A barb is a sharp implement: Jim David, one of the comics showcased on Comedy Central's new Out on the Edge, talks about surviving gorilla suits, mafiosi, and the nasty barbs on Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn.

After 17 years as a standup comic--on TV, in nightclubs, and occasionally on gay cruises--Jim David gets recognized on the street almost every day. "This morning I went into a coffee shop," says the out Manhattanite, "and the counter guy shouts, 'You are Mr. Jim! I know you from the TV!'" Though flattered, Mr. Jim also finds these random shout-outs a tad unsettling, especially considering he's been known to drop such button-pushing barbs as "Last week, George Bush outlined his plan for postwar Iraq--then he colored it." "I'm afraid somebody's going to come up to me with a hatchet," frets the part-time Us Weekly fashion policeman, "like, I've been lookin' for you!'"

David may want to pick up some Mace, because his profile is about to get a lot higher In addition to releasing Iris second CD, Live From Jimville, and appearing as a "guest comedy consultant" on an upcoming episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the North Carolina native has just landed a plum slot on Comedy Central's variety special Out on the Edge. "It's one of the gayest things you've ever seen on television," says David of the extravaganza, hosted by Man Cumming and premiering February 2. "It should be rated 'TG' for Too Gay. I mean, Alan Cumming changes costumes more than Cher."

David's also gearing up for the New York revival of South Pathetic, his semi-autobiographical solo play about a down-and-out New York actor who takes a job directing A Streetcar Named Desire at the worst community theater in the South. "It's about thinking you're a failure when the truth is, you're not," says David of the show, which opens at the Revelation Theater on January 22. "It's about starting over in your life and how that's OK."

It's terrain that David knows well. After graduating with a drama degree from South Carolina's Furman University, he moved to New York at 22 to work in the theater. "But the theater said, 'We don't see you as an actor; we see you as an usher,'" he quips. David waited tables, sold typewriter ribbons, and even delivered singing telegrams. "I went into a jewelry store once as a gorilla, and the jeweler held a gun up to my face and said 'Get the fuck out of here' before I could even sing my song," David recalls with a laugh. "Then there was this Mafia-type guy at a party who was convinced I couldn't just be a singing chicken; I had to be a male prostitute as well. He said, 'I'll give you $500 to take my cousin Gina home and fuck her.' I told him there was no way I could do that, and he said, 'What the hell kind of chicken are you?'"

David's transition from poultry-for-pay to professional joke peddler happened almost by chance. "I was at a comedy club with a friend in, like, 1986 and I casually said, 'I can do better than this,'" he recalls, "and my friend said, 'I dare you.'" Within six months David was able to hang up his feathers for good and turn pro, although it would be over a decade before he mentioned his sexuality in his act. The comedian, who lives with his partner of 16 years, a music publishing executive, says it felt like a huge gamble. "You think you'll never work again, or if you do, you'll be forever pigeonholed," he explains, "but I thought, If I'm going to keep doing this, I want to be able to just be myself."

David, whose half-hour Comedy Central special has been in regular rotation since its 2001 premiere, still plays primarily to straight crowds, but he's pleased to report that the ramifications have all been positive. "I noticed that when I started talking about my personal life, audiences perked up," he says, "People respond to something that they themselves would be afraid to say in public, regardless of what that is. Being out in my act has been completely liberating artistically. I'm not afraid to talk about anything now."

That's a good thing, since one of David's ongoing gigs is as a panelist on Comedy Central's relentlessly un-PC Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn. "At first I was kind of offended by some of the antigay things that were said, but then l realized you have to be able to give as good as you get on that show," says David. "I remember one comedian said something really nasty to me, and I replied, 'All tight, tonight you can be on top,' and that shut him right up."

As for Quinn, the show's gruff host, David has nothing but nice things to say. "Colin asked me to go to Baghdad with him to perform for the USO," he says, "and I really want to go. I can't wait to walk out onstage and say, 'Hi, I'm here to test the limits of 'don't ask, don't tell.'"

Hensley is the author of Screening Party. (Alyson Publications). For a link to David's Web site, where his CDs are available, go to advocate.com/html/issuelinks/issuelinks.asp