Erin Foley's "Sports Without Balls," Live from Gay Games 14

On August 11 and 12 at Cleveland's Hilarities 4th Street Theater, comedian Erin Foley will help kick off the 2014 Gay Games with a very special broadcast of her popular podcast, "Sports Without Balls," featuring Gay Games athletes, a player from the Indiana Fever, and celebrity guests including comic Fortune Feimster. With thousands of LGBT athletes flocking to the state to pit their athletic prowess against each other, how could she be anywhere else?

"I have a real sports obsession," said the tall brunette, who has a non-comedian twin. "I'll check out every professional sports team in town, and any Gay Games competition. I'll watch people throw darts, or lift weights, it doesn't even matter what the sport is."

As an openly lesbian comedian in a male-dominated profession, Foley is very tongue-in-cheek about her podcast, in which she invites other funny women to come on air with her to discuss sports. Hence the title qualifier, "without balls." Ironically enough, said Foley, she loves to throw balls, and grew up playing team sports including softball, basketball, soccer and volleyball. Her twin sister is a runner, but as she notes, "I just need to bounce or throw something."

You might have seen Foley's stand-up on Conan, Carson, Daly or Arsenio Hall. You might have even seen her acting on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," or as that googly-eyed girl in the hit movie, "Almost Famous." You may have even seen her in person, as she just finished up her successful North American Lady With Pockets comedy tour, which took her to Club Skirts The Dinah and other locales.

Although she celebrates her LGBT fans, Foley's humor is broad, and she doesn't do a lot of exclusively gay shows, although she says, "lesbians are not the best laughers, but they are so loyal! They may be barely laughing throughout the show, but then will come up afterwards to tell you how great it was. They're so sweet, even if they may not give you the biggest laughs. I think it's hard to break 'em."

Foley gets laughs as easy as you and I roll out of bed. When she was first laying down her comedy chops in New York City in the aughts, she was one of the few comedians who consistently tried out new material on stage. In a field fueled by fear, Foley always put the pedal to the metal when it came to performing, and got the biggest laughs for doing so.

"I consider that the highest form of compliment in stand-up," said Foley. "It's a huge part of my job; 90 percent of the work is to be constantly writing jokes and keeping it fresh. And wherever I land, I incorporate whatever town or city I'm in into the first part of the act."

For example, she recently performed at a small comedy festival north of San Francisco, and spent a few days ahead of time walking around town, understanding the Northern California verses Southern California vibe. When she did her set, she made jokes about that, and wine country. The crowd went crazy.

"It's more special for myself and the audience when they know I'm in their town, seeing what they see," said Foley. "It's the beauty of live performance, and now I have the confidence and experience to talk about it on stage."

Crowds also respond to her, because she's comfortable in her own skin.

"Part of being a successful stand-up comic is being a successful human, knowing yourself and having the confidence to go out there," said Foley. "I feel like I've been doing this for a long time, but it's so much more fun than it ever was. It becomes an absolute joy. My confidence on stage is so strong that even if there's a heckler in the audience, I can handle it."

That's not to say she expects jerks to wreck her jokes while she's doing her live podcast in Cleveland. "Sports Without Balls" is her dream come true, merging the worlds of comedy and sports, and managing to create a feminist by-product from it.

"Whenever you turn on the radio, dudes are talking about sports. Where are the women? So now every day I get up and ask, 'Where are the women?'" joked Foley. "I'm kidding, but seriously, there are not a lot of women in the world of sports, so I talk to another female every week about sports."

She remembers a recent podcast with Kentucky comedian Trish Shur, which consisted primarily of Foley laughing at Shur's thick Southern accent as she said things like Houston Rockets Dwight Howard was "like chardonnay: a good white wine, but do you really want him on your team?" Of the Kentucky Derby, Shur reportedly said that "everyone's just there to get julipped."

"There's all these little moments where guests say something unexpected that makes me laugh so hard," said Foley. "I love this podcast so much."

Buff athletes can keep an eye peeled for Foley among the spectators as they compete at Gay Games 9. And fat bastards who just like to sit around and drink Bud and listen to comedy shows can just keep on doing what they're doing.

"Going to a club and supportive live comedy makes for such an enjoyable night," said Foley. "Just maybe don't sit in the front row..."

Erin Foley will do a live podcast of "Sports Without Balls" on August 11 and 12 at Hilarities 4th Street Theater in Cleveland, OH. She'll also play on August 22 at Providence, Rhode Island's The Dark Lady, and on August 23 at New London, CT's Pride at the Beach.

For information, visit www.erinkfoley.com To download free podcasts of Sports Without Balls, click here.