A blue Christmas

''It's not going to be a fuzzy, warm show,'' Lea DeLaria says of the Christmas cabaret act that she's bringing to Boston.

When we caught up with Lea DeLaria by phone recently, she apologized for being a little punchy, having jetted from Australia to London and then back to New York in 48 hours to perform her show, "Naked," a mix of cool jazz and blue comedy, to sold-out international crowds. DeLaria's resume is tough to match - she was the first "out" gay comic to play network TV (the "Arsenio Hall Show" in 1993), she's been on Broadway and plays eccentric psychic Madame Delphina on "One Life to Live," and she has a new jazz album, "The Live Smoke Sessions," that was on the short list for a Grammy nomination. She brings her outrageous attitude - and her Christmas cabaret show - to Boston this week.

Q. Do you think the Arsenio appearance helped open up stand-up for other gay and lesbian comedians?

A. I know it did. It didn't just help it, I did it. That's my little "change of the world" moment. I was the first openly gay comic on network television, and the comedy clubs saw that gay people could put money in their pockets.

Q. Describe your Boston performance.

A. This is a show that I'm actually doing in New York with Sandra Bernhard, who's my guest. But when I come to Boston it'll just be me. It's Christmas music with the trio and comedy bits in between talking about Christmas and how I feel about Christmas.

Q. And how do you feel about Christmas?

A. It's not going to be a fuzzy, warm show. Put it that way.

Q. Do you find it's easy to put comedy and music together?

A. I've always done that because my comedy is so loud, it's in your face, it's vulgar, it's screaming. And after about five minutes the audience is like, mommy, make it stop. What I found when I was much younger, when I first started, if I could sing a song, I could lull the audience into a false sense of security. And then I would start screaming [expletive, expletive, expletive] at them again. And that really worked for me.

NICK A. ZAINO III