand-up since 1980, and now my act is mostly about being trapped in Miami and married to a cop.”

Jackson performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live from 1986-1992. She appeared on the show’s weekly “Weekend Update” segment and impersonated Roseanne Bar, Sally Struthers and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

“I think laughter is universal,” comedian Victoria Jackson said about appealing to all audiences. She will headline a comedy show at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Chicken Coop Banquet Hall in Kearney. Tickets are $20-$30.

Jackson loved her time on the show, but she also enjoys performing live.

“Stand-up is fun because you get instant gratification and instant laughter,” she said. “That was the same with Saturday Night Live because it was live, so that was pretty instant. I love TV — because it’s a lot of money — but film work is boring because you have to sit around a lot. My favorite part of stand-up is hearing the laughter of the audience. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

Jackson will get to enjoy that wonderful feeling when she comes to central Nebraska for two shows, one of which is at 10 p.m. Friday at The Brickhouse Lounge in Hastings while the other is at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Chicken Coop Banquet Hall in Kearney. Tickets are $20.

Comedians Gary Menke and Bill Queen will also perform.

Jackson, 63, compares performing stand-up comedy to having a relationship with the audience.

“You feel each other out, bounce off of each other, kind of like a conversation,” she said. “But I don’t like the traveling part of it. Comedians who do stand-up get paid for the traveling; the comedy they would do for free.”

Jackson understands the risks of telling jokes. They just might fall flat.

“The risk is that they might not laugh,” she said. “That makes the air crackle with energy because the audience is nervous, too. If the person on stage is bombing, the audience feels the most uncomfortable — well, maybe equally as uncomfortable as the comedian. The risk isn’t really all that great because if you do your act for a long time, you know exactly where they’re going to laugh. Even though it looks like you’re really just talking, you have it memorized.”

When comedians put a new joke in their routine, they usually “pad” it between two jokes with a track record of making audiences laugh.

Jackson’s experiences on Saturday Night Live helped mold her comedy skills.

“It was more fun that it looked on the show,” she said. “It was very exciting. We lived on pure adrenaline. What people don’t know is how competitive it really is. We had to write our own material, and then we had to compete with our cast mates for air time. If you’re a really good writer, you might get more air time. It was competitive and terrifying. We never knew when we’d get fired.”

Jackson compares the experience to living during wartime.

“I listened to my old castmates on a podcast like that new one David Spade and Dana Carvey have called ‘Fly on the Wall.’ It’s so interesting to me because I thought I was the only one who was terrified, like they were old pros and it was easy for them,” Jackson said. “But it turns out that they were just as scared as me. It’s so fun to listen to them talk about it because when we were doing it, we weren’t talking about it — we were just doing it. We were just trying to survive.”

Throughout her career on stage, the comedian remembered a piece of simple advice she received from a director.

“If the person is having fun, the audience will have fun,” Jackson said. “In my acting career, I remember a director saying, ‘Okay, one more time — and have fun!’ I’ve always remembered to have fun. I think that’s important.”

Along with the element of fun, Jackson recognizes the need to make her delivery seem unique.

“And then you have to make it sound fresh,” she said. “That’s like in the movies when you have to do 20 takes of a scene. You have to make it look like it’s the first time you’ve said it — 20 times.”

Although Jackson describes herself as a conservative Christian, she leaves politics out of her stand-up routine. One noticeable change from many other comedians — she will not use profanity.

“I think laughter is universal,” she noted. “I think liberals and conservatives can both laugh at the same things, and most do. I don’t do anything political or religious in my act because people are there to laugh. Just like when I was on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Johnny Carson for 20 times, there are millions of people looking at me, and I should tell John 3:16 from the Bible. That’s more important than me trying to act ditsy and make them laugh, but it wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Jackson knows when and what to share, and she also understands the power of her platform as a stage personality.

“I think people will get the feeling that I’m a conservative Christian, but it’s not like I’m up there talking about it,” she said. “They will probably notice that I’m just not saying the F-word or Trump-bashing. The audience might go, ‘Oh, she’s different.’”

What: Comedian Victoria Jackson performs live with Gary Menke and Bill Queen

Where: Chicken Coop Banquet Hall at 115 E. 21st St.

Contact: 407-694-1538; Eventbrite.com

 10 p.m. Friday at The Brickhouse Lounge at 937 S. Burlington Ave., Hastings

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“I think laughter is universal,” comedian Victoria Jackson said about appealing to all audiences. She will headline a comedy show at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Chicken Coop Banquet Hall in Kearney. Tickets are $20-$30.

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