There’s a pause that hangs in the air like a punchline gone wrong after Jackie Kashian is told her appearance at Comedy Bar this Friday is being billed as PG-13.

“Well,” she says on the phone from New York, clearly surprised with this information, “I’m glad you told me.”

It’s an assumption the show’s producers, seeking a unique selling point for the L.A.-based comedian, may have made in haste. But the billing isn’t without some merit.

Take Kashian’s weekly podcast, the Dork Forest, for instance. That autonomous Internet medium is where most comedians consider it not only an opportunity, but their responsibility to use language and subject matter that’d have public radio censors leaning on the bleep button. And yet, there’s nary a naughty topic or word from Kashian when she’s in that host role, which she started about six years ago. Heck, she even regularly says “fricken” during her pod-chats.

She does, however, curse in her standup act, but only occasionally — and usually by accident. “When I get nervous, but never really on purpose,” explains Kashian, sounding almost apologetic.

And given a moment to reflect on her material, Kashian, who was raised in Milwaukee the youngest of six children, is willing to concede that her act is, in her words, “family friendly” — with a caveat: “That the audience still understands standup comedy is an adult sport. Don’t bring your 11-year-old. Even if he watches Tosh.O.”

Or maybe you can, depending on your — and that 11-year-old’s — sensibilities and exposure to late-night cable TV. Because there’s a nerdy charm to Kashian, who’s in her mid-forties, that makes her endearing to younger audiences. A self-confessed gamer, which provides a lot of fodder for her act, she says a huge part of her fan base is “16-year-old guys who love video games.”

Even her description of how she met her husband, a video game designer, sounds like teen speak. “I went through one portal (of a dating website), he went through a different portal and we ended up connecting.”

And if it weren’t for one unnecessary F-bomb, her three-minute, brilliant bit about people who keep their pets alive well past their due date — a routine she had professionally transformed into a smart and slick animated video — would be rated G, not PG.

But it’d be unfair to label her material juvenile or immature. It’s not. (And you have to respect any comedian who uses the word “plethora” in their act). Marc Maron, widely considered one of standup’s wise elder statesmen, says Kashian “is a unique, sweet act who’s underappreciated.”

She’s also a bit daring.

There’s nothing unique or edgy when comics express their disdain for anything deity-related. The art form’s rife with those waxing loudly and angrily on that topic — especially at Comedy Bar, which is home to Toronto’s Dark Comedy Festival.

But Kashian, conversely, uses her stage to proclaim her personal commitment to Christianity. Granted, she does quickly qualify it by joking that her faith is not of the ultra right-wing, George Bush genre. And she ends that portion of her act with a punchline that’s more R than PG-rated. But you’d still be hard-pressed to find any standup comic willing to make such a bold pronouncement — while finding humour in it.

“I rarely do (that joke),” says Kashian, who often tours with her good friend and alternative comic icon, Maria Bamford. “Because whenever you say you’re a Christian, the audience tightens up.”

For the most part, though, Kashian says she’s lately been focusing on an act that isn’t mean-spirited or offensive. “As far as language and titillating tales, it’s pretty benign,” she says. “But not banal. Never banal. That’s the best part about the darn thing.”

Jackie Kashian performs two shows at Comedy Bar this Friday and one show Saturday in Goderich, Ont.

Denis Grignon is a standup comedian and writer