Talking with Anthony Jeselnik, at the Atlanta Improv Sept. 25-27

Domestic violence? Sure. Autism? Yes, please. 9/11? Of course! "Dead baby jokes are always represented," he added.

His jokes, though, are not topical. He won't be referencing Ray Rice, for instance. "It breaks your heart to come up with a great joke about a recent topic, then you have to dump it a few weeks later," he said. "I had this great bit about Chris Brown and Rihanna but after a few months I couldn't do it anymore."

"I like timeless jokes," he noted. This makes sense given one of his heroes his Steven Wright.

But he is always coming up with new material. He said if you see him in 12 months, at least 20 to 25 minutes of his jokes will be fresh.

At the same time, he admires folks like Jeffrey Ross who specialize at insult comedy. "He was the cool guy when I was coming up. He's the best roaster. Even his standup jokes are so damn great."

He enjoyed doing a roast or two himself but now that he's done it, he doesn't feel compelled to keep doing so. "I have such a high bar when it comes to jokes," he said. He hated to feel like he was feeling repetitive. But it doesn't preclude him from doing so again. "It would have to be someone special." Trump was great, he said, as was Sheen. When offered James Franco, he passed. ("He's a non entity. He's famous but who cares?") And he didn't want to go after Roseanne Barr.

While some folks don't want you to insult their family members, Trump's restriction was about his money. "I made a joke about him failing in the casino business and that upset him," he said. "I also made a joke about his cancer. He couldn't care less!" ("The only difference between you and Michael Douglas in 'Wall Street' is nobody will be sad when you get cancer," he said.)

Given his edgy nature, it's not surprising Joan Rivers admired him enough to invite him last year onto her web series where guests sit 'in bed" with her. "I was thrilled to get to spend time with her and joke around," he said. "She respected me as much as I respected her." He said he figured she would have appreciated dying suddenly rather than "having a stroke and being laid up in bed."

"She never had to say goodbye," he said. "That would have been tough for her. She worked right up to the end. She smoked all the way to the filter."

How would he like to die? "The same way - maybe earlier," he said. "I think a car accident is the way to go."

He admits he is fascinated by macabre topics. "I try to make the audience laugh with death. I say enjoy life as much as you can while you're here."

Jeselnik is an atheist after going to church as a child and figuring out it was BS at age 7 or 8. "My parents treated it like a phase, that I'd turn around," he said. "They still try to get me to church no matter how many atheist jokes I make on TV. My parents still want me to go to heaven."

Jeselnik said he has a skeletal sense of how he wants each show to be but he'll go with the flow. If things are falling apart, does he have a go-to fast food joke to throw in there to lighten things up?

"I purposely don't give myself an escape hatch," he said. "If my cancer and abortion jokes aren't working, it would be easy to do masturbation or dog jokes. But I don't do that. I stay with it. I become stronger, better. I can't mess up. It's not an option."

He is putting together a comedy special that he expects will go on Netflix. Why not Comedy Central? "I haven't spoken to anybody over there in over a year," he said. But he said that doesn't mean he wouldn't go back: "In this business, you never close doors.

Comedy preview

Anthony Jeselnik

8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25; 8 p.m, 10:30 p.m. Friday Sept. 26, 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Saturday Sept. 27

$25 ($35 VIP)

Atlanta Improv

56 E Andrews Dr NW Atlanta

678-244-3612