Comedian Tooky Kavanagh on what makes her laugh

Comedian Tooky Kavanagh is laughing at baby animals. Cute ones.

“I'm in my wholesome era right now,” she told GBH’s Morning Edition hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel Wednesday. “Anything cute and cuddly. My favorite thing I've stumbled upon is a cat cuddling up with some deer. And the cat mom was like, 'Where did my cat go?' I'm like, 'Give them privacy.'”

Kavanagh described her own approach to comedy as being a storyteller who throws in some observational comedy. Her material often comes from “pointing out the absurdity of life and the absurdity of my upbringing and navigation through the world in the shell, in the package that I come in.”

Kavanagh recalled the tale of when she was in an "old-timey" Los Angeles railroad station and a stranger came up to her, unprompted, to ask who did her Brazilian butt lift, a cosmetic procedure.

“And I'm sitting here like, 'rice and beans?' Like, I don't know, why would you ask me that instead of just like, 'Hey, what time is it? What time is this train?'” Kavanagh said. “It was just the level of boldness. And I'm like, that is wild. Is it culture shock on my part from being an East Coaster? Or is it just like, does this woman react to me because of the package I'm in?”

The Boston-based comedian has been busy lately. She starred in the feature film "Salesmen" released last year, and she's been hosting the "Loud Women" podcast and continuing to perform stand-up comedy. She has a show coming up this Friday night at Nick's Comedy Stop in Boston.

Kavanah said Boston is full of strong comedy writers, and she feels spoiled to be here. But she also noted the importance of variety.

“When you think of Boston, let alone Boston comedy, it's a very homogenous picture that comes into most people's minds,” she said. “I would like to think that I'm part of a cohort of people who are trying to at least dispel that notion and show audiences that like, yeah, perspectives can come from all angles and from all people, not just one type.”

Like a lot of comics, Kavanah had to pause live stand-up during the height of pandemic restrictions. She said she’s found a lot of joy in being in front of live audiences again.

Comedy is art, and like all art, it requires some skill and adaptation to the medium, she said.

“This is a craft,” she said. “Talking to a screen, getting a laugh from a screen, is just not the same as interacting in person.”

There’s also been a learning curve for audiences who got used to consuming comedy through their phones and TV screens.

“Not only are comics relearning how to perform live, but audiences are relearning how to receive this performance and not talking through it because it's not all happening on a screen,” she said. “Zoom comedy made it such that people forget to mute themselves and they're just like having casual, ‘Did you run the dishwasher?’ And I'm like, 'This is about my Uber ride, man.'”