Having enjoyed recurring appearances on the first two seasons of Portlandia, this year has also seen up-and-comer Kristine Levine hit SXSW and the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Before heading to Scotland for a month, she’s getting in one final gig…this Friday 27 at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Fun facts: she’s the first female allowed inside, let alone to perform, and she’s not allowed to wear a wired bra or anything blue…

This week’s prison show sounds a lot like the one your buddy Doug Stanhope performed in Litla-Hraun Prison in Keykjavik, Iceland last September. How did the glamorous gig come about?

The prison actually *asked* for a woman on the show. I’ve always wanted to play a prison, regardless of the risks involved. Their Events Coordinator asked me if I was scared to come “behind the gray wall” and I said, “No why?” And he informed me that if there’s a riot they just lock the doors, gas the inmates and wait it out. They won’t negotiate or try to rescue me. Eh. I’m still not worried. Men rioting over me is a dream come true.

You’ll be performing a practice run-through of your new one-person show, Fat Whore, which you’re taking to Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe next week. What can inmates as well as Fringe attendees expect from the show?

They said I can do whatever I want, material-wise. I thought, “Fuckin’ really? I can do whatever I want? I’m gonna talk about shit these guys can’t even see anymore. They’re going to laugh at that?” That’s like asking a recovering alcoholic to buy you a drink. Which I’ve done, and it’s a total dick move. I think there are certain bits, like why I’m not afraid of rapists or child molesters, that I might leave out of the prison show. I don’t want to seem too confident. But Fringe audiences will get all of it.

What advice have you been given about making your first Fringe appearance, and what is your current mindset?

Advice: Don’t be scared. Don’t panic. I have pills so that won’t happen. I’ve also been told that the Fringe can be hard on a performer’s self-esteem, but what’s the worst that the audience can to me? I’ll die? They take me to Egypt and leave me there? Already been done, so I think I’ll be fine. Right now I’m just making sure my kids (all teens and above) don’t kill each other while I’m gone.

What has your preparation process entailed? Has any part of it surprised you?

I thought I was just gonna do a show, but then preparation has included going for walks so I don’t die on a hill in Edinburgh, drinking scotch whisky so I’m “liver ready” and practicing my flier handout call: “FAT WHOARE! GET YER BIG FAT WHOARE RIGHT HERE!”

And after the Fringe, what else is on the horizon for you?

I hope to tour after the festival and if not, I can always go back to sitting on cakes on for webcam perverts. $100 bucks a cake and I take Paypal.

Follow Kristine Levine at www.kristinelevine.com and @KristineLevine; Fat Whore runs August 3-26 at The Assembly Rooms. Tickets available here.