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This Show Is Tonight: Valerie Tosi at Off Cabot Comedy Club

Photo Credit: Van Corona

Any time a homecoming is in play, a night on the town in the big city is always a celebratory occasion. But as Valerie Tosi and her family living in and around Beverly prepare for the next visit this weekend, everyone is happy that they don’t have to schlep all the way into the city for some family time.

Making her first trip back to a hometown stage for the first time in a few months with a three-peat weekend of shows at Beverly’s Off Cabot Comedy Club starting tonight (September 9), Tosi is looking forward to getting in some late-season miles back to the North Shore following a summer of incredibly high travel costs that kept her mostly on the west coast. And in terms of comedy, she’s in the process of rebuilding after releasing her first album Beach Trash earlier this year, so the sky is the limit right now, and she’s hoping a trip home can spark something further like it’s done in the past.

“I’m really pumped to be coming home, but working on a new hour always has a certain amount of pressure with it as you try to work on stuff to see what works, what doesn’t, and what kind of stuff you’re going to pull from the vault, as they say,” Tosi tells Vanyaland. “I’m also excited to see what inspires me with coming home, because usually whenever I do, it inspires new material, so I’m looking forward to that too.”

With the world as her creative oyster right now while she molds what is to become her next full hour, Tosi isn’t going to be overdoing it with social commentary or political hot takes, but she certainly won’t be steering clear of them either. Although she will still be drawing from family stories and the like, Tosi is going into every corner of her mind to curate the new vibe, and she’s excited to see where it’s going.

“Especially for women right now, as we say in the biz, ‘shit is fucked,’ and I definitely have a strong opinion on that. I think too, just with coming out of the pandemic and as things are going back to normal, we’re remembering what it’s like out in the world, so I’m taking advantage of that,” says Tosi. “So I don’t really have a theme that I’m working with, but instead, I’m just sort of seeing what I want to talk about and letting that inspire me.”

The wide open space of Tosi’s comedy canvas in the present moment has the familiarity of stitching together a patchwork quilt in a way, and while the topics will surely vary and cover a varied spectrum of thoughts, deeply embedded in the fibers of said quilt is Tosi’s desire to really dig into topics that may not exactly be funny on paper, and bring the light out of them in her own unique way without isolating audiences she might play to in less-than-progressive spaces. 

And although she’s having a good time just feeling things out, there’s still that little bit of chaos that burrows into the creative process and makes things a bit tougher to truly organize and piece together into a fully cohesive presentation until she can fully iron it all out.

“Sometimes it feels really overwhelming, where you don’t know where to start because you don’t have an outline, you’re not working on a deadline and sometimes that can work to your detriment. But then other times, it’s freeing because you can write about whatever the hell you want,” says Tosi. “As I get older and continue to do this for longer, it’s becoming easier to write about things that are hard to make funny, but it still takes a lot of time to figure out how to do it.”

There’s certainly a lot at play for Tosi in her return home, but that’s not to say the excitement of playing to a new room is diluted or overshadowed. In fact, it’s the idea that she’s playing in a type of setting that she thrives in at a different level that has her pumped to throw down this weekend, and spread the creative and comedic wings a bit more than before.

“I always love the energy of a new room, and [Off Cabot] is my favorite size room too because it’s so intimate, and when it’s full and people are onboard with you, there’s definitely that feeling of being able to connect,” says Tosi. “Doing shows in bigger spaces is always fun, but with smaller spaces, you can really talk to people, and I really do enjoy doing crowd work. This time around, my wings aren’t clipped, so if I get inspired with something in that audience, I can run with it and stay in it for a bit without having to be more robotic.”

VALERIE TOSI :: Friday, September 9 & Saturday, September 10 at Off Cabot Comedy Club, 9 Wallis St. in Beverly :: 7:30 p.m. (Friday), 6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.(Saturday), $25 :: Advance tickets