Oh sure, Chonda Pierce said. She uses the f-word, and several others like it.

"I use f-words like faith, friendship and fellowship," said the Christian stand-up comedian, who performs Sunday in New Castle.

Ms. Pierce's career has progressively gotten more successful in the 10 years she has been doing stand-up comedy, but she doesn't credit that solely to her skills.

As mainstream television, music and movies have gotten more vulgar, people who want an alternative are willing to give Ms. Pierce a listen.

"America is hungry for clean entertainment and I think that speaks well to America," she said. "The marketplace is in need of more clean comedy."

Much of comedy throughout history has been at the expense of someone, which generally isn't very Christian. Ms. Pierce has rectified that dilemma.

"The joke is usually on me or my family and people I know," she said, calling from her car in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where she lives. "I have all the Christian male-bashing material you can get away with. I have teen-agers, so that's an hour and a half."

Ms. Pierce said her husband, David, a novelist and former English professor, writes much of her material, and she runs jokes by anyone who is the punch line. If that person doesn't like it, the joke doesn't get told in public, she said.

"I was a preacher's kid so I know what it was like to be the sermon illustration every Sunday," she said.

While her father was a Nazarene minister, she married a Baptist, and her family attends a non-denominational church.

"My Sunday school classes are filled with every kind of background you can think of," she said, adding that those religious differences become fodder for her act.

Although she has no qualms with being called a Christian comedian, she is not limited to Christian venues.

"One night I'm in a theater and the next I'm in a church," she said. "I love that comedy bridges that gap."

As a girl, she had dreams of being a Broadway star, but got a dose of reality when she worked summers during college at the former Opryland.

"I impersonated Minnie Pearl because I didn't know how to dance," she said, adding that Ms. Pearl had a way of telling stories about people that anyone could relate to.

"I fell in love with comedy." Ms. Pierce said. "I love to make people laugh."

While she brings her family into comedy, she likes to keep the business side of her profession separate from her roles as a wife and mother. It can be a tough job, although it was harder when her children -- a daughter in college and a son in high school -- were younger.

"You keep your priorities straight," she said. "As a working mom, sometimes you just have to work. But I have a profession where I can say no."

Ms. Pierce, 43, said she and her husband -- they have written children's books together -- work from home when Ms. Pierce is not on the road, and they usually stop working when the children are home. That sometimes makes it difficult for people, including her mother, Virginia Farless, to understand what she does for a living.

Aside from the fact that her videos sell well, they also give her a product to show people who inquire about what she does.

"It's the only piece of my job where my mother thinks I have a job," she said of the videos.

Ms. Pierce's Web site is at www.chonda.org She performs at 7 p.m. Sunday at Scottish Rite Cathedral. Information: Northminster Presbyterian Church, which is presenting the show, (724) 658-9051. Tickets: (800) 965-9324, christian
happenings.com and ITickets.com Proceeds from the show will benefit McGill Community Center, Lawrence County Habitat for Humanity and Lawrence County Women's Shelter/Rape Crisis Center.