In the first edition of “Fred’s Friends,” Michele Wojciechowski, “Wojo,” visits with me. An award-winning humor writer and stand-up comedian, Wojo recently published Next Time I Move, They’ll Carry Me Out in a Box and chose “travel” to start the conversation.

So, Wojo, tell us about your favorite travel destination, Cape May. Why is it your favorite place to go?

At Cape May, I’m able to find peace. I love that it’s primarily a “walking” town. Unless we want to venture into West Cape May, we can park our car when we arrive at the B&B, and we don’t need to drive until we’re heading home. Life slows down for me there. The beach is clean and not packed with folks. There is so much to do…or we can do nothing, and I love that.

And at Sunset Beach, you can actually watch the sun set on the water even though it’s the east coast.

You’re a humor writer. Are you always trying to make people laugh?

I was brought up in a really funny family. Both of my parents were funny, and I remember the puns flying back and forth across the kitchen table at Sunday dinner at my grandmother’s. So being funny comes really natural to me. I’m not always trying to make people laugh–but it usually happens anyway.

You also do stand-up comedy. What do you do when people don’t get your jokes?

I’ve done some gigs where I realized that the audience was different from what I was told or expected–like a different age range, etc. And in those instances, I sometimes change my routine while I’m up there so that I’m telling jokes that are more likely to make folks laugh.

If they still don’t laugh? I just assume that old relationship like–it’s not me; it’s them.

Do you have a go-to joke? 

I’ve done jokes about my last name since my first standup act that I did when I was 18. Like, “I kept this name when I got married. Because if I had to learn to spell it in kindergarten, I’m takin’ it to the grave.” People always laugh at that.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Part of my book started as columns in Wojo’s World. So when I wrote other pieces to fill in the timeline and to give the book more continuity, I had to make sure that everything blended smoothly. That was tough. During that process, I read my book so many times that I could practically recite it verbatim.

Want to hear it? Pull up a chair…