Mitch Fatel likes to talk about sex and married life. While many comics dish on common themes related to marriage such as children, a nagging spouse and household chores, Fatel has a much different take on married life.

Fatel appears for two shows at 9 p.m. May 8 and 9, Wise Crackers Comedy Club, Ramada Inn, 1500 MacArthur Boulevard (Route 145) Whitehall.

"Well, my style of comedy is basically about my hot bisexual wife, which is where I'm at in my life right now," explains Fatel during a phone interview.

"I used to do jokes about being single and how much I loved women and then I grew up and evolved and I met a great girl who just happens to be bisexual and so I talk a lot about that on stage right now.

"I try to be very funny about it and I try to talk about things that are irreverent but at the same time offensive to people if they want to let it get to them.

"I always feel like comedy has to have a little bit of offensiveness in it to be funny and also make people take themselves not as serious. Hopefully, it is very creatively-written and hopefully people like the words."

Fatel has been married for two years to Jessica, who is studying for a doctorate with a career goal of becoming a sex therapist. Their marriage, which Fatel describes as ideal, has provided fresh material for his comedy act. He credits his wife's bisexuality as an impetus for his getting married.

"I never thought I would get married and then I met Jessica," Fatel says. "She is awesome and we were dating probably about six months and she said, 'I'm falling in love with you. There's something you should know about me. I'm bisexual and I like women just as much as I like men.' And I said, 'I don't understand. Can you show me?'," he quips.

"I said I'd like to help out with this and we are going to get through this as a couple with love and communication," laughs Fatel.

The couple has been together for six years total. She often travels to his shows if they are within driving distance to where she is attending school. She will often come on stage because she is such a large component of Fatel's act and his long-time fans eagerly anticipate her appearances.

"My whole act is basically now about how perverted she is. My act used to be about the fact that I am perverted and then I got a girl who is my match. So, I talk more about her on stage now and the audience really likes to meet her afterwards," he says.

There is a high likelihood fans will get to meet Jessica during the May 9 show at Wise Crackers, Fatel indicates when asked if she will be present at either of the dates.

The couple seems ripe for a reality TV show about their story and daily exploits. In fact, they were very close to airing a reality show on the A&E cable network until the concept got jettisoned following "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson's verbal kerfuffle.

"A&E bought a reality show with us and we filmed it and they were just about to air it and they decided that it would be too risqué for their audience because, if you remember about a year ago, they tried to fire Phil Robertson on 'Duck Dynasty' for saying stuff that he thought that gay people were bad and then A&E backed off because they had no [guts]," Fatel asserts.

"Then they were going to put us on and I think what happened is they were scared that maybe their audience would be offended after the thing that Phil Robertson said, so they backed off," according to Fatel.

"We are a little bit upset about it, but we are going to try and sell it to another network now."

While Fatel's act may be sexual in tone, it is not vulgar frat-boy gratuitous sexual puns for the sake of shock or offense with no purpose. Fatel feels comics can approach sexual subject matter in an intelligent, artful manner.

"I take a lot of pride in it not being raunchy," he says about his act. "I always tell people that I got into comedy as a kid because I've always loved women and I wanted women to like me and that's what I knew I could do.

"I knew that was what I wanted to do for a living, but I also love the art of comedy and I love the art of words and I always thought that comedians that were raunchy, if that is the word, were lazy," he says.

"My best kind of compliment that I get from an audience is always when I have all different age groups, and all different kinds of women and men coming over to me afterward, conservative, liberal, older, younger, hippies, lesbians, you know, all kinds of people telling me that although they didn't agree with everything, there was always something in my show for everybody.

"I always like to play all sides fair and I think raunchiness, actually, is ugly. I don't believe in that. I think if it hits you over the head, it's not funny. I think if it slaps you in the face, it's not funny."

Fatel says early on his comedy inspirations were Bill Murray, David Letterman and Steve Martin. He admires their ability to craft well-written jokes that appeal to a broad spectrum of fans without being either too elitist or too low-brow.

Fatel also cites several great comedians who started out with a clever act that in later years devolved into raunch. He attributes that to a combination of laziness or simply a lack of time as their fame grew larger and tour dates and other commitments also grew.

"Sam Kinison was an inspiration when I was a kid and I always felt that in the beginning he wasn't raunchy," Fatel says, "He was actually funny and used words well and then he just got raunchy.

"I think also Eddie Murphy did that. In his first special he was talented and then in his second special he got raunchy. Honestly, I think that a lot of times they don't have the time to put into their acts and they tend to go with the easier laugh.

"I always had a love for women and I never liked to talk about them in a way I felt was degrading but I like talking about them in a way that showed how sexually exciting they were.

"One of the worst experiences of my career was years ago. There was a show with a host named Craig Kilborn, and I did a bit about how I like small breasts and after I did the bit on his show which got a big laugh, I was sitting down during the commercial break and he said to me, 'I like the titty stuff.' That made me cringe inside because I always thought that's exactly what I'm trying to run from is that kind of frat-guy humor."

Fatel has appeared on the Howard Stern show, late-night talk shows, has had a Comedy Central special, has a popular CD available and is the No. 1 most requested comedian on Sirius Satellite comedy radio.

Fatel is working on a one-hour TV special. He and Jessica are planning on doing a call-in radio sex therapy show once she completes her doctorate degree program. The format will be that of the comedian and the doctor, dispensing sage advice sprinkled with a healthy dose of humor.

"It's funny. I've been doing comedy for about 25 years, making a good living at it. Only recently did I throw out my waiter clothes because I always kept them just in case. I always knew I would never do anything else so if it ever happened that I needed to get out my waiter clothes I would do it."

By the looks of things, Mitch Fatel won't regret tossing his waiter attire to the curb.

Tickets: 610-439-1037, 1-866-424-2411, 570-788-8451