Comedian Steven Wright bringing his quirky insights to Greensburg's Palace Theatre

Comedian Steven Wright is known for his deadpan delivery of ironic one-liners, quirky stories, non sequiturs and paraprosdokians — sentences with an unexpected twist at the end.

Like this one: “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.”

Just because his humor is off-beat, he doesn’t think his thought process is all that unusual. We’re all just products of the things we’ve seen and done, he said.

“Everyone’s head is a different soup made up of different ingredients, different influences,” said Wright, who has a show at 8 p.m. Sept. 9 at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg. “You have a creative card in your head, and different things come out of it.”

Wright’s influences include the comedians he saw on “The Tonight Show” when he was a kid, along with school field trips to Boston that introduced him to surrealist art.

“I didn’t know my perspective was any different from anyone else’s until I started writing jokes in order to go on stage. Before that, I never wrote any jokes at all,” he said. “Even when I started writing and going on stage, I didn’t think it was any different until other people said it was.”

He wasn’t the class clown, either.

Growing up in Burlington, Mass., Wright said, “I was funny at school, but just with my one or two buddies. I didn’t want the class turning around and looking at me. Then I watched ‘The Tonight Show,’ and I thought I’d like to be one of those comedians.”

After college, Wright started doing stand-up around Boston. Now 66, he was booked on the iconic late-night show with Johnny Carson in 1982 after its executive producer saw his set at at the Ding Ho comedy club in Cambridge, Mass.

His career took off from there, with repeat appearances with Carson, David Letterman and “Saturday Night Live.” His 1985 debut album, “I Have a Pony,” was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Sitcom appearances, comedy specials, voice work and films followed. His film credits include “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “So I Married An Axe Murderer,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “The Emoji Movie.”

Wright also is an Academy Award winner. “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings,” starring, co-written and co-produced by Wright, won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 1988.

In it, Wright plays an introverted man with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and paranoia. Upon learning that his disinterested psychiatrist has shared his intimate secrets with colleagues, Wright’s character sets out to seek revenge.

Stand-up and songs

Wright said he is focusing on doing stand-up, going out for short stretches of three or four shows at a time from his home in Carlisle, Mass., near Boston. He also writes and records rock songs and posts them to his website.

“Over the years, I would make up songs that had nothing to do with my comedy, although I play some funny songs in my show,” Wright said. “I know a guy who has a recording studio, so I’d go in with a simple song, and he adds three or four instruments, so it’s like a whole band playing the song.

“The newest one is called ‘Never the Same (The Lakota Song).’ It’s about how the white man ruined North America.”

Wright said Woody Allen, George Carlin and Kurt Vonnegut were major influences on his comedic outlook. Among current comedians, he likes Bill Burr (“He’s a Boston guy”), Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, Jim Jefferies and Hannibal Burress.

“I think there’s more great comedians now at one time than ever before. The state of comedy is just spectacular,” he said.

Though many of his contemporaries stray into social and political topics, Wright doesn’t. He wants his show to be an escape from harsh realities.

“Right now, it’s almost like the world is bearing down at a distance. You might not see it where you’re sitting or in your town, but you know what’s happening out there,” he said. “Maybe every generation says it’s the worst it’s ever been, but I don’t comment on that. I’ve always kept my show detached from giant political stuff, by talking about everyday, little things.”

With four decades of material, Wright said, he still has one favorite joke. Though it hasn’t been in recent rotation, he might pull it out for the Greensburg audience.

“My jokes are like a baseball lineup, though there are 200 players instead of nine,” he said. “So I might put this joke in the lineup:

“Two babies are born in the hospital on the same day, and they’re laying in their beds in the same room. Then each family came in and took their babies away.

“The babies live their entire lives, and then 85 years later, by a bizarre coincidence, they’re in the hospital in the same room, laying there looking at each other. One of them said to the other one, ‘So, what did you think?’ ”

Tickets to see Steven Wright at The Palace are $42.75-$49.75, with an additional fee for tickets purchased at the door. For reservations, call 724-836-8000 or visit thepalacetheatre.org.