Elaine Thompson

She sports the hairstyle of Sally Field, the sensible fashion of a grade-school secretary and the mouth of Sandra Bernhard. Or, as Elaine Thompson puts it, "I look like a soccer mom and talk like a sailor."

Thompson, who at this time a year ago hadn't considered stepping onstage, has already achieved a level of success - a paid gig - unattained by the previous 10 winners of Acme Comedy Co.'s annual competition for amateur stand-ups.

Thompson doesn't look or act like a typical comic. Her conservative fashion starts with wire-framed glasses and ends with slacks and sensible shoes. She isn't loud, chatty or prone to exaggerated gestures. Her voice is a tinny monotone, and there's no glaring physical trait - weight, scars, bad hair or missing limbs - that generally serve as self-deprecating fodder for many comics.

"I don't think of this as full time or part time anymore. It's just what I do," she says of stand-up comedy. "I'd heard that people who win are never seen or heard from again. Now, I'm expected to be funny, so there's that pressure." Thompson's first thoughts of stepping onstage came from watching other comics on TV, coming away unimpressed and thinking, without evidence to either encourage or discourage her, that she could do better.

Most of her jokes are unprintable. On a riff about American Indians offended by the names of sports teams such as the Redskins, Thompson wonders why gay men don't protest the Green Bay Packers.