Amy Wilson in 'Motherload'. photo by Joan Marcus.

Motherhood has always been great fodder for comedians, but Amy Wilson's "Mother Load," a successful off-Broadway show now playing at the Blumenthal Center, takes momedy to a new level of poignant hilarity.

Amy Wilson wrote and stars in the one-woman show, playing at Belk's new Stage Door Theatre, a small, cozy space that is the perfect intimate setting for a show like "Mother Load."

The set could be the cluttered living room of any young upwardly mobile parents, with toys and baby gear strewn all over the place (despite the basket system designed to contain them) and kiddie art posted on the wall.

Motherhood, Wilson says, has changed a lot.

Our mothers didn't worry about feeding us Pixie Stix or Funyuns, and when the question came on TV at 11 p.m. — "Do you know where your children are?" — a "yes" answer meant you were a good mother, Wilson said.In today's world of competitive parenting, expectations are undoubtedly higher, whether it's getting your child into the right pre-school or hosting the perfect birthday party (catered, of course).

A luminous, likeable presence on stage, Wilson talks about coming up with a "birth plan" designed to ensure a "pleasant, drug-free" labor and delivery — a birth plan that goes out the window after 11 hours of labor.

Mothers will relate as Wilson riffs about how the pregnant mother's body becomes public property, with perfect strangers feeling free to say things like "I was all hips and thighs like you."

Wilson confides in her audience — mostly female — like they are her best friends.

"I used to wear earrings, belts," she says, implying that accessorizing is a thing of the past. Now, she frets about her "muffin top" — and yanks up her shirt to show us.

"I don't think my mother ever thought about her muffin top," she says.

Wilson plays perfectly the frazzled Everymom, who goes to the playground wearing the same yoga pants she slept in.

Wilson happily skewers fear-mongering journalists who like to terrify parents with stories like "Is your child having e.coli for lunch?"

She also has fun with breastfeeding experts who create stress by making dire pronouncements about things like "nipple confusion." Voiceovers soberly intoning the "wisdom" of such experts add to the fun.

"If you choose to use formula, that's totally fine; maybe you just don't love your kid," says one such expert.

A "lactivist" tells Wilson that she will continue nursing her pre-school child until the child "tells me to stop ... in writing."

Wilson mourns the fact that her breasts — which used to be "pleasant accessories to a sweetheart neckline" — have become "bovine conduits."

As she talks about nursing, Wilson picks up a Frankenstein monster action figure and tucks it into breastfeeding position.

Moms will relate to Wilson's assessment that she is being "slowly lobotomized through lack of sleep" as she deals with her son's crying and tries to find a few moments to herself.

She also has fun with the competitive pre-school experience — like answering questions on the application form for the "nut and seed-free" Hudson International Children's School" — a school that prides itself on diversity. Of course "diversity" at the Hudson School is the children's parents having summer homes in the Catskills as well as the Hamptons.

This is the school that gives its students "conversational scripts" so that they can practice "conflict resolution" in the sandbox.

Although "Mother Load" is a show that plays to mothers, the men in the audience Saturday afternoon found plenty to guffaw about.

Wilson is definitely up to the task of commanding the stage for a full 90 minutes (with no intermission) and keeping her audience's attention. Her basic message — moms need to shuck off the "mother load" of unreasonable expectations — is a healthy one.

The mother of three — and a summa cum laude graduate of Yale — Wilson has done three other one-woman shows, including "A Cookie Full of Arsenic: My Life as a Femme Fatale." She was a series regular on the sit-com "Norm" with Norm McDonald and has had a recuring role on "Felicity."

"Mother Load" continues at the Stage Door Theatre, part of the Blumenthal Center, through Oct. 26. For ticket information, go to BlumenthalCenter.org, call 704-372-1000 or go to motherloadshow.com.

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