Ian Stuart wants people to know that all comedy is not the same.

Not every comic from Maine, for example, tells jokes about clam digging in a thicker-than-fog accent.

Not every comic is looking for the quick laugh with the outrageous one-liner. Some are willing to throw out more cerebral thoughts and hope that the audience finds one or two funny, if they think hard enough.

And some comedians are going to make jokes about death, or sex, or other “blue” topics.

In other words, Stuart wants you to know, when it comes to comedy, there are alternatives.

That’s one reason Stuart has put together a free show Saturday night at Geno’s Rock Club in Portland featuring himself and five other “alternative” comics from all over New England.

The show is being billed as “The Punk Hunks of Comedy” and features Kit Rivers (Vermont), Ethan Marsh (Boston), Josh Day (New Hampshire) and Mainers Stuart, Aharon Willows-Hebert and Joe Timmins.

Stuart also wanted to do a free show because he’s filming a promotional video for his upcoming comedy tour, and wanted a packed house as background. But he hopes that people will be enticed to come out and see comics doing something a little different.

Stuart says audiences can expect the show to be “a little raw” and “a little blue,” while also being somewhat cerebral, asking audiences to use their imaginations.

“Not all the jokes go to the forefront of your brain. Sometimes you’re laughing more at the ideas provoked by the situations in the joke,” said Stuart, 26, of Portland. “There’s a little more grime and dirt in the jokes too, but with the dirt comes more information.”

Example?

“Well, one of the clean one-liners would be: ‘I work out the same way I impress women — I don’t,’ ” said Stuart.

A not-so-clean one?

“I argue with myself a lot. I should get help, but the make-up sex is amazing,” he said.

Stuart turned to comedy performance because he grew up in an artistically talented family and felt driven to do his own artistic thing. His father works professionally as a sound engineer and is also a musician.

“I saw my dad putting bread on the table doing something creative, and that was a big influence on me,” he said.

Stuart has always been drawn to comics who are “rough around the edges” or who make their audience think about things as well as laugh.

But he stresses that by promoting an “alternative” comedy show, he’s not saying there’s anything wrong with mainstream humor, either.

“I love Maine comedy and the comedy clubs we have here,” he said. “At the same time, I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a ‘Maine’ comic. I want people to see there are lots of different people doing different things in comedy.”

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com